The Maine Department of Transportation has submitted updated Route 1 north rebuild plans for a portion of the highway approaching the Lincolnville town line, committees will begin creating work plans in collaboration with town staff, and the annual town meeting warrant is almost complete.

• The Town just received project plans for the Route 1 North project from Maine DOT.  We have posted a link to the plans on the front page of the Town Website on the top right hand side of the home page.  The Route 1 North Committee is planning to meet on Monday May 14, at 6 p.m. to recommend potential dates for an open house with MDOT and determine any work the Committee may need to do in preparation for the open house. 

• Maine Water has just started replacing the water main on Gould Street.  Crews will be working during the night for a week.  The final three weeks of the project will take place during the day with an expected completion date on the last week of May.  More information about the project can be found on the home page of the Town’s website.  Representatives from Maine Water are also more than willing to speak to any residents with concerns about this project.

• The warrant articles for Camden’s Annual Town Meeting has been posted online.  I encourage anyone planning to vote to familiarize yourself with the proposed ordinance amendments that will be on the ballot.  Staff in the Town Office are more than happy to answer any questions. As the legislative body for the Town of Camden citizens have the ultimate responsibility for setting policy.  Town staff are happy to help voters prepare for this responsibility.

• As many of you know Camden will be awarded a Brownfields Cleanup Grant to redevelop and remediate the Tannery site.  This is Camden’s best opportunity to move forward with the recommendations of the Tannery Working Group for a mixed-use development on this site, without significantly impacting taxpayers.  Ultimately the success of Camden’s application can be attributed to the Town’s plan for the Tannery site to be redeveloped as a mixed commercial and recreational area and the level of citizen participation involved in developing this plan.   

Prior to receiving our grant CEDAC will be developing an RFP for a commercial developer/business that is compatible and can easily be collocated with the farmers market and public open space.  Once we receive the grant a series of meetings will be scheduled to develop a site remediation plan that will prepare the site to be developed for commercial purposes and public open space.  

• Over the next couple of months I’ll be working with staff assigned to committees and committee chairmen to develop work plans for all town committees.  The purpose of the work plans will be to ensure the work of Committees better aligns with Select Board priorities and that policy issues or projects with overlapping interests are better coordinated amongst Committees.  We have a lot of highly skilled and knowledgeable volunteers on our committees and we all want to best utilize their time, energy and expertise.  Having work plans in place will help us do just that.

• As you all know Sunday, April 22, was Earth Day.  In recognition of Earth Day I wanted to draw attention to all the work being done by groups such as Keep Rockport Beautiful to clean up litter from our roadsides.  Having clean roadsides is not only important for the aesthetics of the town and demonstrating we take pride our community but also because of the negative environmental impacts of littering.  Attached to my report is a Public Safety Announcement by the Police Department that outlines the laws around littering as well as our local ordinance requiring loads to be covered.   Our goal is that bringing attention to littering and work done by community groups to clean up our roadsides will raise awareness and prevent future littering.

• Inter Fluv led the kick-off meeting for the Montgomery Dam feasibility study on Monday April 24.  There was good attendance from members of the dam advisory committee, abutters and other interested residents of Camden and Lincolnville.  Much of the discussion focused on the overall goals of the town in relation to the Montgomery Dam specifically and the entire dam/river system generally.