HOLDEN, Maine — The cost of asphalt has risen so quickly over the last couple months that plans to repave Eastern Avenue have been shelved for a year, Town Manager John Butts said Tuesday.
“It’s cost prohibitive,” the town manager said. “It went up by $30,000 to $40,000 in the last couple months.”
Town leaders are instead going to repave an approximately two-mile section of Levenseller Road, between Noland Road to Wildwood Estates Drive, and will put two inches of pavement atop Kingsbury Road, a short dead-end dirt road that once was an old stagecoach road.
Kingsbury Road residents petitioned the town over several months about paving their roadway and were told last month the town would borrow money to do the project because the cost of paving Eastern Avenue required all the funds in the paving reserve account.
Now that the Eastern Avenue project has been removed from this year’s project list, there was enough in the account for both the Kingsbury and Levenseller projects, said Councilor Ralph McLeod.
Wellman Paving of Winterport was selected on Monday to do the paving work, Butts said.
“We’re going to grind [the existing pavement] and repave,” the town manager said of the Levenseller paving project.
Eastern Avenue will be placed on the top of the paving list for next year, Butts said.
During the meeting, the board also discussed a water well problem at the town office and purchasing a new police cruiser.
“We’re getting a lot of rust,” Butts said of the water issue.
A dissolved solids test came back positive, and an extendable camera that was used to check the well showed visible problems, he said. The town is considering options for fixing the water supply, including lining the well or drilling another one, the town manager said.
Town leaders decided to purchase a new police cruiser from Darling’s Ford in Bangor for around $34,500.
“The actual cruiser cost is going to be $26,438 and the total cost with the lights and gadgets added is $34,499,” Butts said.