FREEPORT – Freeport must pony up $62,500 as its share of paving work on a stretch of South Freeport Road that the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System would oversee and finance, town councilors learned at their meeting last week.

In the past, the state Department of Transportation assumed the cost of paving that section of the road, between U.S. Route 1 and Smelt Brook Road. The town has been using PACTS to arrange financing for the rest of the road – as well as some other state roads in town – for about 15 years, according to town engineer Al Presgraves.

While the state will be in charge of the bidding process, PACTS decides how much money to devote, which leads to better results, town officials say. Moreover, according to town officials, PACTS gets money to failing roads quicker than does the state.

The Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System, according to its website, is the federally mandated metropolitan planning organization for the Portland region. Its goal is to improve the coordination of transportation planning and investment decisions by state, municipalities and public transportation organizations.

Town Manager Peter Joseph, in Presgraves’ absence at the Feb. 4 meeting, advised the council of the change.

While some town officials point out that PACTS does a better job at paving roads than does the state, the Town Council did conduct a ceremonial vote on the matter. Councilors Sarah Tracy and Kristina Egan both cast no votes, essentially protesting the lack of choice.

“I agree that the quality of the product is improved,” Tracy said, “but I’m concerned that the town is on the hook for $62,000.”

PACTS is part of what is known as a Federal Urban Area. Presgraves said that, in the Federal Urban Area, communities have no choice between using PACTS or the state transportation department for road projects.

According to the state, a continuous urban area is designated by the U.S. Bureau of the Census as having a population of 50,000 or more. There are four urbanized areas in Maine:

• Bangor-Brewer Area Comprehensive Transportation Study, which includes Bangor, Brewer, parts of Hampden, Old Town, Orono and Veazie.

• Kittery Area Comprehensive Transportation Study, which includes parts of Berwick, Eliot, Lebanon, Kittery, and South Berwick (tied in with the Portsmouth, Dover and Rochester, N.H., areas).

• Lewiston-Auburn Area Comprehensive Transportation Study, now named Androscoggin Transportation Resource Center, which includes Auburn, Lewiston, Lisbon, and parts of Sabattus.

• Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation Study, which includes Freeport, Cape Elizabeth, Portland, South Portland, Westbrook, and parts of Biddeford, Cumberland, Falmouth, Gorham, North Yarmouth, Old Orchard Beach, Saco, Scarborough, Windham and Yarmouth.

Presgraves said that the state will inspect the road and put together a bid package for the stretch of South Freeport Road between Route 1 and Smelt Brook Road. The town’s share of the $250,000 job is $62,500, he said.

Presgraves said that the road was rebuilt in 2002, and is beginning to crack.

“If it’s not repaved soon, it will begin to deteriorate,” he said. “Then they’d have to grind it all up and start over.”

Presgraves said that PACTS has recently managed repaving projects on Route 1 and Mallett Drive. Several other roads in town are in the Federal Urban Area, but are currently maintained by the state, he said.

Joseph told councilors that he had spoken on Feb. 3 with PACTS officials.

“The road is already in moderately bad condition,” he said.

John Duncan, PACTS director, said that paving of a portion of the South Freeport Road, a “connector” road to Route 1, would take place sometime next year.

Duncan explained the line between maintenance, provided by municipalities, and capital improvements, provided by PACTS.

“Maintenance and capital improvements are sometimes different and sometimes synonymous,” he said. “Plowing and potholes are maintenance. A layer of asphalt can be maintenance, but fixing the road first, before laying the asphalt, can be capital improvement. The money that comes through PACTS is for capital improvement.

“We provide federal money for transportation studies. In terms of money to build things, the state sets aside $5 million a year for 18 PACTS towns.”

Duncan said that five years ago, PACTS created a new priority for much of its available money, that being the paving of so-called collector roads. A collector road collects local traffic to major roads such as Route 1, which in turn is a collector road to Interstate 295, he said.

“That’s a high priority for PACTS,” Duncan said. “We have 200 miles of collector roads. That’s a major resource, and we want to take care of them.”

Duncan said that PACTS determines where the $5 million will be spent, and informs the state of that decision. The deadline for communities to submit proposals – a submission that Freeport did on Feb. 4 – was Feb. 7, Duncan said. PACTS will make preliminary decisions on what projects will be funded in April, and make a final decision at the end of July, he said.

Route 1, Mallett Drive and a small portion of Flying Point Road also fall under the auspices of PACTS, Duncan said.