LIVERMORE FALLS – Town Manager Martin Puckett and highway foreman Bill Nichols will look for a way to preserve the town sand pile and still allow resident-only access.

Selectman Melanie Rounds said she was coming back from a trip to Massachusetts about 3 a.m. one day and saw a commercial truck backing up to the sand pile.

It was suggested poles be put up with a chain to prevent trucks and other vehicles from pulling up to the pile after-hours, but leave room for residents to go in and fill their 5-gallon pails. It was also suggested that maybe a large container of sand could be put out so people could get sand there instead of from the stockpile.

Nichols said Livermore keeps its sand pile at the transfer station, and residents could only get it when it is open.

He said he has been considering putting the pile at the Livermore Falls transfer station and people would have to get sand between Wednesday and Sunday.

That would provide monitored access to the pile when the station was open and cut down on liability in the yard when the town’s trucks are being loaded with sand during the day and residents come in to get sand, Puckett said.

There is a sign that indicates how much sand a resident can take right at the pile, and it states no commercial use, Nichols said.

Resident Bill Demaray said Livermore Falls is a bedroom community and having the sand locked up at the transfer station at 4 p.m. could limit access.

Nichols said the best place probably would be out behind the police station where dispatchers could monitor it on the cameras already in place, and they would be able to see license plates.

In other matters, Puckett told selectmen that the Maine Department of Transportation plans to do maintenance surface paving beginning this spring.

Those areas are:

• 1.12-mile on Route 17 from Foundry Road to Bridge Street;

• .17-mile on Church Street from Union Street to Pleasant Street; and,

• 2.13 miles on Route 133 from Depot Street to Claybrook Road in Jay.

The DOT also plans to do a pavement preventative maintenance project on 2.29 miles on Route 106 from Route 133 to the Leeds line.

The entire cost of the road improvements, Puckett said, is estimated at $249,000 with the whole amount coming out of state funds.

Puckett said he plans to again submit Main Street to Depot Street and Bridge Street north to Livermore as priority roads to the DOT to include in its next budget and two-year road construction work plan.

Puckett also informed selectmen that the town received six verbal bids for 500 yards of sand and delivery.

They went with low bidder Elwood Leighton, who offered to do the job for $3,250. Other bidders were Andy Chicoine, about $3,400; Adam and Jean Castonguay, $3,550, Spencer Jackman, $3,600; Donald Mercier, $4,375 and C.H. Stevenson Inc., $5,000.

The Budget Committee and selectmen continued to review the budget, which in preliminary form exceeds last year’s budget by $200,000 with much of it attributed to capital improvements.

Puckett said selectmen and the committee will need to start to decide where some cuts could be made prior to the budget becoming formalized.