MINOT — This summer’s plans to replace the culvert on Shaw Hill Road are on hold, because Indian Brook may be classified as a tributary for salmon, Town Administrator Arlan Saunders told selectmen Monday.
“They have determined a permit is required, and I need to start this permit process,” Saunders said.
Saunders said he and Highway Supervisor Scott Parker met with JoAnne Mooney, Maine Emergency Management Agency’s hazard mitigation officer, on Friday to learn that a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers was needed. Someone working off a GPS map had determined Indian Brook ought to be classified as a tributary for salmon, he said.
Board Chairman Dean Campbell wondered if they had taken a look at the Little Androscoggin River in New Auburn.
“When do you suppose was the last time, if ever, a salmon came through there? Your government at work,” Campbell said.
Indian Brook has flooded Shaw Hill Road repeatedly and caused considerable damage, Saunders said. The town had received final approval from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to fix the problem in January.
The town was awarded a mitigation grant for $38,507 of the project’s total $51,343 cost to replace two existing culverts with a single, 50-foot, 6- by 8-foot box culvert that’s open on the bottom to allow natural stream flow. Saunders said the project would have to be put off another year if it couldn’t be started by early August.
The project will require closing Shaw Hill Road to through traffic, something that would really cause trouble if the project wasn’t completed by September and the opening of school. The Minot Consolidated School is a half mile down Shaw Hill Road from Indian Brook.
After the opening of four bids on the town’s summer paving program, selectmen awarded R.C. & Sons, of Lewiston, the work at a bid price of $170,030.40.
Bidding was close, with two other bids within $4,000 of that figure.
Saunders said the roads to be paved include Jackass Annie, Mountain and Prospect roads.
Selectmen also met with Appeals Board Chairman Bob O’Connor, who asked them to look into appointing a new member to the Appeals Board. O’Connor said the board has no alternate members and, for the sake of continuity, he would like to continue to serve as an alternate member once they find someone to replace him on the board.
In other business, selectmen agreed to sell the town’s 1995 Squad Truck 7 to the town of Buckfield for $10; directed Saunders to ask Code Enforcement Officer Ken Pratt to write a letter to Dwight Nichols Sr., giving him 30 days to clean up an illegal dump at the end of Hillside Avenue and to remove a dilapidated trailer from property on Lillian’s Way; and ruled that herbicides and pesticides should not be used on the town’s athletic fields.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
