The DOT did not approve shutting down Main Street, as planners had hoped.
By Jim Smedley
Staff Writer

NORWAY – Norway Selectmen approved several changes concerning parking and artists booths for the July art festival at their Thursday meeting.

Nikki Millonzi, Sidewalk Art Show director, asked selectmen if they could set up cones to block off the parking spaces from the Weary Club from the corner of Cottage and Main streets to the Deering Street intersection with Main Street.

Millonzi said fiddlers would be playing near the Weary Club and food booths would be set up on the street. She said it would be a busy area because poetry reading also was scheduled for inside the club.

“We thought we could get artists in the street, but now we’re back on the sidewalk,” Millonzi said.

The state Department of Transportation did not give its approval for shutting down Main Street for the festival, as planners had hoped to do.

Selectmen also approved the use of Pike’s parking lot on Friday for a farmer’s market and lobster fest and then use that same lot on Saturday to set up booths for eight artists.

The final change approved was coning off Deering Street from Main Street to the first telephone pole to allow more artists to set up.

Millonzi said access to the drive-through ATM machine at Key Bank would not be disturbed.

She said organizers had two golf carts that they had planned to use to bring artists from their parking spaces back to their setup area, but she was reminded by selectmen that driving a golf cart on Main Street was illegal.

They instructed her to contact police Chief Tim Richards to see what provisions could be made.

In other action, selectmen approved naming the road just above Responsible Pet Care Salanitas Drive.

They also heard an update from Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments’ Ferg Lea on the progress of the geographical information system for the town, which is incomplete.

jsmedley@sunjournal.com