RUMFORD — What began as a sidewalk project with other improvements in the downtown has developed into a reconstruction project needing new infrastructure.
Main-Land Development Engineer Rick Dunton recommended that the project be moved to 2017. That’s because the Maine Department of Transportation bridge work in 2016 will result in a detour through town.
Meanwhile, the Board of Selectmen on Thursday unanimously voted to make temporary repairs to the sidewalks downtown.
Selectman Frank DiConzo asked that the work, to be done by public works, be started as early as May.
“To make sure that our sidewalks are safe for people to pass,” Board of Selectmen Chairman Greg Buccina said.
Town Manager John Madigan said the town has more than $100,000 for sidewalk repair.
Jennifer Kreckel, who chairs the Sidewalk Committee for EnvisionRumford!, said, “As much as I would like to see this project done this summer, it appears that we’re going to have to change the project. In appears at this time we’re going to have to take care of infrastructure issues first. I would not want to spend money on sidewalks and then have to tear up the sidewalks because of sewer or water issues.”
Madigan said Congress Street is the oldest part of town, with the water and sewer systems more than a century old.
“We have a photo is our office where people come in to pay their water bill showing construction of Congress Street. It’s dated 1892,” Water District Superintendent Brian Gagnon said.
“The 12-inch main that runs down Congress Street, they started doing that down by the south end by the red light,” he said. “If that’s the pipe that was being put in when that photo was taken, that’s 123 years old. The useful life for a pipe, what an engineer would usually tell you, is around 75 years.”
DiConzo said, “We need to let the citizens know that we have to take care of this. As much as we wanted to do these sidewalks, we’ve got to take care of the critical problems in order to get to that stage.”
Buccina added, “We can ignore the infrastructure, or we say we can. It’s been good to us for a hundred years. But a lot of business owners will tell you they’ve had problems annually.
“As we learned about this project, we learned there’s a lot more to it,” he said. “The main objective is not to have to go in and dig up random sidewalks because we have a problem we need to fix. There’s a lot of infrastructure that needs to be addressed.”
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