LISBON’S BIG DIG!!!!!

The Androscoggin River Trail should be renamed Lisbon Big Dig.  At the last Town Council Workshop, the Council discussed what to do about a washout on the Androscoggin River Trail.  The main discussion was to ensure that there was no “finger pointing” as to who was responsible for this washout.  I do not understand why it would not be important to find out who was responsible so that the Town did not take their advice on correcting the situation.   Also, it is possible to see if they would pay for correcting their mess.

So lets’ start listing the major people/companies involved in this project starting at the top:

          MDOT – Project Number #017468.00 – Awarded Contract

                          $1,337,667.00

          MDOT Project Manager – Nathaniel Benoit

          Engineering Company of Record – Woodard & Curran

          Engineer of Record –David Senus

          Kleinfelder – Contracted for part-time construction support

                                  services

          Kleinfelder Representative - Sonny Gorneau

          Construction Contractor – St. Laurent & Son, Inc.

          Local Project Administrator – E. Ryan Leighton

Each of these players in this project has responsibilities for completion of this project.  It should not be that hard, knowing the players, to determine where and who is responsible for the washout.  It may take a little investigating, to hold the responsible party accountable; instead of making the taxpayers pay for someone else’s failures.  The taxpayers have paid more than their fair share.

Several months ago, MDOT announce that there were sufficient funds left over on the project to put sidewalks on Davis Street.  The cost was somewhere around $30,000, if I remember correctly.  Next, MDOT announce a shortfall on the project of over $100,000.00 and MDOT did not have sufficient funds to cover it so the taxpayers had to pick up the slack.  The Town went to AVCOG and they bailed the Town out for the majority but once again the taxpayers had to pay more.  At no time has the Town ever challenged MDOT for these additional costs to our citizens.

It is time the Town contact MDOT or even Governor LePage and file a grievance against MDOT for relief instead of jamming these additional cost down the throats of the taxpayers.  We have paid more than even for this project and I am sure it is not finished yet. 

This is exactly what happened to the residents of Boston with the “BIG DIG”.  Lisbon now has its own “BIG DIG”.

Larry Fillmore