STANDISH – The Standish Town Council is funding a Steep Falls sidewalk project, even though voters have rejected bonding authority for the project twice this year.

With Councilor Wayne Newbegin opposed, the council voted 6-1 Tuesday to sign a $24,520 contract with a Gorham civil engineering firm, BH2M, for survey and civil engineering services relating to the Steep Falls project. The firm will write construction plans and cost estimates for the sidewalk, which will run from the Route 11 bridge along Main Street to Route 113. The council is scheduled to award a construction contract in mid-April.

“We’re going forward with this one,” said Councilor Lynn Olson.

At the Nov. 4 election, voters decisively rejected a question authorizing $76,800 in bond principal toward the sidewalk project. But Standish officials argued that the town has the budget authority to fund the project, as well as another proposed 1.3-mile sidewalk project in Standish Corner that has been turned down by voters at referendum four times in the last three years.

Town officials are concerned that a Community Development Block Grant for the Steep Falls project could potentially expire by the end of the fiscal year. If the grant expires and the town does not go through with the project, it will owe the state $65,000 for work building a sidewalk on the newly constructed Route 11 bridge in Steep Falls.

The Steep Falls sidewalk, as initially proposed, was designed to reach the Steep Falls Post Office, located about 1,500 feet east of the routes 11 and 113 intersection. But due to a reduction in grant funding, the sidewalk will only extend from the bridge to the intersection.

According to Town Manager Gordon Billington, the town will only need to contribute $51,500 in matching funds toward the project – considerably less than both the $76,800 sought at the Nov. 4 referendum. The town charter states that any proposed capital expenditure in excess of $75,000 must go to referendum.

“You can get no sidewalk for $65,000 or you can get a sidewalk for $51,500,” Billington said.

The council also soundly defeated two proposals put forward by Newbegin to terminate both sidewalk projects. While only Newbegin voted to terminate the Steep Falls project, council Chairman John Sargent joined Newbegin in voting to terminate the Standish Corner project.

“I figured they would be turned down anyway,” Newbegin said. “I was just trying to make a point that we ought to honor people’s vote. We didn’t.”

For Sargent, moving forward on the Steep Falls project is a win for taxpayers.

“I voted for Steep Falls because we would be saving the taxpayer of Standish $14,000,” he said.

According to Olson, the council has not yet decided how to proceed on the Standish Corner project.

“We’ll see what goes forward when all is said and done,” she said.