Here is the proposed changes for Chestnut St. to Pine St. #LisbonSt pic.twitter.com/Ph3MUsizF2
— Sun Journal (@sunjournal) December 11, 2014
“But it includes the entire project: the bike lanes, the repaving, the lights and anything else that was voted on,” said petition backer Darcy Reed. Reed was one of the first three residents who signed the petition aimed at overturning the Lewiston City Council’s March 2 approval of the Lisbon Street project.
Backers have to collect 958 signatures by May 22 to put the project on hold until a vote on the project can be scheduled.
If backers collect enough signatures, the City Council will have the option of sending the matter on to voters or overturning its earlier decision.
Reed said the goal is to force councilors to reconsider including the bike lanes in the project.
“The councilors who voted in support of those bike lanes are going to have to think real hard about how badly they want them,” Reed said. “Now this whole thing could be overturned — just for the bike lanes.”
The project calls for milling and resurfacing the asphalt road and replacing the sidewalks on either side of Lisbon Street from Main Street to Chestnut.
The project is being funded mostly by the Maine Department of Transportation. Lewiston is expected to pay about 10 percent of the $1.8 million project.
The project includes repainting traffic lanes, eliminating turn lanes at Pine and Ash streets and adding a dedicated downtown bike lane.
The turning lanes at the Chestnut and Pine street intersections will go away and a 5-foot bike lane will be added for the length of the street, similar to the new lane configuration on Pine Street at the Bates Street intersection.
“I just can’t consider new bike lanes on Pine Street a success,” said Luke Jensen, another backer of the petition. “It’s jumbled and confused and we need to get it all figured out before we expand it to one of the city’s most important streets — if not the most important street.”
He’d rather see parking instead of a bike lane.
“Bike access could be very important in the future, but we need a plan that’s actually going to work,” Jensen said. “If we go in with a plan now that won’t work, we ruin any future effort at increasing bike traffic.”
City Administrator Ed Barrett said he has talked to petition backers to see if they will agree to change the petition language to only target the bike lanes.
“I’ve been trying, but I haven’t had any success,” Barrett said.
Plans call for beginning work in May, and Barrett worries the petition could derail the entire project for a year.
“That means the state and federal funding allocated to this project could be allocated to another project,” Barrett said. “Which means, at a minimum, the project could be delayed for a year. And I’m not sure if the project would have to re-compete for that money again or if it would somehow carry over into the next year.”
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