Norway Board of Selectmen Chairman Russell Newcomb gives his opinion Thursday night on whether the town should place a streetlight at the intersection of Gore Road and Harrison Road.

NORWAY — The Board of Selectmen tabled discussion Thursday evening on whether to place a streetlight at the intersection of Gore Road and Harrison Road.

At the start of the board meeting, resident Ron Estes said he believes the intersection is dangerous at night.

“I really think we need a light there,” he told the board. “It’s a highly traveled road, and if you don’t know that the road is there, you can easily miss it. I think it’ll be safer if there’s a light there.”

He invited selectmen to check out the intersection for themselves and see how difficult it is to see at night.

Chairman Russell Newcomb said the board discussed the issue “one or two years ago,” and the “consensus of the board at that time was that we should possibly cut back on streetlights, not add them.”

Selectman Thomas Curtis asked if it was possible to put signs that have the words “dangerous intersection” printed on the front “placed several hundred feet out from Gore Road.”

“Signs of that type are about $100 each, but we’d have to see if the state of Maine would be OK with us putting them up,” Town Manager David Holt said. “Harrison Road is a state road, so we’d need permission from them to put it up.”

He said that when the issue was brought up in the past, “I recommended that the streetlight be installed. I was unsuccessful, and I told Ron that if he comes in here and talks to you guys about it, he may be more successful than I was,” Holt said.

Curtis asked if there were many accidents at the intersection.

Newcomb said there have been accidents there, “but I have no idea if it’s because there were no lights there.”

Selectman Bruce Cook suggested that they table discussion on the topic until they have a chance to visit the intersection during the nighttime.

mdaigle@sunmediagroup.net

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