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Furbish Road sidewalk plan revisited after neighbors oppose project; DOT grant rules limit alternatives
Summary
Town staff told the selectboard that opposition from abutters at a public hearing has prompted a follow-up workshop on a FLAP-funded sidewalk on Furbish Road; staff said MaineDOT requires a sidewalk (not just widened shoulder) for grant eligibility and warned the town could owe about $56,000 in engineering costs if it withdraws.
The selectboard held an extended workshop on the Furbish Road sidewalk project, where Mike, the town staff member overseeing the project, reviewed the grant history, design scope, and resident opposition.
Mike said the project was originally intended to connect Route 1 to Ocean Avenue and the harbor under the Federal Lands Access Program (FLAP). Following higher-than-expected costs on the Harbor Road sidewalk, available FLAP funds would only cover a sidewalk from Ocean Avenue to the existing Rachel Carson refuge viewing platform and a set of pedestrian delineators over the culvert.
At a public hearing held several weeks earlier, most abutters opposed placing a sidewalk on the north side of Furbish Road, citing loss of front-yard landscaping, fences and parking impacts. "Usually everyone likes sidewalks," Mike said, but "they were all against building the sidewalk on the side of Furbish." He emphasized that landscaping features often lie within the town right-of-way and are therefore subject to removal or relocation as part of public works construction.
In response to the opposition, staff asked MaineDOT whether widening the existing paved shoulder on the south side would qualify for the FLAP grant; DOT reportedly told the town that shoulder widening alone would not meet the program's objective of providing direct pedestrian access from federal land to local roads. Mike warned that if the town opts not to proceed with a qualifying project, Federal Highway/MaineDOT could ask for repayment of about $56,000 for engineering costs incurred to date; he said the town's 20% construction share for the reduced-scope sidewalk would be roughly $28,000.
Mike described project-level design elements under consideration: plastic delineators near the culvert, center-line re-striping, sidewalk reconstruction at highlighted segments, and potential contractor responsibilities for relocating fences where necessary. He recommended putting the limited scope out to bid in April with a construction window June'September and a completion target by Sept. 30 to allow seed establishment.
The board did not adopt a final binding decision at the workshop; members asked staff to continue outreach and weigh the trade-offs between proceeding to preserve grant eligibility and responding to resident opposition. Staff will return with finalized documents for the selectboard to consider contractor selection and next steps.
