RUMFORD — County and local economic developers expressed concern about businesses on the Island during construction downtown in 2016-17.
Mia Purcell, manager for Economic Development for Oxford County, said to members of EnvisionRumford on Thursday, “I know the traffic is still supposed to be going through town, but I think a lot of people, if they know what’s happening, might avoid it. And then when we start tearing up the sidewalks and so forth the following year, it should be really raising havoc. Is there something that we can do, as an organization, to help ease the pain for some of those businesses that are on the edge as it is, even with everything opened up?”
Members were asked to think it over before a future discussion.
Purcell added, “I’m just wondering if we shouldn’t reach out to the businesses on the Island and get them more involved and find out what they would like to do, or what they feel is needed.”
Rumford Economic Development Coordinator Jim Rinaldo said, “We can do some things as an organization, but the people that actually own the businesses should be concerned enough to get together.”
Dick Lovejoy suggested scheduling information sessions.
“And get some questions asked so that we can try to address them,” Rinaldo said. “It’s a concern, a big concern, as far as I’m concerned.”
Rinaldo suggested the River Valley Chamber of Commerce take a role in this effort, adding that he’ll contact someone with the chamber.
“I think we should find out what their concerns are and what they feel is needed,” Purcell said. “I don’t think we should be doing everything for them; they should be part of the whole process.”
During the summer of 2016, a Maine Department of Transportation project encompassing two downtown bridges will necessitate rerouting traffic.
At a public hearing on the bridge project, MDOT Project Manager Andrew Lathe said that as part of the detour, the light at the end of Congress Street will be made a flashing yellow because there will be no approaching traffic in either direction. Traffic at the end of Congress Street going right can go across Morse Bridge, which will be a single, one-way lane heading out of town to reconnect to Route 2.
Eastbound traffic will be denied entry to Morse Bridge and will have to travel up Route 2, take the rotary, cross Chisholm Park Bridge to Portland Street and bear right onto Congress Street.
“Our intent is to put a stop sign on Congress Street where there isn’t one now. This will make the intersection of Hartford and Congress a three-way intersection,” Lathe said.
Eastbound traffic will stop at the stop sign, turn left, use the Hartford Street Bridge and the bypass to head east on Route 108.
Because of the MDOT project, Rumford’s downtown project has been moved out to 2017. What began as a sidewalk project with other improvements in the downtown has developed into a reconstruction project with the need for new infrastructure. Congress Street is the oldest part of town, with both the water and sewer systems being more than a century old.
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