FARMINGTON — Six traffic lights will be updated in the coming months, it was announced at the Aug. 8 selectmen meeting.
Then interim Town Manager Cornell Knight said Philip Hutchins, Public Works director, wanted the board to know Maine Department of Transportation is updating the six traffic lights in town. “It is actually part of a $22 million contract for a number of communities throughout the state,” Knight noted. “They start with doing the cabinet and structural foundation work, if needed.”
That work will start Sept. 20 and end Sept. 29 on Broadway and Main Street, Knight said. Actual light updates will be done over the winter, MDOT didn’t have the exact date when that would happen, he added.
Selectman Joshua Bell asked if the town would still be responsible for any maintenance needed.
The town will be responsible after the lights are up, Knight replied.
The state has talked about taking over traffic lights for a while, hasn’t, Bell noted.
Hutchins will be at the Aug. 22 meeting to update selectmen on the status of Federal Emergency Management Agency declarations. Farmington was one of 15 Franklin County towns/unorganized territories that experienced damage in the April 30 to May 1 rainstorm that resulted in widespread flooding.
At the June 13 meeting it was noted Hutchins was working with FEMA on mitigations for the December storm. He expected the state would make a declaration soon for the May 1 event. Farmington potentially could be looking at a couple hundred thousand dollars in reimbursement from the state, it was noted then.
Sarah Boyden, wildlife biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, along with her supervisor and the district game warden are also expected to be at the Aug. 22 Select Board meeting to address concerns raised by some residents regarding Farmington’s deer population. More than two dozen residents from Lake Ave., Stewart Ave., Sunset Ave., Eastmont Square, Granite Heights, and Perham and High streets signed a petition that was presented at the July 27 meeting.
The petition states the deer are becoming a challenge with families not being able to let their dogs out in their yards for fear of them chasing the deer and the damage done by the deer. Flowers, vegetables, shrubs and trees have all been eaten with one gardener shutting his vegetable garden down after deer jumped the electric fence he installed and decimated his plants. Deer have even come to eat out of window boxes, according to the petition.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
