Work on street at Colby to proceed

By COLIN HICKEY
Staff Writer

Copyright © 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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WATERVILLE -- The city Tuesday night approved an agreement that calls for a nearly $500,000 reconstruction of a street that serves as a gateway to Colby College.

The City Council voted 6-1 to back the project at their regular meeting in City Council chambers.

Councilor Stephen R. Aucoin, D-Ward 7, was the dissenter.

Under the agreement, the state would pay $439,000 of the estimated $480,000 cost. The city would contribute $25,000, and Colby College would provide $16,000.

City Manager Michael J. Roy said most of the funding for the project is money remaining from a Maine Department of Transportation study of the road systems around Colby completed about five years ago.

The transportation department initiated that study to determine the feasibility of building a road connecting Washington and North streets that would bypass the Colby campus.

That bypass road is more of a long-term goal, possibly as far as 10 years away.

But the steep section where North Street feeds into Mayflower Hill Drive could be reconstructed as soon as next spring, according to city officials.

The hill, slightly longer than one quarter mile, has long been considered one of the city's worst roads, a steep stretch of pavement often littered with potholes and frost heaves caused by underground springs.

"There is no question that the road has to be fixed at some point," Councilor Charles "Fred" Stubbert Jr., D-Ward 1, said.

But Aucoin questioned the project.

"Why was it that DOT was willing to dedicate so much money for something that affects so few people?" he said.

Aucoin argued that the money could better be spent on reconstructing Grove and Water streets in the South End.

Mayor Paul R. LePage, however, maintained that the hill to Colby gets heavy use by motorists, and not just those who are students or faculty at Colby.

In other matters, the city supported a resolution to express its opposition -- a symbolic gesture -- to the Taxpayer Bill or Rights, or TABOR.

That formal declaration came after a long discussion concerning the complicated nature of the initiative, which is aimed at putting tight controls on state and local spending -- it is on the Nov. 7 ballot as Question 1.

LePage argued that many people are overstating the spending reduction provisions in TABOR.

"I agree there is going to be an impact," he said, "but not to the degree that some say."

School Superintendent Eric Haley presented a different picture. He said based on his understanding of TABOR the Waterville school system, starting in 1997, would have lost $25 million in funding over a 10-year period had TABOR been in place.

Councilor Rosemary Winslow, D-Ward 3, made clear her uncertainty over the initiative.