LIVERMORE FALLS — Town officials are trying to figure out how to proceed with a proposed extension of a walk-bike path on Foundry Road and sidewalk project on Park Street.

PanAm Railway has not responded to the town’s calls, emails or other communications, highway foreman Bill Nichols told selectmen Monday. The path would have to cross the railroad tracks but the town needs written permission to do so, he said.

The town received a Maine Department of Transportation grant to pay for the majority of the extension and building a portion of sidewalk on Park Street connecting the path. The majority of the first half of the path was also paid for through a grant.

The project has run into a few issues including the railroad, Town Manager Kristal Flagg said.

The town owns more on the Androscoggin River side of the road than the other side, she said.

The preliminary design would have continued the path on the side where three residences are located, increasing the length of the path about 1,300 feet down Foundry Road to Shuy Corner on routes 133/17, and built a sidewalk about 1,300 feet up routes 133/17 to end just past the town’s snow dump. It would create about a 2-mile loop from where the path starts behind the municipal building and back around.

People representing two of the properties on Foundry Road voiced opposition to having the path on their side of the road at a hearing in April.

The reason it was proposed on that side is because several obstacles exist on the other side, including a garage that is in the town’s right-of-way, utility poles that cannot be moved, and some trees, Flagg said.

“What it looks like is we would only be able to do the sidewalk,” she said.

Somehow the town has to find a way to connect the path to the sidewalk on Park Street, she said.

Flagg said she and Nichols are still exploring options to try to satisfy the grant criteria.

Selectmen confirmed that they did not want to infringe on anyone’s property or take anyone’s property to complete the path.

Resident Ron Chadwick suggested that the town could make the portion of Foundry Road where the path currently stops into a one-way street, except for emergency vehicles.

Nichols said he did not know how that would work with trucks going to the wastewater treatment plant on the road or with residents who would then have to go around and start at the beginning of Foundry Road behind the municipal building to get to their homes near the end of the road near routes 17 and 133.

Selectmen Chairman Bill Demaray said they will have to look at the options to determine what can be done.

The town would have to pay for whatever is done to extend the path on the road if it does not meet the state specifications outlined in the grant, Flagg said.

“I don’t think it would cost much for a pedestrian crossing,” Nichols said. “The biggest issue is PanAm.”

“How can they not respond?” Selectman Louise Chabot said.

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