NORWAY – A meeting has been set for later this month in an attempt to determine how to keep Norway’s scenic turnout on Route 118 open.

The state Department of Transportation has offered to let Norway take over maintenance of the site, its picnic tables, shelters, grill and restroom rather than remove them.

Town Manager David Holt told selectmen last week that he is attempting to get a coalition of interested groups such as the Rotary together to take ownership and share responsibility in keeping the site open. A meeting has been set for 2 p.m. Sept. 25 at the Town Hall to discuss the possibility. DOT Commissioner David Cole or a representative from his office is expected to attend the meeting.

Although DOT officials have been saying all summer that the cost to maintain the scenic turnouts, including Norway’s, is about $3,000, DOT engineer Norm Higgins upped that amount last week when pressed for a more detailed breakdown.

Higgins said it is impossible to quote an exact amount because records are not itemized for each site, but he believes the cost for maintaining Norway and other similar scenic turnouts, not including pumping the toilet, is between $6,000 and $7,000 annually.

“We don’t break it down. We don’t feel it’s necessary,” said Higgins.

Holt said that estimates he has been receiving from DOT officials have placed the figure at between $8,000 and $11,000. Because the area has been used by people from throughout the area and tourists since 1959, Holt said he believes a partnership of local area organizations is the right way to approach the issue of maintenance, if DOT pulls out.

Currently, the DOT is maintaining 10 scenic turnouts. “Norway is the only one in this area that they haven’t downgraded,” said Higgins. Others, such as one in Waterford, have been taken over by the town. Another in Greenwood has been closed.

Two state maintenance workers have cared for state rest areas that can be found from Norway to Coburn Gore, above Eustis on the Canadian border, with sites in Franklin and Oxford counties. The state decided last spring that many of the sites should be either closed or downgraded by taking out the picnic tables, restrooms, shelters and grills.

Higgins said the decision to downgrade or close the sites is based on maintenance cost and site aesthetics.

Snow Falls in West Paris is the only scenic turnout that will not be closed in the region, said Higgins.

“It’s a place where people can get to the attraction (the river) without crossing a road. In Norway you can look at the lake but you look through guardrail and cars,” said Higgins of the difference between the two sites.

Higgins said the Norway site is only a couple of miles from several restroom facilities, such as at Wal-Mart and Irving that provide public restrooms. “There’s no way we can keep them as clean as the Irvings (restrooms). They check theirs every 30 minutes,” he said.

But a petition with about 400 signatures was circulated earlier in the summer by Selectman Bill Damon to try to convince state officials to continue to keep the area open.