RUMFORD – Selectmen on Thursday awarded the contract for a revitalization study of the downtown to Kent Associates of Gardiner.
The study, expected to start in a few days, will cost the town $25,000. The money will be taken from the economic development account. The study is expected to give the town a blueprint for how to improve traffic flow and parking, bring new businesses to town, upgrade storefront facades, and beautify the gateway entrances, among other economically-related projects.
Working with Kent Associates will be a nine-person Downtown Revitalization Board, Town Manager Steve Eldridge said. That committee will help direct the seven-month study; then, once funding becomes available for some of the recommended projects, will assist the town manager in prioritizing and implementing plans.
Eldridge said Kent Associates was chosen from three bidders because of the thorough, step-by-step procedure the firm presented, and because of its past work with downtown revitalization projects in Bridgton and Gardiner.
The first of several public hearings to gather input on what residents want to see done will likely take place this month.
Eldridge said 15 people have applied for membership on the revitalization committee. Nine will be chosen by selectmen at their May 19 meeting.
He said a series of grants will be applied for once the study is completed.
In the meantime, several revitalization-related actions are already happening. These include a grant application to the state’s Department of Conservation that would continue work on a riverfront park planned from Morse Bridge to Memorial Bridge along the Androscoggin River, and renovation and maintenance of the historic Municipal Building.
Planned for the Municipal Building is repainting and repair of the clock tower cupola and repainting of the building’s windows, along with replacement of the basement ceiling.
The River Park Planning Committee began work several years ago to try to reclaim a section of the park and trail system that functioned until the 1950s with several thousand dollars provided from the Betterment Fund and from local civic organizations. Terrance J. DeWan & Associates of Yarmouth and Main-Land Development Consultants of Livermore Falls have started the planning process.
Also on Thursday, the board voted not to go ahead with a Maine Department of Transportation Department highway project for Welch’s Corner on the South Rumford Road.
Eldridge said the $450,000 for it, of which $150,000 would have been paid by the town, was eliminated because of objections by people living on the road.
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