BATCHELDER’S GRANT – It’s been a long time coming, but most of Route 113 in Evans Notch is now a state scenic byway, along with the rest of the road all the way to Standish.

Maine Department of Transportation Commissioner David Cole recently gave the 60 miles from Standish to the Batchelder’s Grant-Gilead line its new designation – Evans Notch Scenic Byway.

“We’re thrilled,” Toni Seger said Tuesday afternoon by phone in Lovell. “It’s very, very, very exciting to get the news that we have this status. It could be quite something. It could bring economic life back to Western Maine.”

Seger, executive director of the Western Maine Cultural Alliance, led the byway drive after learning four years ago that Route 113 was inadvertently overlooked during the 1970s when DOT designated many of its scenic roads as byways.

The alliance was assisted by the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments of Auburn and the Southern Maine Regional Planning Commission in Springvale, which will now take the lead as the project’s fiscal leader.

Seger said she sees the scenic byway designation as a gateway to cultural Western Maine and an opportunity to revive cultural tourism.

“Artists are celebrating this as an opportunity for fresh life. We know we have a … special area here. The towns are excited about seeing how this develops,” Seger said.

Towns along the route are Standish, Steep Falls, Baldwin, Hiram, East Brownfield, Fryeburg, and Stow.

The byway designation ends in Evans Notch just after Little Lary Brook, because Gilead selectmen didn’t want it in their town. Additionally, after getting an adverse reaction from some residents last fall, Bethel selectmen also withdrew their initial endorsement of a proposal to extend the byway via Route 2 to Bethel.

“Typically, when local communities seek scenic byway designation, they’re trying to identify and conserve intrinsic resources, promote economic development and provide a way to leverage funds for improvements along the corridor,” DOT scenic byway coordinator Bob LaRoche stated last week in a report.

This includes aspects like cultural, historical, archaeological, recreational, natural and scenic features that make the corridor unique.

After gaining designation as a state scenic byway, the next step is for local advocacy groups like the alliance to complete a corridor management plan, which explains how resources associated with the byway will be managed.

Seger said Route 113 byway proponents will meet from 3 to 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 13, in the Standish municipal building to plan next steps.

LaRoche said communities along the corridor must adopt that corridor management plan into their local comprehensive plans.

“The intent is to assure there are processes in place to protect the resources along the corridor that justified the designation in the first place,” he said.

The designation also paves the way for sponsoring communities and organizations to become eligible for federal funds specifically dedicated toward the creation of scenic byways.

“The byway designation does not automatically assure additional state transportation funds for the region, but it does offer a way for the region to promote additional tourism to local destinations,” LaRoche said.

Cole also designated 49 miles of Route 15 from the Indian Hill Rest Area in Greenville northwest to the intersection of routes 15 and U.S. 201 in Jackman as the Seboomook Scenic Byway; and 59 miles of routes 11, 159 and Grand Lake Road, extending from Medway through Patten to the north gate of Baxter State Park as the Grindstone Scenic Byway.