ROXBURY — Roxbury Pond is getting a new boat launch and it won’t cost the town anything, because the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is undertaking the project.
That’s what selectmen learned Tuesday night at a board meeting about the Ellis Pond Boat Launch project. Roxbury Pond is also known as Ellis Pond.
Chairman John Sutton read documents received from Pine Tree Engineering Inc., the Bath firm that was retained by the state this year to complete the project.
Project manager Stephen C. DeWick wrote selectmen on Sept. 2 that Pine Tree is working on completing the design. The company also is preparing information to file for permits with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the Bureau of Submerged Lands, the Army Corps of Engineers and Roxbury planners under the town’s Shoreland Zoning Ordinance.
Selectman Tim Derouche said Pine Tree and Inland Fisheries federal aid coordinator Leon Bucher would like to meet with the board at an upcoming meeting to discuss the project. Board of Selectmen Chairman John Sutton asked Town Clerk Nina Hodgkins to contact DeWick and set up the meeting.
In a letter dated Aug. 28, selectmen told DeWick that “the boat launch as it exists at this time is failing more and more every winter.”
Although the site is town property, town officials sent abutters and the lake association a brief informational letter advising them that Pine Tree may contact them.
According to an Aug. 23 letter to Bucher, Pine Tree states that the finished ramp will be 12 feet wide. Work includes:
— An improved driveway from County Road.
— Paved and striped parking for seven trailered rigs, including one handicapped-accessible rig and five vehicles, including a handicapped-accessible vehicle.
— Removal of 43 old concrete launch planks.
— Placement of granular fill, geotextiles and riprap to create the ramp.
— Three distinct sections to the planked ramp.
— Concrete planks to be used as curbing for the first 72 feet on both sides of the launch.
— Double concrete street curbing to be used on both sides of the heavy-duty planks.
— An overall ramp width of 12 feet, 4 inches.
During construction, erosion will be controlled by silt fencing to the normal water level of the pond. A turbidity curtain will be used to control siltation of the pond during plank placement in the water.
All bare soil and earth disturbed during construction will be loamed, fertilized, seeded and mulched.
Although the site is town property, the Pine Tree letter says the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Department will be the applicant for various permits.
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