THOMASTON, Maine — The reconstruction of Main Street, also known as Route 1, in Thomaston and the traffic snarls it has caused have frayed the nerves of many motorists and local business owners.
But for one boy, the construction project has been a tremendous attraction.
Brian Farnham’s mother, Heather Nelson, said the project has brought joy and happiness to her 12-year-old autistic son. The family lives on Main Street, and the boy spends every morning before school and every evening watching the construction, according to Nelson.
One night recently when her husband was stuck in traffic for over an hour trying to get home, Nelson said she couldn’t help but think that with all the complaints from motorists, the construction workers deserved to know how happy the project made her son.
So, according to a blog she posted on the BDN website, Nelson filmed Brian “flapping and laughing and jumping with joy” as he watched heavy equipment operating in front of their home.
She shared the short video on the “Thomaston Rte 1 Project” Facebook page with the caption:
“I’m sorry to everyone who is completely annoyed by the cluster this construction is making … but it sure is making one autistic boy very happy that he can sit right on his doorstep and watch bulldozers and dump trucks.”
After some of workers with Lane Construction who are on the project saw the video, they contacted Nelson and offered to make Brian an honorary member of their team, and to present him with a few gifts, including a hard hat with his name on it.
Nelson said she warned the workers that Brian might be overwhelmed by meeting them and that even though he loves watching the trucks, he might “be a little scared to actually go in one.
But the family agreed to meet the workers Thursday night, when the men presented Brian with the hat, a flagger’s vest and a bag full of toy trucks.
Lane project engineer T.J. Coyle said he knows that there have been many complaints about the impact of the project on the town, and the company felt that recognizing the boy was a way to give back to the community.
The youngster did decline the offer to ride in a water tanker, but he was OK when the team asked if he wanted to watch the truck go up and down the road spraying water. He jumped and laughed as they did.
Nelson said the Lane Construction men kept being patient with Brian, who eventually got in the tanker after it was parked and operated both the sprayer and the horn.
He later also climbed with a big grin on his face into some of the other vehicles parked at the construction site.
Nelson wrote in her blog that she thought the Lane workers would get bored and want to end the gathering, but “every person there was so genuinely happy to just be there and to watch Brian. No one was on a time schedule and they bent over backwards to make sure it was all about Brian and did whatever it took to make him happy. …
“Who would’ve thought, us sending a simple thank you to the construction workers, would lead to them giving Brian the best ‘thank you’ we could’ve ever dreamed for.”