By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

NAPLES — In 2012, the Town of Naples was the recipient of a state transportation department project, which called for the replacement of the swing bridge and the improvements to the Causeway.

Another infrastructure upgrade is on the way.

During this two-year budget cycle for the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT), the town is scheduled to get the traffic light replaced at the Route 35 junction of Roosevelt Trail. The town’s elected officials pushed for a right-hand turning lane and pedestrian crosswalks.

Those improvements have increased to include sidewalks on both sides of the road up to Moose Landing Marina and the realignment of the business entrance to Gary’s Olde Towne Tavern to line up with Route 35. There are other details that were discussed when the engineers from Milone & MacBroom, Inc., presented sketches to the Naples Board of Selectmen.

As those proposed upgrades have increased, so has the cost of the construction project. A few months ago, the cost estimate was $647,500. Since then, additional work has bumped up the cost estimate by $444,800.

The solution is to take out a bond, Naples Town Manager John Hawley told the selectmen on Monday.

The proposed bond will be presented to residents at the upcoming town meeting on April 30. The estimated total cost of the project is $1.3 million, Hawley said.

“There are no additional funds because the town signed the mutual agreement with MDOT,” he said. “We are going to have to take out a million dollar bond to get everything we want accomplished,”

Chairman Jim Grattelo agreed that was the route to go.

“This is the time to do it, the interest rates are low. The payments are going to be paid out of the TIF [Tax Increment Financing] fund. We retired two bonds a year ago. This is going to be $80,000 a year,” Grattelo said.

Hawley commented on the interest rates.

“We haven’t gone out to bid. The interest rates might be lower than 3%,” he said.

Of importance, the project is going out to bid this week. The bidders will know up front that the job hinges on the bond being approved at the town meeting, Hawley said.

“I have been working with the bond counsel from Drummond and Woodsum, Greg Im; and, he has put together the language for the warrant articles as well as the bid paperwork for the funding,” he said.

“At this point we have estimated a $1,000,000 bond to run about 3% over a 15-year period and total payoff would be $1,256,800,” he said.

Earlier this year, the town signed the mutual agreement with MDOT in which the state would cover half of the costs as part of a Municipal Partnership Initiative (MPI) grant. So, MDOT will cover $370,000 of the infrastructure upgrade because that was based on half of the original cost estimates.

Today, Hawley will be meeting with MDOT Regional Planner Jennifer Brickett to discuss other, future state project including a request for sidewalks on Route 35 that extend to Madison Heights. Hawley said that the other end of Route 35 in Harrison had been improved through state projects.

Brickett and Hawley will be talking about other proposed projects and not necessarily the one that is going out to bid this week.

In related news, there is a mystery that Hawley was trying to figure out from people who know the history of Naples.

Basically, last month when the surveyors were on site getting data for additional improvements to the intersection, they discovered evidence of an underground waterline.

“The discrepancy is they are showing a waterline that runs right in the middle of Route 302,” Hawley said. “Everybody I am talking to said the water suppression line stopped before that. Is there any reason why there would be a waterline there?”

Luckily, Steve Smith, a historian who belongs to the American Legion Post 155, knew the answer.

Smith said when the Bay of Naples Hotel was located up on the hill, that structure would have needed to use a waterline in that location and of that size.

Hawley said, “So, it is probably an abandoned line.”