MDOT to pick up tab for repairs

The town of Woolwich apparently will not have to pay for regrading the boat launch ramp at the Richard DeWick Recreation area, selectmen learned last week.

Although the Maine Department of Transportation had first said the department would pay for the materials, but the town would have to pay for the labor, Town Administrator Lynette Eastman said MDOT's John Devin called to say the state will pay for it. The work being planned will still allow boat and trailer use.

The boat ramp area has been cited as one of the reasons Route 1 and the George Wright Road flood during astronomical high tides.

In September the town received a letter from MDOT saying the town had to fix the flooding problem. MDOT proposed three options: option one, installing heavy rip rap and gravel on the ramp area, eliminating boat trailers using the ramp (cost to MDOT $1,540; cost to the town $5,698); or, option two, reconstruction of 250 feet of the George Wright Road to raise the grade, adding gravel and new pavement in the boat launch area (still allowing boat trailer use) with MDOT paying over $17,000, and the town paying over $22,000; or option three, which the state has tentatively agreed to do at no cost to the town, making the grade of the boat ramp steeper (but still allowing boat trailer use) and shimming the eastbound lane of the George Wright Road with pavement to match the reconstructed boat launch, with an estimated cost of just over $25,000.

The selectmen told MDOT they would not be in favor of the first option, not allowing boat trailer use, nor did they agree that the town should be responsible for any cost to correct the problem.

Eastman said the state's only request of the town now is to be give permission to work on the road. The selectmen asked Eastman to write a letter to MDOT giving them permission.

The work is likely to be done when the George Wright Road is paved in 2008 after the bridgework is completed on the Nequasset Bridge. The George Wright Road will be used as a detour during the work on the bridge. The work is expected to begin in the spring of next year and completed within ten weeks. The state agreed to repave the George Wright Road, which is a town road, for allowing the state to use the road as a detour during the work on the bridge.

A former employee of the Bath Patten Free Library, Candace Watson, asked the selectmen to withhold the town's $40,000 donation to the library "until its Board of Directors investigates the suitability of the current director, Ann Phillips, to manage the library," Watson read in a prepared statement.

Watson cited several incidents in which she thought Phillips had acted inappropriately toward library employees.

And, she said, continuing to read from her statement, "the firing of the 22-year-veteran children's librarian and the subsequent resignation of her associate have only just now brought to the public's attention what is a longstanding problem at Patten." Watson was referring to former children's librarian Nyree Thomas and associate Vera King.

David Miller, Woolwich's representative on the library's board of directors, responded to Watson's request.

"I don't disagree with your view," Miller said. "But I can assure the selectmen that the library has a personnel policy, evaluation procedures, and you can be assured that procedures are in place to resolve employee issues."

Selectman David King asked Miller to have a trustee come to the next selectmen's meeting to discuss the issue. "This issue illuminates my frustration with the Patten Free Library," King said. "If it were up to me, we wouldn't be funding the library in Bath. It would be less expensive to the town if we paid for the residents who wish to join instead of a donation up to $40,000."

However, King said, they would not be able to withhold payment because the voters of Woolwich approved the donation at the May town meeting.

"We follow the will of the people," King said.

The town received a letter from Richard and Lillian Thomas recognizing the "good services of our Road Commissioner."

"We are certainly very fortunate to have Jack Shaw for Road Commissioner," they wrote.

On Tuesday, October 2, they had the pavement cut to replace a culvert, and the next day, Shaw and his crew came and replaced the culvert before lunch. By the end of the day, the paving was done, and the work was completed.

"This letter is to let you know they (the Shaws) do things when they say they will and do an excellent job," the letter said.