LINCOLN, Maine — One of Lincoln’s oldest restaurants will get a total upgrade if the Lincoln Planning Board approves its most recent submission on Monday, Town Manager Lisa Goodwin said Sunday.
The McDonald’s on West Broadway in the Hannaford shopping center will be totally razed and replaced with a new structure under plans the board will examine at the town office at 7 p.m., Goodwin said.
Goodwin didn’t have available the cost of the construction project, but said it would alleviate traffic jams in the shopping center and on West Broadway that typically occur at lunchtime and during commutes.
“It is a good sign for our economy,” Goodwin said Sunday. “It is a needed improvement there. Anytime you go by it you can see traffic jammed up there. This will alleviate a lot of their parking problems there, and new construction is always a positive. The value of the restaurant is going to increase.”
The restaurant opened in 1983 and hasn’t been substantially upgraded since. It is among close to a dozen fast-food and more traditional eateries on West Broadway and Main Street in Lincoln.
The restaurant upgrade should bolster somewhat a struggling regional economy in which Lincoln granted just 227 building permits in 2011, down from 328 the previous year and 358 in 2009. The planning board and code enforcement office issued 14 new businesses permits in 2011, the same number as in 2010, Code Enforcement Supervisor Ruth Birtz has said.
Birtz did not immediately return a telephone message on Sunday.
Workers at the restaurant, which employs 62 people — mostly part-time workers — are excited about having a new building, said Barbara Ward, the store’s night manager.
“We need a new one,” she said. “This one is old. People here are a little worried about the three months off [for construction] but we’ll get by.”
According to the construction plans, the rebuilt restaurant will use a vacant lot adjacent to the old structure, thereby better using space within the shopping center parking lot, Goodwin said. The new restaurant also will have two drive-through lanes instead of the present one.
The board isn’t expected to approve the new plans Monday. That review just starts the planning-board process. If all goes well, construction of the new restaurant should begin in March, Goodwin said.
I don’t remember there being a McDonalds in Lincoln!… When did they build that? Wasn’t there in ’60’;)
next to walmart and its a dump
It is quite a distance from Walmart, and last I was there it looked like almost every other McDonalds i’ve been to, except the nice wood stove in the dining area and murals on the walls. Plus I don’t believe Walmart was there in ’60, either;-)
Walmart has never been anywhere except the midwest sicne late in the 80’s
you drunk again?
Ah , a history buff !
sorry it’s not next to Wal-mart but next to Hannaford’s and it’s not a dump, no worse then any other fast food..it employs many people, young and old, any job at this time is worth saving..just saying
You drive too fast if you think it’s next to WalMart !
but i got the ‘its a dump’ part right anyway.
;)
Agreed !
Yes, back when once you drove south beyond the cemetary, you were out in the country and Lincoln had a lively downtown. Now McDonald’s & Walmart are part of an ugly strip, West Broadway looks like Hell, and it’s downtown is shabby. No pride up there in Lincoln in a community that used to be much nicer when I grew up there.
This is an expensive way to clean up a pig pen by tearing it down. I hope the management keeps this one cleaner then the old one.
Amen. I was in there Saturday. What a dump. Bathroom was disgusting.
mickeydees is no where walmart
All they need is to spruce up and expand their drive-thru. The times I have driven thru Lincoln I have never seen a car in the parking lot, but the drive-thru looked liked the traffic in the Holland Tunnel.
go there during lunch and suppah time, you’ll see the parking lot full..
Those people down in Lincoln like their Big Macs!
Yes, and its shows with all the unhealthy overweight people there.
What a joke. The town will examine plans to see if this billion dollar Corp. is in compliance.Their expertise is a laughing stock.
But they will spend more time examining this than they did the complex First Wind application! I bet the rubber stamp was wielded far quicker to destroy the only nice thing about that town than they will McDonalds.
I hope they do not reduce the size like the one they did in Millinocket.
http://x61.ch/88d926
What happened to the windmill money?
Its a sad state of affairs when McDonalds is your top local restaurant and economic development driver. Unfortunately McDonalds themseleves have proven they can’t design drive through restaurants that work well. Both inside and out its a McCluster………
It is sad that a town of 5500 plus the draw from the area has a friggin’ McDonald’s as its top restaurant. Tells you a lot about Stinkin’ Lincoln! Nostalgia for the “Rosebowl” and “Shorette’s”!
Where did it say, or who said it was Lincoln’s top restaurant? Wish you had stayed in Lincoln, it was perfect when you were here right?
Seems to me a burger king would be a nice substitute while the McDonold is having a face lift.
“traffic jam” “lincoln”
used in the same sentence…oh my god
The parking there is dangerous…I do love the murals inside though, depicting riverdrivers in the old days. Hope they don’t destroy them.
I agree , that mural should be considered a historic document. I hope it’s reinstalled !
I know people that quit at the Millinocket McDonalds after it rebuilt it’s structure. The building not only changed but also the process of the food preparation. Looks nice but the service went downhill. I don’t blame the workers but something changed out back with the preparation. Go to the window at the lincoln restaurant then go to the window in millinocket. I think with the new building comes a new standard…The Lincoln McDonalds will never keep up with the traffic flow they have now if they do it the same way they do it in Millinocket. Hope they really check into this. Oh…and i’d like my fries with a little less salt.
Regardless how anyone feels about Mcdonalds Its job loss for 3 months…If it was not there it would be more people and High school kids looking for jobs
Regardless how people feel about McDonalds its jobs. Jobs alot of people count on.
Regardless how anyone feels about McDonalds its jobs. Jobs needed for the area
Regardless how anyone feels about McDonalds it’s jobs for the area.