At the Naples Board of Selectmen meeting on Monday, July 10, the selectmen reviewed old and new business that will affect the town in the near future. Among other topics were downtown revitlaization, salt shed considerations, and the Naples substation.
Downtown revitalization
Brett Doney of Lakes Region Development Council spoke before the board to discuss the possibility of applying for a $10,000 CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) to aid the town in its revitalization efforts. CDBGs can be applied for both in the summer and winter with August 12 as the deadline for the summer grant.
“As you know, we’ve been looking at the town for some downtown revitalization,” Doney said. “We thought it would be a good idea to put in an application (for a grant). Even if we don’t get the summer grant, it would put us in good stead to get the winter grant.”
Doney explained that first-time applicants rarely receive the grant, but that to begin the application process would help them get a grant in the future.
Doney also said that CDBG money could be used to update the town’s design recommendations. The selectmen looked over the old design recommendations, drafted in the mid-1990s, to see if they were still applicable for the revitalization. Because the design recommendations concentrated primarily on traffic concerns, the Selectmen agreed that they would have to be updated.
Doney meets with Naples residents and local business owners regularly for “brown-bag lunches” to discuss the Naples Downtown Revitalization project. Since the project is still in its infancy, the group is currently focused on achieving small goals, or “low hanging fruit” as Doney calls them, to improve the downtown area. The next meeting of the Downtown Revitalization Project will be at noon on Wednesday, July 20.
“We’re just at the beginning of the project,” Doney said. “We don’t have the X,Y,Z yet. We will need someone professional in the future to tell us whether this or that can be done or not.”
The selectmen voted to give approval to Doney to pursue a CDBG for the revitalization project.
Salt shed construction
Select Chairman Rick Paraschak and Selectman Dana Watson discussed their visit to the site behind the Naples Public Safety building off Route 302 where a new sand/salt shed is proposed to be built. Pine Tree Engineering of Bath was recently contracted to design the shed.
“We went up with the architect,” Paraschak said. “We looked at the lot with Pine Tree and tried to come up with a positioning to maximize the use of the land.”
The shed will be about 150 feet long and 80 feet wide with a maximum height of 55 feet. The shed will house 6,000 yards of salt/sand mixture with ample room for the housing of distribution trucks. According to Town Manager Derik Goodine, the town uses around 5,000 yards of salt/sand during the winter season.
“If we can swing it, we’ve got an ideal situation,” Watson said of the site.
Pine Tree Engineering has begun looking at different design types and conducting soil and water tests to make sure the site meets state environmental standards. The selectmen has set a date of Sept. 9 to begin construction bids for the shed.
Maine wardens invited to share Substation
The Naples Board of Selectmen voted to formally invite Maine Inland Fisheries & Wildlife game wardens to use space at the Public Safety substation. Because the wardens have increased their patrol of area lakes, State Rep. Richard Cebra (R-Naples) suggested that the town offer the wardens use of the space.
The Naples substation currently serves as a regional headquarters for the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department. According to Goodine, the Cumberland County Sheriffs have often discussed relocating to Raymond, but made no such decision as of yet.
The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department will have to share the substation if the wardens accept the Selectmen’s invitation, Goodine said.
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