LIVERMORE FALLS – Selectmen voted Monday to send a letter to the state asking it to rethink its decision to delay fixing more than a mile of Route 4.

The work was to be done from Bridge Street here to Pineau Street in Jay.

Members of the Livermore Falls Downtown Betterment Group, Sen. John Nutting, D-Leeds, and Rep. L. Gary Knight, R-Livermore Falls, all suggested that letters be sent along with contacts made to state transportation and state officials to try to overturn the decision.

The stretch of road leading into Livermore Falls and Jay has been proposed for reconstruction by the Maine Department of Transportation since early 2003.

Livermore Falls received notice in 2004 that it qualified for a $406,000 federal grant and low-interest loan to replace the 100-year-old, 2,500-foot-long clay sewer main. At the time, the project was scheduled to be done in 2006.

But that hasn’t happened and the road reconstruction project did not make DOT’s proposed 2008 and 2009 work plans. A DOT representative said earlier this month that funding is the issue.

Betterment Group members voiced concern that since the DOT plans to do a $450,000 paving rehabilitation project on nearly 5 miles of Crash Road, including strengthening the road and paving shoulders, that travelers will take the better road and bypass downtown Livermore Falls.

Knight said he spoke to DOT officials and when questioned they wouldn’t commit to having the Route 4 project in Livermore Falls done within 10 years.

DOT has already spent money on pre-engineering costs and buying a defunct convenience store and gas station on the corner of Bridge and Main streets in Livermore Falls.

Knight said he was told that Hurricane Katrina impacted the federal funds to be used for the project. He was also told that there is some eminent domain land taking that is necessary in some narrow sections of Route 4 in Jay.

It cost on average of about $100,000 a mile to repave a road and about $3 million a mile to reconstruct an arterial road such as Route 4, Knight said, citing the DOT.

The project, once a priority, has now fallen off the list while Crash Road wasn’t a priority and wasn’t on the last list but is now a priority, Nutting said.

Route 2 work needs to be completed before work is done on Route 4 in Livermore Falls, Knight said he was told.

Betterment Group member John Ross said he has an appointment with the governor.

Knight suggested keeping the squeaky wheel going.

“We need to make sure Livermore Falls is not forgotten,” Knight said.

Millions of dollars has been spent on Route 4 improvements that benefited several communities to the south and to the north, Ross said. The Route 4 project is key to the continued revitalization and economic redevelopment of the area, he said.

About $767,000 in funds connected to the project is either on hold or has been spent, he said, which “I don’t think it’s responsible spending.”

According to a 2006 DOT traffic study on Bridge Street in Livermore Falls, more than 6,800 vehicles passed through daily, and more than 10,000 passed daily on Route 17 through Depot and Main streets, with only 2,600 daily on Crash Road, a state-aid connector that runs from Livermore to Jay, bypassing Livermore Falls.

He said more vehicles will take Crash Road, and lessen the number of vehicles on Route 4, which will change the traffic statistics the state prioritizes its road improvement plans with.

Group member Kenny Jacques called it a safety, economic and environmental hazard if the road is not reconstructed with new sewer lines put in.