NORWAY- Selectmen awarded a $1.15 million contract for work on Beal Street Thursday and selected a bank to secure a short-term loan for water and sewer line work on Main Street.

They also settled a damage claim done to the truck of a Paris firefighter during the Norway Color Center fire in May.

K & K Excavation Inc. of Turner was chosen for the Beal Street project as the lowest of three bidders. Water and sewer lines will be replaced, bike lanes and parking added and a new street surface.

On Beal Street from Cottage to Danforth, and from Lynn Street to Bolster Place there would be two 11-foot wide lanes for cars, two 7-foot wide bike lanes, one 7-foot wide area for parking and one 5-foot wide sidewalk.

The road from Danforth to Lynn streets would have the same features except for the 7-foot wide parking lane.

The road from Winter Street to Paris Street would have two, 12-foot wide travel lanes and a 5-foot wide sidewalk.

The start date for the project has not been determined yet.

Selectmen chose Norway Savings Bank to borrow up to $630,000 to pay for the Main Street sewer and water line project, so it could qualify for a secured Rural Development Agency grand and low interest loan.

NSB’s 2.25-percent interest rate was the lowest offer tendered by respondents.

The town expects to receive a $230,000 grant and $400,000 loan from the RDA to pay for water and sewer line work on Main Street and Lake Road.

Town Manager David Holt explained that the RDA won’t release the money until the project is completed. The town needed money to pay contractors as the work was being completed, so a bank loan was necessary.

In other business, selectmen agreed to pay Paris Assistant Fire Chief Willie Buffington up to $1,700 for damage incurred on his pickup truck.

Buffington responded to a request by Norway Assistant Fire Chief Steve Brown to move three vehicles in harm’s way at the fire that destroyed the building housing The Norway Color Center on Main Street.

Two of the vehicles were in the rear of the building and one was in the front.

Space in the rear was limited because an aerial ladder truck and another truck were fighting the fire.

Buffington said Brown asked that the vehicles be removed. Buffington used his own 2001 Dodge pickup to tow the vehicles. He owns a towing company, but because of limited space was not able to fit a flatbed truck into the area to get the vehicles.

Buffington said the park pin in the transmission broke on one of the vehicles being towed and it rolled into Buffington’s pickup, damaging it.

Buffington asked for renumeration shortly after the accident, but selectmen wanted to investigate insurance possibilities before authorizing a payment.

Selectman Russell Newcomb wondered about a precedent this type of payment might set.

But selectmen agreed with William Damon that fighting an early morning fire the size of the one that occurred at the Norway Color Center made it a special situation.

jsmedley@sunjournal.com

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