Construction has begun in Mars Hill on a long-awaited nearly $400,000 storage shed for winter road salt and sand.
Work on the 2,900 cubic feet storage shed started Monday, June 19, and is expected to be complete by early September, just in time for winter, said Mars Hill town manager Dave Cyr.
“It’s a long time coming,” Cyr said of the project, at 15 West Ridge Road.
Mars Hill is one of the few remaining municipalities using open piles to store salt and sand for winter road clearing, Cyr said.
The Maine state government in 1986 started a program to help municipalities construct salt and sand storage facilities and phase out the practice of storing the materials uncovered, which can lead to salt runoff into local waterways.
Over the years, the towns with the worst runoff problems from salt and sand piles have created sheds, while Mars Hill is just now getting around to it because the pile was of moderate risk for runoff, Cyr said.
Still, the salt and sand pile did present a risk for runoff — located not far from the Prestile Stream — and the town council has wanted to build a shed for several years.
Last fall, Mars Hill voters approved the town’s plan to pay for the project through a loan from Maine’s Clean Drinking Water Revolving Loan Funds. (Last summer, the voters rejected a different, more expensive plan that would have built a new shed and a garage for the town highway department.)
The project’s total cost will come to more than $390,000, with the Maine Department of Transportation funding $176,792, and the town responsible for $215,000 through the state revolving loan. The loan will last 20 years at 1 percent interest.
Buck Construction won the bid for general contractor on the project, with James W. Sewall acting as project engineer and Soderberg Construction as the subcontractor for earthwork.
