WINDHAM – With the state struggling to fund major road projects,

the town may have to decide between its two proposals: a new

intersection along busy Route 302 and the long-awaited River Road

reconstruction.

WINDHAM – With the state struggling with lower tax revenue, and roads continuing to crumble, the town of Windham’s request for two road projects is resulting in a sort of bind for the town.

Should it keep pushing for the reconfiguration of the Anglers Road/Route 302 intersection, or should it focus on seeking full funding of River Road reconstruction? It’s a debate town leaders will have to decide soon since funding decisions for the next two years are taking place now in Augusta.

In a letter sent to Windham Town Manager Tony Plante, Kat Beaudoin, chief of the state Bureau of Transportation Systems Planning, said the reconfiguring of the intersection at Route 302, Anglers Road and Whites Bridge Road would be competing for the same state dollars as the River Road project. Beaudoin said the town may want to indicate which project it deems more important. Doing so, she said, would help decision makers in Augusta decide how to proceed regarding Windham’s two projects, and it may help bolster the chances of the preferred project being approved.

The letter was a response to the town’s request this summer asking what else it could do to promote the projects.

“With regard to additional steps Windham could take to increase the likelihood of it receiving funding, Windham could clarify to Maine DOT whether construction of this intersection or construction of Windham River Road is a higher priority as both these candidates will essentially compete for the same scarce resources,” Beaudoin wrote. “Therefore, if Windham either contributed financially to this project directly or created a Tax Increment Financing District that would contribute funding to transportation improvements, it would increase the Route 302/Anglers Road intersection’s likelihood for funding.”

At the council meeting last week, Plante took exception to several facets of Beaudoin’s letter, saying the town shouldn’t be forced to prioritize one project over another since both projects are important to the area. He also said Windham shouldn’t have to contribute local money, since the projects benefit more than just Windham residents and that traditionally, federal and state dollars are used for non-local roads. And Plante also indicated that a town should be able to pose more than one project per funding cycle.

Anglers Road project history

In an interview this week, Windham’s economic development director, Tom Bartell, said the town purchased 10 acres at the Anglers Road intersection last December for $475,000 in part to increase the likelihood of the intersection realignment project. The realignment would increase safety at the intersection and reduce wait times, thereby reducing a major clog in the Route 302 corridor.

The project, Bartell said, would create a T-intersection and extend the two merging lanes 700 feet north of the intersection. The project has been discussed for years and was dropped in 2006 when the state discovered Anglers Road was a private road and that it wouldn’t qualify for federal funding. With most road projects funded 80 percent by federal highway funds and 20 percent by state highway funds, the town purchased the property partly to erase the private road obstacle. Plans have already been drawn up creating a bisecting intersection, the two local road associations have given their blessing for the overhaul, and a business park has been planned as well for the site.

So, with all the planning and money the town has invested at the Anglers Road intersection, Beaudoin’s letter asking the town to prioritize projects – River Road or Route 302/Anglers Road – is frustrating to local officials.

“I’m concerned with the message this is sending,” Plante said on Monday. “Will projects go to the highest bidder? That is fundamentally wrong.”

Plante said Windham taxpayers shouldn’t have to bear the brunt of fixing state roads. He acknowledges that River Road is a pressing need, but he also believes Anglers Road is a worthy project and hesitates to rank them in importance, believing the state should complete both projects, especially since both projects have been in the pipeline for many years.

“I understand the position the state transportation department is in, to meet as many needs as they can. But we have an obligation to advance both projects,” Plante said.

Plante, who’s a member of the 20-member Public Advisory Committee working with the state DOT to design River Road’s reconstruction, may be reluctant to rank the two local projects in hopes that the state will fund both, but others in town are willing to put the Anglers Road project in jeopardy if it means River Road will get approval.

Former Councilor Donna Chapman, past council candidate Patrick Corey and River Road resident Cheryl Page, a longtime advocate of the River Road project, distributed fliers last weekend informing River Road and area residents that the town is being asked to rank the projects. The activists want the town to send a clear message that if the town has to choose, River Road would be the preferred project.

“We want to make River Road the top priority, no ifs, ands or buts,” Chapman said. “Tony and the Town Council are the leaders of this town and they don’t want to prioritize one over the other. That’s not up to the town manager to decide. So, we’re trying to get people out to the Dec. 14 council meeting to tell the council to step up and lead this town. We’ve got to get the whole town behind River Road.”

State Sen. Bill Diamond of Windham, who has lobbied for the River Road project at the state level for years, understands the predicament town leadership is in and believes both projects are worthy of funding, though River Road has to take precedence, he says.

“Both are important. But when you compare the impact for the area, River Road has to have top priority,” Diamond said. “I hope we as a town are not saying to DOT that we consider these projects of equal priority. That would be a mistake, pragmatically and politically. Obviously River Road is of serious concern, and we need to be careful we don’t create an impression that undersells the River Road project.”

Diamond, no stranger to the inner workings of Augusta politics, added, “It’s only a game if we let them play it. We only allow them to play it by giving the message that these two projects are of equal concern.”

State weighs in

When contacted for comment, Martin Rooney, the state’s transportation planner and part of the team that decides which state road projects get funded, said the practice of asking local towns to contribute funds to state road projects isn’t a new one. While the local share doesn’t usually exceed 10 percent, municipalities have contributed in the past as a way to get the state to approve a project more readily, he said. In fact, Yarmouth recently paid 100 percent of the cost to repave its section of Route 88.

“It’s not so much of a trend,” Rooney said of municipalities being asked to contribute to road improvement projects. “Earlier this decade we had seven to 10 times the highway funds we do now. But the cost of projects has gone up. Nobody is denying that the River Road is a need. Nobody is denying that Anglers Road/Route 302 is a need. Obviously there’s a large amount of people telling us about their importance. But Windham asked us what they can do to increase the likelihood of funding. That’s when we suggested what we suggested. But by no means was that a requirement.”

While he acknowledges the safety hazards of the merge north of the Anglers Road intersection with Route 302 (in front of Allied Real Estate’s building) Rooney said he considers Anglers Road more of an economic development project due to the town’s purchase of property to build a business park at the intersection.

“As such, it makes more sense for local contribution” for that project, he said. “But both of these are very legitimate needs subject to available funds. And we’d like nothing more than to fund them both.”

Rooney said the funding decision for the next biennium will take place in early 2011. The governor’s office makes its budget requests to the Legislature, which has the final say in how much funding is designated for road projects.

Once it gets the total allocation, the transportation department then uses a formula based on crash rates and other factors, such as whether local funds are contributed, to determine which projects get the go-ahead.

The state has said funding may only be available for one of two major road projects proposed by the town of Windham, one that would reconstruct an intersection on Route 302 and one that would reconstruct River Road, above.