City Council - Regular Meeting

Or maybe some more guests in the lobby. All right, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I just wrote down a few remarks because I still get nervous in front of you all sometimes, and then I want to say everything I want to say. So as you'll see on the agenda, if you have it, you can look at it. If not, there are a few more copies here. This afternoon, we will hear updates from various partners involved in projects impacting the High Street corridor. So this isn't, Stantec will be one of them, but there are some other, you'll see on the agenda, some other partners presenting. Stantec has returned tonight or this afternoon to present their final report, which is a planning study. The city council has not received it. It is a planning study. That's it. So, you know, city council has not received a recommendation for nor approved any construction projects for high street related to this study. And we all know that Stantec as our consultants do not have the authority to redesign high street for us or make decisions on behalf of the city. So it is a planning study, and this is part of our thriving communities federal grant that the city received to evaluate safety on High Street. It wasn't traffic flow. It was supposed to always be through the lens of safety so that people could cross and not feel like they were going to get hit. Or how do we increase multimodal access, pedestrians, bikes? That was always the focus of this study, and Stantec did an amazing job at, in my opinion, at taking their original analysis and all the stakeholder feedback at our April meeting, and we heard that feedback. And we went back to Stantec and asked them to develop alternatives that respond to the concerns that we heard, and that's what you're going to see this afternoon. That does not mean every idea from the original study was erased from the planning record. A good planning document will always identify and evaluate options for the immediate, medium, and long term. But identifying an option is not the same thing as approving it, finding funding for it, and actually going through with construction. So again, keep in mind this is a planning concept. Our immediate interest here at the city and with you all is a narrower focus and we're asking what can realistically be done to improve safety and the function of High Street without creating new problems for us as residents, businesses, customers, visitors, emergency responders, everyone that depends on this corridor every day. I also want to be clear where we are at in the process. The concepts you will see tonight represent Stantec's final revision to this planning study. Contract with the city ends on the 31st of August. So they actually, and I just want to speak to that for a minute. We had provided final revisions to them. They accommodated this meeting for us. They didn't have to turn in that final report until August 31. We asked if it could be ready for tonight because we announced last April that this would be our next meeting and we wanted to keep to that time. And so they bumped up their their date of giving us this final report and we had just last week given them some revisions. So I received it around 3 o'clock this afternoon and that's the first that I uploaded it and now you're seeing it as well. So I know there was some concern about not being able to see it before and ideally that would have happened. In this particular situation we were not able to do that. And we really wanted Stantec to be the ones to explain it, which they're on the call and they will go through it tonight. So we're grateful for that. And so we are not tonight beginning another round of design revisions. Can we tweak that or change? This is their final presentation for their planning study. We have reserved approximately 30 minutes at the end for questions and answers. We genuinely want to use that time to help everyone understand what is being presented. So we welcome questions about the concepts that you see, the data, traffic operations, safety considerations, main DOT requirements, implementation, funding. or what a particular recommendation means. We understand that people have strong opinions about High Street and those perspectives were heard at the April meeting and documented throughout the process. So tonight's Q&A time at the end is intended to give you an opportunity to ask clarifying questions of the city, Stantec, Maine DOT, and our other technical partners so that you can leave tonight with an accurate understanding of the final recommendations. Again, completing this study does not commit the city to implementing every recommendation or any particular recommendation. Any significant future project would have its own next steps that would include additional public processes. Those decisions are not being made today or in the near future. So as you listen to their presentation, I would just encourage you to ask, what did the study find? What can we take away from what we are seeing tonight, particularly in terms of safety? And what changed as a result of stakeholder input? You'll see what they first proposed in April, and you'll see what they're coming back with. So what has changed? And what is being recommended now? What questions do we still have that we need to be answered? Your feedback, again, has already changed the study. So this afternoon, we want to show you the result of that process, answer your questions as directly as we can, and make sure everyone understands what the final study does. And equally important, what it does not do. And with that, I will turn it over to RCAP, where I believe Sarah Buck is on the line, and we'll work through the agenda. And thanks again for being here. Sarah, are you on the line? I'm here. All right.

Excellent. So thank you everyone for being here again. Great to see you virtually. Just for sake of audio clarity, I'm going to keep my camera off, but you can see my photo. But just wanted to kind of set the stage for the rest of the conversation today. Twyla did a wonderful job. So we're just going to look a little bit back in time, talk a little bit more about our priorities, get a status update of where we are, and then also provide a little bit of context of some of the other presentations you're going to get tonight, in addition to Stantec's corridor study. Next slide, please.

Oh, you know what, Sarah? I don't think I received your slides. I didn't see that they came through. Can you share your screen, perhaps?

I can, yeah. send them earlier, but that's fine. I'm happy to share with you.

Just one second. I'm sure that was my mistake because there were things flying around in email today. I apologize for that. That's okay. Those of you who were here in April too probably saw some of this, and I explained a little bit in the introduction that the city did receive a USDOT, it's called Thriving Communities Program, grant. There were two rounds, and we were in the second round, Ellsworth was, and they're not doing them anymore. So we have this last opportunity to use this federal money to assess, in this case, safety along the High Street corridor. Thank you for that, Sarah, and my apologies again.

Oh, no, that's okay. Technology happens. So, yeah, thank you, Twyla. So I'm Sarah Knerbuck. You all may remember me from previous meetings, but I'm from RCAP Solutions. We are a nonprofit that serves the Northeast all across the community development spectrum, and we are the lead TA, technical assistance provider, and capacity builder for the private community's grant. Just a little bit, again, this may be a little bit resundant, although things have changed some since we presented in April. Almost two years ago now, it's crazy to think it's been that long, we did it for the first time and met with city representatives and partners and completed a comprehensive needs assessment, touring the community, and then developed our Friday community's work plan for the two and a half years of intensive technical assistance. We're still in that process, although we're coming to the last leg of it, and the technical assistance will be ending at the end of this calendar year. As a reminder, work plan priorities, we're going to concentrate on the corridor study first, then we'll come to the other as we kind of set the stage for the context of a few of the other presentations that you'll be getting today that tie in with the high street corridor work. The corridor study for High Street was the number one priority that came out of both the needs assessment as well as the original letter of interest that the city had sent to USDOT to get funded for this grant. And that was a recommendation that came out of the comprehensive planning process that you guys went through a couple of years ago. I'm just looking at that corridor study. There's lots of different things that you can look at, but really based on all of those things and everything that the city was hearing from residents that the number one thing that would be focused on as part of that corridor study was safety. Secondly, pedestrian and bicycle access with a focus more on pedestrians than anyone else since there are many folks that walk places but not very safely currently. on the high street corridor right now. And then also looking at streetscaping and beautification of the corridor with a focus on functional green infrastructure where possible so that it's not just pretty, but it is also helping with some of the storm water challenges that the high street corridor is facing between some of the compromise as well as some of the flooding and other issues. So here we are 23 months later in August of 2026.

Something that was really unique about this USDOT thriving communities program is for each of the communities that was selected, USDOT paid for a subaward.

And in working with the city, it was decided that the best use of that subaward was to pay a consultant to do the high street corridor study. We helped the city through the RFP process, putting together the scope of work, and have been working with them to help manage the consultant throughout the process. So Stantec was competitively selected. We had a kickoff with them and started the work in late 2025. And then throughout the process, we had a couple of scope and timeline changes and increases just to be responsive to the needs of the city of Ellsworth. We increased the scope and budget to include all four priority intersections that you all have heard about and you'll hear about again tonight, as well as doing some overview of some of the entirety of the corridor, and then also to address all of the feedback and concerns that were raised at the previous meetings this spring. We also increased the timeline and budget to make sure that Stantec was able to address all of those concerns and come out with the final product that you will be seeing here in a few minutes. So the study will be completed at the end of this month. We're almost there. But basically what you'll be seeing tonight is the final. And the main DOT, Jared, who's not with us today, but I know we have another representative who's going to be sharing with us a little bit, has been engaged throughout the process from the very beginning. As far as things that are coming and kind of where we're at now. The technical assistance team has also been and will continue to help the city explore funding for the next steps. So as Twyla said, this is really just a conceptual planning study. In order for any parts of it or things adjacent to it to move forward, there has to be additional planning about some things. There has to be the full design and then funding for the construction or implementation of whatever is decided. So that's something that we committed to in our work plan is once this study was done to help the city kind of come up with a game plan for next step. Some of that is through funding applications. So when we spoke last time, it had not been submitted yet, but the city decided to move forward and we supported them in putting in a Safe Streets for All application from USD Adoptees, so that is still pending. And then also there's a Another potential opportunity at the end of this calendar year, USDOT has one last round of their 100% grant funded rural and tribal pilot program. So if the city decides they want to move forward with that, we'll be available to support them in that. And there's a lot of different things that that can go toward, including additional planning, the design aspects, whether that's doing the environmental NEPA or other requirements. The other work plan priorities that tie into this that I just wanted to mention to sort of give you a little bit of context of the presentations that are going to come after Stantex, the other biggest priority that was identified, and you heard me mention it, was stormwater, especially with a focus on hard work because it is an impaired waterway and the high street corridor because there have been challenges with pooling, flooding, and other things. So you'll be hearing from Community Engineering Corps, and the work that they've been doing in partnership with Woodward and Curran to put together some stormwater analysis and recommendations to move forward to hopefully be able to move through some of those challenges. We've also been able to leverage some of our other federal funding from EPA to support the DPW team on stormwater by putting together an asset management plan, which is most of the way done, as well as capital improvement planning and operations and maintenance planning. And then tying those two things together, you'll see that Scott and the Community Engineering Corps recommended some potential funding applications for the state of Maine to put together plans and implementation to help support the stormwater work And hopefully our technical assistance team on our environmental side will be able to help support that in the spring when that funding becomes available. The other piece is the child care assessment. Some of you may have seen from the newsletter that there was a final push to get some additional responses on that. And we got about 50 responses. So we're looking at Those responses and data, doing some analysis, making some recommendations for the city to consider about working through some of the child care gaps and challenges that you're currently facing. And one of the priorities, and Greg from Hancock County Planning Commission is going to be presenting a little bit on this, is to support them in any of the existing public transit education outreach and marketing pieces that they're doing with their Northern Borders Regional Commission catalyst funding. So you'll hear from Greg on that, as well as how Ellsworth can engage in that process. And so that's everything for me. And I will turn it back over to Twyla and to Jessa from Stantec to share the results of the final corridor study report with everyone.

Thank you, Sarah.

Thank you for being so nimble at the last minute when your slides didn't show up. They're amazing. Thank you. Okay. So it seems like now I am not sharing my screen anymore. Give me a second. All right. And Jessa, if you're ready, I'll take you to your first slide and you can guide us through it. Yeah, sure.

Thank you. Hi, everyone. I'm Jess Averna. I'm a transportation planner with Stantec, and I've been the project manager for this project. And tonight, we're sharing the results of our final report and sharing how your public input has guided the process throughout. Next slide, please. So a little repetitive of some of the things that Viola and Sarah have just said, but High Street is a really important corridor in Ellsworth. It's a really key transportation corridor serving a lot of year-round residents and local businesses. It's also, as everyone knows, right on the way to Acadia, so a lot of through traffic during the year. There's also a lot of people moving by car, by foot, and by bicycle through this really important area and using transit. So as Sarah mentioned, through the thriving community program, the city of Ellsworth initiated this study to better understand existing transportation and safety conditions in this area, as well as look at ways to make this area safer and more comfortable and more adaptable over time. So the goals of this project are really threefold. First of all, improving multimodal safety through the corridor while maintaining the existing roadway capacity. Secondly, integrating safety enhancement with stormwater-friendly streetscaping and green infrastructure. And then thirdly, this is really a tool for the city to use, and the goal of it is really to help position the city for future success by preparing clear and actionable deliverables, including renderings, cost estimates, and phase implementation roadmaps. So really, This is a good opportunity for the city if you want to pursue any or all pieces of this project to have something visual to include in a grant application. It's really one of the key benefits of this. And again, just to reiterate that this is a planning level study. It's very high level, sort of looking at specific nodes in the corridor. And their ideas are not final designs. They're not approved plans. And the recommendations are meant to illustrate potential options to help the city consider and prioritize moving forward. And additional engineering and permitting and public engagement would be needed at all phases through the project as well as main DOT coordination beyond what's been done as a part of the study. I forgot to add a specific slide about this, but just really quickly, the four focus areas that were selected that we'll go through in a minute is first the Beals Avenue intersection with High Street, the Merrill Lane intersection, the Down East Highway Route 1 intersection, and then the Myrick Street intersection. And then we also looked at sort of more regional bicycle and pedestrian connectivity through the whole area. So I'm just going to go through each of those concepts, explain some of our key recommendations, and go over the changes that we made since our first graph was presented back in March.

So our first concept is the Beals Avenue intersection.

At this location, the proposed improvements include a multi-use path on the western side of the road along with additional planting street trees on that side. On the other side of the street, we have a trailhead with benches and interpretive signing to make it sort of like more of a gateway to that Down East Sunset Trail. We're also recommending a crosswalk with a hawk signal. That's basically a signal that lights up and stops traffic when a pedestrian pushes it, pedestrian activated. One caveat I'll say there is the VPI project, another sort of project planning study going on in tandem with this project, recommends a hawk beacon at Dean Street. We'd say this is probably an either-or recommendation. That's why we're kind of putting it as potential, just because you don't want to have too many sort of crosswalks that stop traffic too close to each other because of that spacing. So based on the public feedback that we received back in March, we're not reducing the lanes on High Street through this corridor. In an earlier draft, we had proposed going from two lanes in each direction to one lane in each direction with a center two-way left turn lane. That is no longer a part of our final recommendation. At this point, we're maintaining the traffic lanes as is. And also we are leaving Beals Avenue open to through traffic with no trailhead parking to be added at the end of Beals Avenue. You can go to the next one. So the Merrill Lane intersection, another really busy intersection on this corridor. Our proposed improvements include adding crosswalks to the sides of the intersection, again really focusing on that pedestrian connectivity. We are, there's currently headed south and turning right into the shopping, the Ellsworth Shopping Plaza. There's currently two turn lanes and two entry lanes in. We're proposing reducing that to having just one turn lane to turn into the plaza. And that's sort of based on current traffic volumes can easily support that going in and out of that shopping plaza. We are also proposing a multi-use path on the western side of the road. with an extended vegetative buffer with street trees and a potential green infrastructure system at the intersection of Foster Street there. So some changes from the previous draft based on the public input we heard is we moved the street trees where possible to be between the multi-use path and the road just to provide that additional buffering and sense of safety for people walking and biking in that area. Also, in our last iteration, the configuration of Merrill Lane was sort of an older design based on the current plans for the Hancock County Courthouse development. We've updated that to reflect the current design being proposed in coordination with DOT associated with that development, but also just to note that that hasn't been approved and our recommendations are flexible and would recommend sort of adjusting this concept as needed to accommodate whatever decisions are made about Maryland as part of the courthouse development. So another part of our scope included doing a sort of a street level, what we're calling photo montage, just to kind of see what the area could look like if some of these recommendations were implemented. So here is the before photo for comparison, and if you want to flip to the after, So this is what the area could look like if some of those trees and crosswalks are added in. And I think it just sort of demonstrates a vision for what the area could look like. And hopefully having some visuals like this could be helpful in any sort of future grant funding applications. So the next intersection that we looked at is the Down East Highway Route 1 intersection. So this is where the one-way stretch of High Street begins as you intersect with Route 1. Some proposed enhancements that we are recommending is using that center triangle as a mean infrastructure system to help with some of the stormwater in that area. and also have a pedestrian path or tree-lined alley in the sidewalk just to make that more pedestrian-friendly and crossable. We're also adding crosswalks to three sides of High Street to accommodate, or three sides of that intersection to accommodate that pedestrian activity. We're also adding a multi-use path on the western side of the road crossing to the eastern at the Main Coast Mall driveway there. In the previous draft, there were two. We were not maintaining two lanes of traffic through the one-way section. We have restored that, so now the one-way section, the configuration of two lanes going in that one direction will be maintained as it currently is. And also, one thing I will note is we did hear the concerns about the In front of McDonald's there are some cars that kind of pull out correctly into the exit to the main coast mall and there were some concerns that if we were to add a curb there to increase the safety. It's really hard to see and it's generally not good practice to have cars sort of backing directly into a busy travel lane. But there were concerns that this change may impact McDonald's ability to maintain a certain number of parking spots. Sort of as a concept, we took a quick look at the parking configuration of McDonald's and you can see in the upper right hand corner where we're proposing to extend the curve so those diagonal parking spaces won't be able to be used anymore. So we looked at sort of the site and the circulation and realized with some reconfiguring of the parking, you can maintain the current number of parking spots available on that site. And, you know, I think this is just sort of a good demonstration of, you know, if you're doing some of these access management safety configurations, it doesn't necessarily have to result in a loss of parking. There's often sort of creative solutions where you can maintain the same access and same visibility and still have these safety considerations. So just sort of a case study of how that can be done on this McDonald's site because it was one that was raised during the engagement process. And again, we have a photo montage of this intersection. This is where Route 1 is coming into High Street with the shopping plaza and the McDonald's are off screen to the left. I guess. So this is the before shot, and with some of the recommendations, this area could look something like this in the future. Again, hopefully this image could be something that could, you know, help procure some future funding if there's some interest in pursuing some of these recommendations at any time.

So the last focus area was that Myricks Street intersection.

We really focused on the for the northern half of the intersection for this one. Some of the proposed improvements are the multi-use path on the eastern side of High Street and Myrick Street connects all the way to Walmart, and that's a continuation from the last focus area, helping that continuous multi-use path through the corridor. There's a sidewalk with a buffered strip on the western side of the road as well and a crosswalk across that one lane at the intersection to allow for pedestrian connectivity. Some changes from the draft that we shared with the public back in March include maintaining those two lanes of traffic through the entirety of the one-way section of the corridor and also We heard your request to make sure that we have the street trees as a buffer between the sidewalk and multi-use path and the travel lanes just for additional safety and protection through that area. So those are the changes for there. And lastly, we have the bicycle and pedestrian connectivity. This is looking beyond the corridor just as Ellsworth is definitely, particularly with the Sunrise Trail, a really popular destination for bikers to come and recreate. So with this graphic, this kind of gives a sense of how walking and biking connectivity can extend sort of beyond this high street corridor to connect to the Sunrise Trail and then also connect to the existing and potential future waterfront trail as well, just to sort of give more of a holistic view of sort of that larger off-road network. And so next steps, it's really up to you. It's up to you as a community, it's up to you as a city what to do next. Hopefully this report offers some ideas that the city might want to pursue now or down the line and maybe apply for some local, use some local funding, apply for a federal grant. In each of the concepts we've broken out the recommendations into different phases so that there could be a phased approach to implementation, but it's also just to give some higher level sense of cost and timeline and what things might look like if and when the city is interested in moving on to next steps. And again, any next steps towards implementation would require a lot of different steps between here and there. This is really just the start of the conversation. Anything would mean more engineering, more coordination with property owners, and to go team permitting, and of course, more continued public engagement just to continue this conversation.

Awesome. Thank you so much, Jessa. And Jessa said she will remain on the line for the Q&A time, and I know right now there's probably a ton of them, but to honor the other presenters and the information they took time to prepare, we're going to keep chugging through the agenda Try to keep your questions up here. We can always go back to the slide that you want to see. But we're going to keep moving along and hear a little bit about the Cardbrook watershed and some proposals for how to mitigate some of the problems there. So Scott, I'm ready whenever you are.

Great. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Scott Punderhill. I'm a civil slash environmental engineer with Engineers Without Borders slash Community Engineering Corps. And we were tasked with studying stormwater on the high street corridor within the Cardbrook Watershed. So that's the topic of our project. So next slide, please. Just for an introduction, what is Engineers Without Borders slash Community Engineering Corps? Engineers Without Borders is a group of volunteers that work around the world doing, providing engineering solutions to communities that really can't afford to hire engineers. We work basically around the world. I've been a volunteer with Engineers Without Borders for about 16 years now, and I've traveled extensively around the world. And a few years ago, I found out that, oh, Engineers Without Borders actually works within the United States. But because of liability reasons, we go by the name of Community Engineering Corps. But we have the same premise, is that we're a team of volunteers that work with communities to provide whatever kind of water, waste water, it could be storm water in this case, energy, structural solutions to communities. So for this project, we're a sub-consultant to RCAP Solutions under the thriving community program. So we were asked to help out with the storm water. We developed a team of stormwater professionals, myself, and my co-partner, also with, we're on part, we're on the Green Engineering Corps staff, and then we have volunteers. So we have fortunately been able to work with Woodward and Curran. They are consultants with Ellsworth and have done considerable amount of work on your stormwater system. So we were able to get a team of volunteers from Woodward and Kern to help out and participate. And the objective of our study was, one, to kind of summarize what is the conditions of the existing stormwater infrastructure within High Street, especially the Carnbrook area. We want to identify some stormwater best management practices that could be applied to help with improving stormwater management in this area. We want to identify some stormwater funding opportunities that could be applied to help fix the stormwater issues within the area. And then finally, provide recommendations for improving stormwater management within High Street and Cardbrook area. And so our report, which has not been officially submitted yet to the town, or excuse me, to the city, will be forthcoming. So we'll start off with Cardbrook. As many know, Cardbrook runs right down or through High Street. It's a large watershed. It covers over 4,000 acres. It's classified as a Class B freshwater stream, which means it's a pretty clear, at least classified as a pretty clear brook. But a study was done back in 2010 or 2010, that identified that Cardbrook is impaired. It's impaired because it doesn't meet water quality standards and it's also prone to flooding. The impairment for the most part is because of the amount of impervious cover within the watershed. A watershed with more than 5% of impervious cover is considered impaired. Impervious cover is pavement, you know, areas where the water can't infiltrate into the subsurface. So when you have storm events, it basically runs right off into the brook. So Cardbrook watershed is impaired. It has poor water quality standards, and it's also prone to flooding. So in 2000, about three or four years ago, Woodward and Curran did an evaluation of Ellsworth's existing stormwater infrastructure. But what we're targeting here right now is basically the infrastructure right in the Carbrook, right in the High Street where it flows in the Carbrook. And what they found was that there was considerable impairment to the stormwater infrastructure. As you can see here in purple, the purple areas where we have impaired stormwater, which means it's It's been damaged. It's not working as designed. So there's 18 catch basins, nine manholes, and close to a quarter mile of drainage pipe that's below ground that's been impaired. It's either cracked, not formed freely, rusted out. So that's what we identified. And when you see here in this area where it's green, is during a storm event, this is where you're going to have flooding. Again, this is not actual conditions. This was modeled based on the existing conditions assumed that you have free-flowing pipes. So what you may actually see in reality is different than this, but based on the modeling done by Woodward and Kern, a significant portion of High Street gets flooded under a large storm event. This one here shown is for a storm event that happens every 25 years. Next slide, please. So we have some solutions that we recommend as part of our report. One is let's maintain existing stormwater infrastructure. This is important. I know a lot of effort goes into installing stormwater, system, but if it's not maintained, it can degrade quickly and cause significant backups or flooding. So it's important that you have a regular clean, inspection, and if you identify areas, get them repaired. And I know the city right now is actively engaged in doing so, not only by purchasing equipment that will go out and clean out the stormwater, but through RCAP Solutions EPA grant, they're are working on putting an asset management plan together. Our next one was to update the city's stormwater ordinance. Right now, your stormwater ordinance is pretty good, but it doesn't really include Cardbrook specifically. So we recommend that you address infrastructure maintenance in Cardbrook, and the goal would be to reduce the effect of impervious cover. So we're going to get the the storm water that falls on a parking lot into Cardbrook as quickly as possible. We want to delay the storm water that goes into Cardbrook as much as we can and hopefully infiltrate a lot into the ground water. Another solution is that when we have high speed projects that look at doing storm water upgrades as part of that. I know that Stantec was looking primarily for safety And they would have looked at stormwater also, but we said we would look at that as part of our Clean Engineering Corps project. But when you're looking at upgrading your intersections, look at upgrading the stormwater also. And finally, look at partnerships. Green partnerships are important. This is a multifaceted issue. It affects development. It affects carbon, ecological, environmental issues. So it's good to have collaborative partnershipping between, you know, regional, non-profits, your property owners, businesses and residents, so that they're aware of what the stormwater is doing not only to your infrastructure but also to Karnakirk. Next slide, please. So some potential funding. There's two that we found would be, I think, applicable. One is a non-point source grant that's through the Clean Water Act. The Maine DEP administers this. There's two portions of this grant. The first one is to develop a watershed assessment or a watershed plan. So basically for Cardbrook, you'd look at the watershed, kind of develop a plan on how to improve the water quality in it. And then that grant would be the first one you get, and then once you have a watershed plan in place, then you apply for an implementation grant, which would be funding to allow for whatever is recommended in your plan to be implemented. I understand, though I'm not very familiar with it, that Branch Lake received one of these grants in 2023 to implement several non-point source improvements for infrastructure. Maine has a grant program for building resilient infrastructure in communities, the BRIC program. And this will be used for improving your infrastructure to prevent flooding. This will be used for such things as culvert upgrades, manhole upgrades. It can be used for anything to prevent pre-disaster mitigation. Next. So in closing, I'm trying to keep this short and simple. You know, what isn't working right now is Cardbrook is impaired. And that is due basically to an amount of impervious cover that flows directly into Cardbrook. In addition, High Street has impaired stormwater infrastructure that needs to be improved. So we don't want flooding to happen on High Street. So you think, oh, the goal would be to get the water quickly out of High Street and into Cardbrook, but that's exactly what we don't want to happen. We want to delay the amount of time it takes for rainwater to fall to go into your infrastructure and eventually into Cardbrook. So what is working? Well, the city has been very proactive in stormwater management. They purchased a back truck to come out and clean, so now that will be part of their regular maintenance. If you look at some of the new construction that has occurred or will be occurring shortly, there's been best management practices applied. The Home 2 Suites Hotel, that has their stormwaters collected and has infiltration directly into the soil and groundwater beneath the site. So during most storm events, nothing will leave that property. Maryland Extension, you're seeing some some drainage basins put in there, so when the water collects in there, it's going to go back into the groundwater as opposed to being surface water. The High Street Pump Station near Pizza Hut has recently been upgraded and has a filtration system put on that goes into the subsurface before going to carpet. So there's a lot of positive momentum that's occurring in Elsinore. The city is also updating the stormwater ordinance. This is a great opportunity to take advantage of understanding of what's going on in High Street and putting methods in place to control the stormwater. And the city is also currently working with RCAP Solution to develop a citywide stormwater management plan, as was mentioned before, so that all your assets can be managed accordingly. And finally, what is needed? We need a watershed management plan. Cardbrook is impaired, but it's a beautiful brook, and it can be actually more beautiful if it's managed properly. So apply for a grant to put all those together. Education material for the community, I think, Most people would say, oh, this is a high priority for myself. If I knew about it, we're owning a dog. So I think education, material, and training of city and residents is important. And then putting together maintenance plans for existing commercial properties on High Street is important. Right now, there really are no maintenance. So basically, the stormwater will run off as it runs off. And it's not being collected and managed properly. Those are what our report is going to provide. So with that, I will end my presentation.

Thank you so much, Scott. And Scott had a very – I read the full report, and he did a great job of pulling out the salient points for you all tonight. It's very important. Thank you. Okay, moving right along, we're going – oh, I'm so sorry. Thanks. We'll go to Catherine, if you're on the call, for a brief update on – main DOT's work plan. High Street Corridor does have more work plans than probably most of us know about from the DOT. So we're happy to hear anything that you have to share. Thank you.

Sure. Thanks, everyone. So I'm not your regional planner, so I'm filling in for Jared. He had another application. And so what I would like to share with you is what is in our main DOT three-year work plan. the 26 to 28 plan just to kind of highlight some of the salient projects for this corridor and of course everything that we're sharing is subject to revision based on available resources and so these are planned projects not obligated projects I just want to stress that so let me look here so I would say the main project right now would be, there is a traffic signal update project planned for the year 2027 along Route 1, 1A, and Route 3. It's a $4.7 million funded project for intersection improvements, and that's funded through the Highway Safety and Spot Improvement Program. We also have a preliminary engineering, just really doing the detailed design of a new off-road trail path. I think that's the extension of the Down East Sunrise Trail into an Ellsworth Multi-Use Trail. And so that is going on this year, and that's programmed for this year, and just the preliminary engineering. Funding for construction is still... up for future funding and grant applications. And then there's also, this is north of High Street along a stretch of State Street. There's going to be some highway construction rehabilitation. And I think there's also some lighter capital paving projects as well. And that's really it, unless there are any questions. Thanks, everyone.

Thank you. And we'll collect, you know, we can pass along any questions you have after the fact as well. Thank you again, Catherine. Appreciate you filling in for Jared. Okay, and then Greg, if you want to come join us. Greg is here from the Hancock County Planning Commission. Again, with a very brief update about transportation along the High Street Corridor.

Hi everybody. I am Greg Paduke, senior planner at the Hancock County Planning Commission. I've been a representative for HGPC as part of the corridor study project as a regional partner. Here tonight to briefly touch on another transportation related project happening in the county that is related to Ellsworth and the corridor, more so for safety and accessibility. Last fall, ACPC was awarded a Northern Border Regional Commission Grant, and that's something I can explain at another time if you have questions about that, with the goal of the grant to, I guess, further study and ultimately improve public transportation in and around Hancock County. And the purpose of the grant was through a lens of improving economic development and labor force accessibility. But of course, as we know, public transportation has an impact beyond just economic development and the labor force. And so as you can see on the slide, there's kind of four separate projects in the grant. Right now, I have recently in the last couple months started working on project one in collaboration with Downey's Transportation, the public service that services Hancock County. Hopefully you're aware that it exists. But the primary goal of this project is to help improve the awareness and ultimately the usage of their year round bus service. And so I've been having meetings with folks at Downey's Transportation and we've come up with some marketing strategies and outreach plans that are currently just beginning. We've targeted some apartment communities and some other facilities to go into and speak and talk about the program. We've created a survey. They're asking residents of these facilities to take and potentially other citizens of the county. And so that is all currently in progress. And ultimately, by the end, we hope to have a lot of feedback as far as how the service can be improved and how it's being used. We talked about creating some more easily readable visuals of the route tables and maps so they're more accessible and easier to understand. That kind of ties in with the rest of the projects in the grant as well. So along with that, I'll be doing some outreach and conversations with the other transportation partners in the county to identify what their services are, the folks that they serve, and how they can collaborate with Downing State Transportation to fill the gaps of where the current system is and ultimately improve accessibility for the workforce and as well as the population in general. I'll also be just doing a larger study and overview of rural transit and identifying other systems and networks around the country and how they are effectively moving people to where they need to be and studying, learning best practices and ultimately taking away those examples and how they can be implemented to improve our current system. And then the final component of the project where a lot of the money is going to is to hire a consultant that will ultimately draft some architectural engineering plans for some future public bus stop infrastructure. The plan will be to have some model shelters, benches, signs of the like designed so that in the future round of this grant, They can be applied for the infrastructure and construction of these shelters at locations that we'll identify as part of this grant where accessibility and safety needs to be improved. And those shelters could be located in the future. So what does it mean for Ellsworth? Well, a lot of the routes and stops for downstream transportation are along the corridor and around the city. And so as part of this grant, we'll be assessing the effectiveness of the routes themselves and identifying possible future locations where future infrastructure upgrades could be had or for the first time implemented. And I'll be keeping in touch throughout this process with TWILA and the city about how residents and other folks can possibly be engaged and provide their feedback and contribute to the overall improvement and usage of public transportation here in Hancock County. So I'll be happy to attempt to answer any questions that you might have after this. Thank you.

And now it's your turn. Our deputy city managers here definitely will orchestrate or take care of our next section, which is Q&A.

So several of you signed up when you came in. I'm just going to go through those folks first, but then we can open it up to anyone else who would like to ask a question or comment. We'll do our best to answer all the questions right now, but if there are some that we're unable to answer right now, we'll take it down and get back to you. So when you speak, could you just give me your name, please, so that I can just document that. So first up is Cindy Mayer. And if I mispronounce your name, I'm sorry. And you don't have to come up. You can just speak from your seat if you'd like.

All right.

If you'd like to come up to the microphone to amplify yourself, you're more than welcome to.

Well, good afternoon, everyone. As you said, my name is Lee Meyer, and I live in Ellsworth.

Sorry, that's me. And I'm certainly glad to see that the comments everyone made about the lane closures and the street closures were taken

I'm going to turn this, and I'll sit here, okay? Or you can speak over here. Just watch your step.

Take two. I think it's great that the planners have taken into consideration the – horrible effect that it would have had on traffic patterns in Ellsworth with the lane closures and the street closures that were part of the original plan. The original plan, as they said at the time, wasn't really about traffic at all. The focus was pedestrians. But, of course, it's not pedestrians that are bottlenecked when it comes to driving during normal times of day, especially during high season. So that's a good thing. The original plan did have that childcare component to it, which I still don't understand. At the time of the original meeting, when I asked about that, there wasn't really anyone who could answer that question why and how that was included and how it connected with this big change. So I think that that's still a little bit of a question mark. I guess for me, looking at the bigger picture in terms of the spending that's happening in Ellsworth and the projects that are being proposed in Ellsworth, that's my biggest concern. This project sounds lovely. And if we were rolling in dough, I would be so happy to have a prettier street. But the fact is that the taxpayer money tree has been being shaken to the point that people are getting concerned about even being able to keep their properties if they continue to live here. Unlike many who have spoken at these meetings, my ancestors did not come over on the Mayflower, and my family hasn't been here for hundreds of years. I'm actually here by choice. I wanted to be here. And I'm concerned with the life that I'm building and the property that I'm building. If things keep going the way they are, we can't sustain that. And that's horribly sad. And I know we're not the only ones in this boat. So I'm looking at the bigger picture in terms of, you know, I've never attended any kind of government meetings before. I've never been involved in local politics aside from voting. And when I vote for people, whether my candidates win or lose, I trust that they're going to do the best they can for me, for my family, for all the residents where I live. But now I'm starting to question that trust. And I think in terms of the overall picture, if we don't get a handle on the spending, which is for projects large and small, A big project, a little project like a bathroom that costs a lot of money and is going to take a lot of upkeep and probably eventually have to be dismantled like what they're doing in Bangor right now. But my concern is we need to be able to trust the people who are doing these plans and making these spending requests of us because it's our money that's going into this and beware the grants. You know, the grants are very attractive and very seductive. But, you know, a grant just gets your foot in the door. And so just watch out because you can grant yourself into bankruptcy as a city if you so desire. But that's just my thought. I appreciate your patience with my comments today. And I hope we can get things turned around in Ellsworth.

John Seavey, 82 Autumn Road. I concur wholeheartedly and I believe most of Ellsworth is in the same boat, feels the same way. Taxes are out of control. Looks great. I was just jotting down some of the cost. You know, that was $3 million down close to it for those improvements. It would be nice to be able to do it all. I would like to see a crosswalks in those places. I don't think the trees, I saw a couple of entrances that looked like they were going to disappear across from Merrill's in the Wendy's area. I use those pretty much exclusively when I'm traveling. So I'd like to see crosswalks, places for people to be able to get across streets safely with a flashing light or whatever. I think that would be great. I think the beautification would be nice, but again, I don't think it's necessary to make the city safer. I do have a question. I don't know if this is for Greg. Does the grant for this Downey's transportation equal free transportation for people who take the bus?

I think you can answer that.

The grant has no impact on the cost of public transportation. There's no part of this grant that is investigating the cost right now. As part of the survey that we've created, we are asking whether these costs are prohibitive to riding a bus, and so that response could impact changes in the future.

no i guess free transit or plans for that every moment okay because i've never used it i know that there's some elderly housing facilities around that definitely use it and i didn't know if they're part of that map that pick up and drop off and those types of ideas

Yeah, and those are the facilities and properties that we're targeting to talk to residents and ask about how they're using the service and how it could be improved and what would encourage them to use the service in the future.

Okay, thank you. That's all I have.

Robert C. Grant Sr.

I took notes because this is too much for me to... Robert C. Grant, Sr. First thing, I was wondering, this is a lot for the city of Ellsworth to take in in one night, and I was wondering where our city manager was this evening, why he wasn't here. This is only my opinion. The second thing... My family has been over here in Elza for 100 years.

That was one thing I wanted to say.

The third thing is I never heard a word about the cost to the taxpayers of the city of Elza for this project. Does anybody know?

Zero.

No. OK. I'm good with that. OK. I'm fantastic with that. They mentioned stormwater at the mayoral intersection. Where is that stormwater going to dump out to? And whose land is it going to be built on? Is it going to be an underground system?

Yeah, it's all meant to go into Cardbrook, treat the water and then get it into Cardbrook.

But how is it going to get to Cardbrook from that intersection? Just through storm pipes?

Yes.

So, I mean, you're not treating. You're treating it somehow?

So the water's going to run off the road and into the ditch, and the ditches are going to have basically rain gardens, so to speak, where the water will fill up in that, and then if that fills up, then it'll flow into the next one. There's a series of these along Merrill Lane. So if it's a light storm, nothing will enter Cardbrook. It'll all end up sitting in the next to the and just infiltrating in, but if it's a heavy enough storm, then it will flow in the harbor.

It's going to go right in the ground, you're saying? What kind of a system is that? Could you tell me about it?

What kind of system is that?

Yeah, yeah, and how big an area you're talking?

So it's, I don't have the drawings in front of me, but it's probably going to be five feet wide by at least maybe 20 feet long. You're going to have these little depressions next to the road. They're drainage ditches that fill up.

And it goes into crushed stone or something? Or what?

There'll be... I've got to look at the details. Someone had a friend... I'm trying to remember. There's different ones. The Merrill Lane extension and the Merrill Lane courthouse had different structures. I think the courthouse had detention basins that had some rock on the side but not on the bottom. And some of them, I think, are designed to have pipes that will allow the work to infiltrate below it. So it's a combination of stone and pipe covered by sand with some vegetation on top.

So in other words, we don't really know about that one because you didn't convince me.

Well, again, I have to go back and look. I look at a lot of these things and I've got a memory from a few months ago, but I can read them.

That's why I took notes so I didn't forget anything. But is there any, do you have to take anybody's land to put these in place? Or is it all within the right of way? All right, so everything from the top of the hill from Merrill's is going to flow into Cardsbrook and is everything the other way going to flow somewhere else?

It all ends up flowing into Cardsbrook. Not necessarily Cardsbrook, Yes, Maryland will all flow into Cardbrook.

Which is already overwhelmed.

It will only flow into Cardbrook if it exceeds a certain rain capacity.

I've been in dirt my whole life, and I struggle with what you're saying, because you put water in a hole, it's got to come out somewhere. If it's encapsulated, it's got to come out somewhere. It can't just flow into the ground.

Oh, yeah, it'll flow into the ground, yeah.

Oh, certainly. We'll see. Okay, next. Childcare threw me right out of the world. I don't understand how childcare is in this project. Somebody's got to tell me about that.

I don't think it's Scott.

No, I know. I was down with him. Are you sure? Oh, yeah.

Okay, I don't want him back.

He doesn't know any more about it now.

So, Sarah, are you able to address the child care question? about why that was included in this study. I know that some of the child care was included because of the transportation component, because oftentimes child care requires you to drive to a center, drop your child off, and then go to your place of work. And that was why some of that was included in this. But I don't know, Sarah, because, I mean, this application happened before any of the staff was here. So we are trying to play catch up with it as well. So Sarah was part of the team back then. So I don't know Sarah, if you have an answer to that.

Sure. Um, yeah, so as I mentioned, when we did the initial needs assessment back in September of 2024, we looked at traditional transportation pieces, but we really looked across the community development spectrum. at a number of different things within the community, resiliency and emergency response. We looked at water and wastewater.

We looked at economic stuff and business, et cetera.

And so when we were going through that process and working with the city staff at the time, you know, Jana and Matt, and we were talking through everything. One of the things that's unique about the USDOT program is although, to Sarah's point, things have to have a tie to transportation, they really are pretty flexible in the type of support, technical assistance that can be done related to community development that is not in that traditional sort of transportation lens. And so we wanted to kind of take advantage of that opportunity because we heard multiple times from city staff and when we were chatting with folks just that childcare has a big impact on the community overall. A lot of the employers were struggling to find staff because of a lack of childcare. There were issues tied to transportation and being able to like that being something that might keep people from using Public transportation, for example, they weren't just going to work, but they also had to go get groceries, and they had to drop their kid off at child care, and all of those different aspects. And so, although it is sort of indirectly related to transportation, it was a priority that came out of that needs assessment, and so that is why we decided to include it. It definitely is a very small part of the focus. It has not been a major priority, but something that we could help support the city in as a technical assistance provider going through this program.

Mike, is she down?

I think so.

Okay, thank you very much. And that was way over my head because I cannot for the life of me tie the two together. But anyways, my wife and myself, we help with our grandson's child care. We do various things during the day. I know what's a problem. It's a problem for everybody with young children. I understand that completely. For the life of me, I just don't understand the connection, and I wish somebody that's coming up next could tell me about it. There's no private lands. affected, no private citizens are affected by this project. There's no land being taken away whatsoever. Okay, but a few turn lanes maybe, right? That's what it says. which I'm opposed to, completely opposed to. I think it looks beautiful on paper. I think it's wonderful. If we could get it for a no-cost dollar, I guess I'm in favor, child care and all. So thank you. That's all I got to say.

And just to quickly speak on Charlie's absence, we try to divide and conquer meetings, so I was put on this one, and he's attending another meeting this evening. He's going to try to get here for the end, for the next steps, but that's why he's not here, because he's attending another meeting. Tiffany Gaspar. I didn't think I needed to say your name.

It's all right. Hi, everyone. I'm Tiffany Gaspar. I just was said. So some takeaways on that presentation. First, how does this actually help with traffic in the corridor? Because I think that's part of this, too. It's supposed to help with traffic. And, you know, another part of this is looking at, like, the Beals Avenue plan. Where that crosswalk is, that's a blind spot. like at the top of that crest, it is a blind spot. And you mentioned for bikers, walkers, for the Sunrise Trail, but ATVs use that trail as well. So are ATVs gonna be able to drive on these sidewalks? Are they gonna be on the road? Are they gonna, like what is kind of going on with that? And then obviously connecting down to our waterfront trail, like what waterfront trail?

What one? The one we've been talking about for 25 years as proposed.

Yeah, the one that's still not here, the one that's still in imaginary conversations, right? So we don't have a waterfront trail. The only one we have is a short little river walk one that Frenchman's Bay Conservatory supposedly handles. So making plans for stuff that doesn't exist and hasn't existed still for 25 years after talking about it. And the greenery thing, yes, it is great, it looks beautiful, but let's talk about greenery. And probably a lot of you can't see this, but this is what we call the triangle in Ellsworth, which we all know is McDonald's. It looks like crap, I'll be honest. Who's gonna maintain all this? We can't even maintain the very little green spot that we have right now, right there. And yet we're gonna make this big, huge, beautiful plan to from one end of High Street all the way down to the other, we can't even maintain what we have now. And this grant isn't going to cover the maintenance on this or the guys for the next 25 or 30 years. Speaking of grants, yet again, another grant. So doing a little quick research on this funding for the non point source grant from the Maine DEP. The award amounts are between $50,000 and $150,000. That's going to cost more than that. So where's the rest of that coming from? And then the BRIC grant that was also talked about, that requires a financial cost share match. And what that is is the community pays 25% of non-federal match, so no federal match funds can go to that. they cover 75% of the eligible project costs. And the only way to lower that amount is if it's an economically disadvantaged rural community, which then would have to pay for 10%. So is it really free, though? Because that's what I just quickly looked up.

Did anybody say that grant was free?

Well, you said this whole project is free.

This project that we are talking about this evening cost us $0.00. But that's what we're discussing is the future. We have not applied for any of those grants and we have not... The grants that were secured to pay for this planning effort was $0 from Citi, no match, nothing. The Hancock Planning Grant or the Thriving Communities Grant. The future grants, the potential grants that were identified have not been applied for. That would cost, that would be a match. I don't think anyone assumed that was free, but this particular study didn't cost us anything.

But I think they are under the impression it was free.

And it was free. That was a misunderstanding then. I thought you were talking about this process this evening.

We don't even have a cost for the whole process.

Okay, thank you.

And then the US.SS4A application that was submitted, which was said was submitted on the presentation, that requires 20% of the total funding project to come from non-federal sources. So what is the plan? for that project, because you have submitted the application for that.

Yes, the City Council approved a $10,000 match and a $10,000 in-kind match for that, because you can use both cash match and in-kind match.

So it's only going to be $100,000 or $200,000, and that's the total cost? Mm-hmm. Okay. And if it goes over, what happens? Because it seems like a lot of projects do go over.

We cannot go over on that. The federal government won't allow us to go over on that.

So I guess, again, also another question is, how many pedestrians and bicyclists have been hit in a five-year time span to warrant a complete remodel of High Street when we have existing sidewalks already? What's the data to support the safety plan? It should be in. I don't know if Jessa wants to respond.

Jessa should have that information.

Yes, in the past five years, there have been four crashes involving bicycles and pedestrians through this corridor.

OK, so four. And so we're looking. at if this keeps going forward, looking at these matches privately for this SS4, and then also having to come up with, like I said, if it goes forward, the other 25% for another grant and potentially having to do more money. I think we're kind of tapped out. Honestly, financially, the residents of Ellsworth, the city is definitely tapped out financially. We can't, we have to cost share everything with mean DOT. I think there comes a point where we're like, let's be realistic about some things, crosswalks, pay some crosswalks, you know, like that's something that's realistic that we can afford. We can't keep affording huge projects, which if you want to talk about travel flow, You know, that's a huge portion of this. That's going to mess up traffic no matter what time of year you're doing that. And my other concern is a third lane going into Merrill Street Extension. Do you lose part of your parking lot for that? You're very little, tiny? No. No. Just wanted to know, yeah.

That's a great question because I'm working on it. Sorry, Bob.

Good question.

I'm Bob Merrill of Merrill Lane. Merrill Furniture. First of all, I just want to say everything you said, I agree with 100%, and I certainly could have said it better. You did a great job. Very good job. I'm working with Sarah and Charlie for Merrill Lane, which has been quite a project, as we know. It's still ongoing. And there's a little... I don't know, contradictions between what I'm looking at from Stantec and what you and I and Charlie have talked to. I think we need it worked out. But yeah, that's still, it hasn't been finalized yet. The only other question I've got is the median in front of my furniture store, how high is that?

It's a couple inches, the mountable median. Oh, it's mountable. Yeah, yeah.

I'm thinking more for snow removal, so the city can plow that. Because that's something that sometimes gets forgotten about in these projects. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so that's all I got. Thanks to everybody else who's done such a great job.

So that's the end of the sign-up questions or comments, but do you have another – You can work it out.

Mr. Grant, you're much more entertaining.

I was a little hoodwinked over that because I asked him. But Robert Grant Sr., citizen of Ellsworth, it's only my opinion. I want everybody to know that. I asked the question about is the taxpayer dollars involved in this, and the correct answer was no. But in the ultimate project, what is the cost going to be? You've got to start somewhere to find out what is the cost going to be to the taxpayers. Any ideas?

Can I mention the BUILD grant, though?

There's a large federal grant called the BUILD grant that is zero match money, and it does exist for infrastructure projects like this. We don't know that we would be granted it, but in that case, the BUILD grant would could potentially do maybe not all of it because it is focused more on infrastructure, but it could do the critical pieces of this with no match for the city.

This is the way I feel, my own opinion. At this point, traffic flows, stormwater might need some improvement. I understand that. I didn't agree with everything that was said there either, but before we vote on this, are we gonna get another chance to say no?

First of all, council is the deciders for any of this. Absolutely. And Maine DOT.

I'm ready for it.

Even if council said yes, Maine DOT ultimately decides what have to.

And Mr. Grant, I just want to apologize for the confusion about the cost of this particular planning study versus the cost of what the proposals are. Right. I'm sorry about that.

I hear that loud and clear.

Steve, Mr. O'Halloran, you're up.

I have to pay $20 at every meeting not to wear a tie, but this meeting doesn't count. Excuse me? For those of you that don't know me, I'm Steve O'Halloran and I'm very critical about the costs that go on in the city of Ellsworth. And I'd like to pick on some of the comments here. I think we've already picked on Sarah enough. However, to say it costs the city nothing for this meeting is a great example of one of my aggravations with Secret City Hall. I'm looking at at least four employees that are getting paid to be here. We're in this building. That's a cost of this meeting. How many hours has the city spent on this? That's a cost in the city. This nice lady stood up and said, we've had enough. I think I've had enough before a lot of people in this room have had enough. And I just want to be clear that that's one of my aggravations about City Hall. They think it costs nothing to run this building. They think it costs nothing to fill this building. And I'm sorry, but it costs money to be here today. All of us have an opportunity cost to be here to see what's going to happen to this city. Therefore, I just need to drive the point home that if you people are all working for free today, then maybe we could have this conversation. Otherwise, it's costing the city money.

I would just point out that Twyla and I are salaried employees. We would be here until 6 o'clock this evening, regardless if this meeting was happening or not. This building would be open until 6 o'clock, whether this meeting was happening or not. So I just would like to point that out, that we are not being paid extra to be here. We do not get overtime. The building would be open regardless of this meeting.

I would like to respond to that.

I'm not quite finished with my answer, though. Just one second. There certainly is staff time associated with the monthly meeting that we have. I think it's one hour a month. that Twyla attends. I do not attend those meetings. I can't calculate opportunity costs for the folks in the room. I respect that. I respect that everyone has taken time out of their busy schedules on a beautiful Thursday. You know, I wish it was Thursday. Tuesday night, I'm away, you know, I'm going to be here late working, summarizing this to be away from my family. So I certainly appreciate that. So we can calculate the staff costs associated with this if you would like. I'm happy to do that.

I'd just like to say that, yes, salaried people are going to be paid. That's all true. But what else could you be doing for the city of Ellsworth?

Absolutely true. And this was a priority set forth by a prior council that we are just trying to move forward with. So that was the direction we were given. But happy to get that information about salary costs associated with this project.

Just two questions. One of them has already been touched on by Ms. Gasper. You're going to put this greenery in. It's going to look beautiful for about a year, two years. It's going to get choked to death by it. pollution. The grass is nice. It's going to be lovely. It's going to catch all those Dunkin' Donuts cups that are blowing down the high street there. So that does serve a purpose. But that's a legitimate question. Who is going to maintain all this greenery? That's a huge amount of work to maintain that. Otherwise, it's going to be dead. Like she said, it's going to be dead in a year. Is the city going to pay to maintain that? Or is the recreational department going to maintain it? Is the highway department going to maintain it? That's a huge expense. Especially if we have to go back and keep replacing it like they had to do. The other question, and I didn't catch this or I didn't see it clarified, the crosswalks. I know there's one in front of Merrill's, right? Is there going to be one in front of Beals Avenue that goes to the multi-use or whatever?

There was one recommended. Just so you might need to jump in or we can go back in the slides. No, that's fine.

And then there's one.

That's it.

Isn't there one by McDonald's, too? Oh, yes, sir, yes. Here's the thing, and that's great. People need to create, we need to get across that. I wish they put an elevated walkway somewhere. I work by the high school, and occasionally we have to park over behind Mill Mall when they're doing work on the facilities. When you hit that button, to give pedestrians time to get across the street, I don't know, it was 20, 30 seconds maybe, something like that, you would not believe how quickly traffic piles up in 30 seconds. I mean, it's just, as far as you can see either way, while that light is on, that flashing light is on. So now you're going to take three crosswalks. I assume they're going to have buttons on them, right? And you're going to have to retime the lights, obviously, to put them all in there. So you're going to have people pushing these buttons, not a lot of people, but some people. So all that traffic and all those traffic lights, that's going to pile up too. This is going to slow traffic going down High Street. Other than that, I'm happy with the project, especially since we saved that lane. But it's something to look at because that is going to slow down traffic on High Street big time.

Thanks. I think both Tiffany and Ralph's point about maintenance cost is something that would certainly have to be incorporated in any future phasing of this project, developing a robust five, ten-year maintenance plan to see what that would actually cost. and if it is doable with our current infrastructure plans with either crew, the parks and rec crew or the highway crew. And as far as the signal timing, that would have to be definitely modeled severely both for winter traffic and summer traffic to see what that queue would do and what that timing was, because it's also a really large distance for pedestrians to get across. If you're in a mobility device or if you have children or anything like that, it takes longer, so that would have to be modeled in any subsequent phase of this project. But I don't think we would be proposing any sort of implementation or request for funding without having a maintenance plan, knowing what our costs would be in projecting that out into the future. Anyone else?

You mentioned that build grant. Yeah. I just looked that up. That only covers 80%, unless you're, again, a little bit more, probably 90% of your, I guess, impoverished area. I don't know what that is. So you just said it would be covered completely.

The staff time, just like we did for the SS4A grant, can cover the rest of that.

But not for staff. I mean, we were just talking about when he asked that question, it was about, okay, well, it covers the cost of, et cetera, and then he said you could apply for this build grant, and if you did that, it would cover costs additionally for this project. So, again, we really are... We couldn't do this without any grants. So it's like, all we're doing is just, once again, grant after grant after grant. And this has been discussed now for months about grants, that we're just too heavy into them. And every grant does have a cost associated with it for 90% of the grants. So I guess that's what people here are probably, not to speak for everybody, but I guess we're saying, okay, is there going to be a cost at the end of the day of this if this goes forward? And we know now with the current council that it will be a yes because that's what it is with everything that costs money for the city. So, you know, I mean, probably I would say a good fair amount from looking on Facebook that most people don't want this because they know it's going to cost us more money that we don't have and then that's going to, then shoot up taxes again because we're going to be budgeting for another project, much like Mayor Wayne, unfortunately. But, I mean, I don't know. There's always costs. Russ White.

so I don't live anywhere near what's going on. However, as a state representative, I have gotten multiple, multiple emails and texts regarding this. And I think, again, I was pleased with the changes that they made. I thought it looked fantastic. Much like Rob, I'm not sure about the wastewater and how all that works, but I'm not an engineer, and I would trust that they know what's going on. My big concern is going to be the cost to the city of Ellsworth for the project itself. And people are exhausted. They can't. We've got people that are worried about losing their property that they've lived in for 50, 60 years because of the elevated property taxes. And projects like this are going to cause the property taxes to go up again. And Tiffany brings up a good point about city council voting for it. Is this something that's going to be decided prior to the general election in November, or is this something that's going to happen down the road quite a ways?

Down the road quite a ways.

That's one of the things I want to make sure that people are thinking about when they're electing new city council members, that you want to be looking for people that are fiscally responsible. and it's not to bash anybody or anything like that, but we have not as a community been fiscally responsible for a very, very long time. Again, I'm hoping that the state becomes fiscally responsible too and sets an example, perhaps reapplies the law that they used to have about municipalities budgets being able to only go up a certain percentage every year. And I know that puts a strain on a municipality to say, oh, we were able to spend, and now we can't. I get that. But we can't just continue to say we're going to spend everybody else's money and not worry about what it is that we're doing. It's got to get reeled in at some point in time, and I'm hoping that this election is one of the markers that will start that. Thank you.

I guess.

You're going to come up here, though. I'm sorry. I don't make those rules.

I don't make those rules.

If I had a cordless one. Oh, I know. I know.

Okay, Robert C. Grancini. Anybody?

I guess you all know me by now.

I just want to say, I'm going to turn this way, because I just want to say I appreciate all the city staff and all the hard work that you do for my heart. I really do. All of you. And the only thing that I want to come clear on all these meetings is the end absolute cost to the taxpayers. I appreciate everything you've tried and had to do this and that and get these grants and stuff. I appreciate that. I really do. I mean, you don't know how much I appreciate it. It's just the cost. The final cost is my only fee. Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

I have. I have an answer to a question that's been being asked. At the meeting in April about this, I asked that question, what is the total end cost to Ellsworth for this project? And of course, it's a different, little different project now. But at that time, the answer was $3.2 million. To Ellsworth? To Ellsworth. That would be Ellsworth's share. you know, because we know that the planning part is being paid for by grants, but all these other expenses at that time, it was the city manager who said it was going to be $3.2 million to Ellsworth.

I don't think we would ever, I mean, I can't speak for the city manager, but I would never feel comfortable getting behind something that I was asking to pay that amount from taxpayer dollars for. I mean, part of Part of this work, and again, this particular grant was written before any of our time. I don't know what any of you would do if you came into a job where you were handed a federal project that you had to be responsible for. We're trying to make sure we check the boxes and keep the city in line with what was applied for before our time. We weren't going, you know, I didn't go after this grant. I was handed it. But the thing is, we can choose, based on the information we received, to keep building on it responsibly in a way that requires a very small match for future projects. So, yes, it's still taxpayer money, but much less than, so it's not going to be $3.2 million. We would find grants that would make it. much, much less. Again, we could decide based on what everyone is saying and what City Council decides and what Maine DOT decides that none of this is good for now. Maybe it's good for never. But again, this was handed to those of us who are here. We're doing the best to fulfill the grant obligations and take the information that comes out of that and decide if it goes away, if we keep some of it, and that's all. No one's trying to beat a dead horse or say this is a big agenda we have. We're trying to be responsible with what was handed to us.

Well, I've got to interject here, and I'm not going over there. My concern is you've said this isn't going to cost us anything. Well, we all know that. My concern is not what it's going to cost us taxpayers this year or next year or three years from now, but five years from now, 10 years from now, 15 years from now. This city keeps saying, we want more, we want more, we want more. We don't have any more. So when we have to give our money to this city to watch it fall on deaf ears when we come here, That means we're taking money from something else in our lives to give to this council to squander. And we've had enough. We have all had enough. We have to live within a budget. You people up there have to live within a budget. And we have no qualms about that. All right? This is beautiful. I love all the greenery. But all I see is this is greenery that's going to benefit the liberal protesters that stand along that route. They're going to have a wonderful place to stand the next time they're out there protesting something. It does nothing for the city. Nothing. You know, if you want crosswalks, I agree. You know, I go through Ellsworth almost every day. And I do see one or two people walking. And if those one or two people need crosswalks, buy a few gallons of paint. Now, I understand you're going to have to pay a new tax on that gallon of paint, thanks to Augusta. But it's a few gallons of paint. Pay some of our guys to go and paint the crosswalks. Done. We don't have to redo the entire high street for crosswalks. OK? I live on a road that is unpaved. And you're talking about doing all this? How about paving my road so that it's passable? That would be really nice. We've had enough. We're tapped out. Everybody keeps saying the same thing. I see it like you guys do on social media all the time. Look, I bought my property here when I moved off the island because I had enough of that down on the island. And now it's happening again. Every five years, I pay this city the same amount I brought my property for. So every five years, I'm buying that property again. I can't do that. I could afford to buy it once, and I pay cash. I can't afford to pay cash every five years for the same piece of property. So you are literally driving me out of the city. Now, maybe that's the goal. Maybe that's the plan. If so, come out and say it. But I think there are other people in this room and in this town who are also being priced out of here because this council can't say no.

And I would say that goes back to her comment of trusting who we have in office. Exactly. And I don't feel very many people trust anybody on council. And yes, we do appreciate work. It's nothing personal by any means. It's the fact that we know when we hear our neighbors talk about it. And to say that you don't think that we would be on the hook for millions of dollars, well, surprise, we are with the courthouse road. It's a county use road. for a county's building. The Ellsworth residents are on the hook for that. We shouldn't be. So we don't trust you when you say that. And I guess that's probably why people that were able to be here today who aren't working to pay their huge tax bill are here.

Can I ask just a question, a clarifying question?

When you say you don't trust you, do you mean trust staff that's just doing the work or trust the council? Okay. Because there's, I just wanted to clarify.

Oh, sorry. I would say it's, you can answer because you said it too, but I would say sometimes maybe both at this point. Okay.

I would say the city. city to have the taxpayers' best interest at heart. I mean, I'm here. I should be home with my leg elevated on a nice oxycodone book. Because I finally got my knee operated on. And you guys have seen me living in here with a brace on for the last year. But no, I have to be here because I'm fighting for my property now. You keep asking more. There is no more. I can't go to Social Security and say, well, they jacked up my taxes another 25%, so I want 25% more from you. It doesn't work that way. That means some other part of my life has to be cut so that this city can do this stuff. And it's insane. It's insane. What's going to happen is you're going to reach a breaking point, and then the city is going to start to die. And I don't want to see that happen. I didn't work my whole life down on the island to be pushed off of that to come here and be pushed out of here. I don't want to see it happen. And I don't think a lot of other people want to see it happen either.

I do. I mean, he has an excuse not to come up to the microphone. So, a reason. And I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. You're right. A reason.

Robert, was you all done? Robert Grant Sr. One of the, anybody tired of hearing that? So, one of the things that my biggest complaint about all these things that happen at City Hall is there's figures that are thrown out And I'm talking to the city manager and everybody. There's figures that you present these projects with, like the courthouse. I know it doesn't have anything to do with this, but like the courthouse, the city was going to build it. It was going to be $700, $750, $150,000. Does anybody have that figure in their head right now, what it's going to cost us taxpayers right now, today? What do you think it's going to be, Charlie? The total figure for the tax base.

I wouldn't say it publicly because we're in the middle of a bid process, and I do not want to compromise that bid process.

Right. A little bit more than $750,000. A little north of that. With all the easements. Yeah.

We have all the easements and everything.

Yeah, but you have to pay for them.

They've already been paid for. I won't speak to your point on the under-negotiation, but there are public documents on the internal price estimate, and there was an external price estimate that we received and talked about that's significantly higher.

But what I'm saying is that taxpayers, me personally, if you've got a project that you're promoting, I want to know the cost before you go any further with that. You can't do it. You can't go build a $10 million house and you don't have money to pay for it, Charlie. You can't do it. We can't do it either, the taxpayers. You've got to have a firm price, a real price, before you put it out there to people to vote on or the councilors. It's not fair to them either, by the way. And I want to see that road built for $750,000. That's what I'm waiting for. When it happens, you let me know.

any other questions comments on this project so Charlie can kind of go over next steps yeah well thank you all for the feedback sorry I couldn't I was watching upstairs for a bit and I had a double schedule in a meeting but really appreciate the feedback both on this conversation but also the previous ones for everybody putting impact I know Thank you to the team as well who really worked to incorporate as much of that from the last round that we had as possible into the latest iteration that Stantec has provided. The next steps is we're going to bring this back to the city council, the consolidated feedback to get their guidance. We wanted to make sure that we had a lot of citizen feedback on the project first and to really kind of Talk to them about next steps, obviously with Maine DOT as well as their partner. There's also the Village Partnership Initiative, which is another initiative that the city entered into on more of the downtown Bridge Hill corridor that's under discussion and potential planning. And I think really depending on how the council views this feedback and the latest iterations of these plans in addition to maybe an update in the Village Partnership Initiative planning, on how they'd like us to proceed, and then moving forward to main DOT, obviously these are mostly their roads, and they'd have to have a fair amount of buy-in and feedback on what they would like to do, so we could decide if the city would like to proceed forward with, I know you've mentioned, Twyla, a build grant, one of the larger federal grant initiatives, which would get out to more of the point on how much federal funding would be required, state funding would be required, City match I know in the village partnership initiative it's like a nine to one is what they've noted I think it's eight. So if it was a $10 million project, it would be 8 million in federal 1 million in state 1 million in city, I think, for any initiative of this size, both for this one and the village partnership on the other area. It would be my inclination that this would have to go to referendum in order to move forward. This is, you know, while the city council may have the purview to move it forward, I think considering a lot of the feedback tonight on cost and spending and council, having what information they need and more citizen engagement on these pieces, that this would definitely be one of almost certain that this is an allowable item to put to referendum. It would be a pretty big initiative for the city. So I'd want to make sure that the voters had a chance to weigh in. on this process and not necessarily just the folks that could be at this meeting or couldn't be at this meeting or the council members that have had their information but that would be my druthers would be that that's kind of how I see this playing out as a few next steps so that a lot more input and a lot more engagement meetings even before That would happen. Sure, the council could choose to say, nope, we'd like to move forward as quickly as possible with this plan. I doubt that. I think that they'd be, you know, I shouldn't say that. We haven't really had extensive discussions with council besides general workshop updates with them. So until we have a much more robust discussion, I don't think I can really say anything. They might say, you know what, we've got a lot of projects on hand right now. The financial piece is the one that's the most important, and we need to focus on that before we start looking at these other ones. So I think that's also on the table as well. And that's it for me.

All right. Well, thank you all for coming out. Yes, thank you. And the slides will be posted on our city website probably in the next day or so. So you can check them out there. And feel free to reach out with any questions.

Good to see you.