HOULTON, Maine — An Aroostook County contractor’s donation of excavation and paving prep work will bring relief to residents living in homes along a Houlton road that hasn’t been paved in decades.
Brown Construction offered to complete the work on Aurora Circle, a loop road at the top of the much larger Reservoir Hill Road, at no cost to the town.
Earlier this year, town councilors approved Brown Construction’s bid to complete the nearly $1 million remake of Reservoir Hill Road. And while their equipment is up there, they are going to remove all existing pavement, and do the prep work underneath Aurora Circle, said Houlton Town Manager Cameron Clark.
On Monday night, Clark told the Town Council that the owner of the private construction company approached the town about the Aurora Circle improvement opportunity.
“It would make sense to do that project in relation to the current project that’s going on. We just didn’t have the funding. But this opportunity does make it feasible,” Clark said. “I think it is a great opportunity.”
In what Clark calls a public-private partnership, the town will supply the gravel for the loop road and complete the final paving after Brown completes the preliminary work.
Town Council Chair Jane Torres added that Aurora Circle does need to be paved. And bringing trucks up to the road next year to pave Aurora Circle might damage the new Reservoir Hill Road construction, she said.
Brown Construction owner Jim Brown talked to town council members on Monday night about Aurora Circle.
“We’re trying to leverage a public-private partnership in order to get some streets fixed in this town,” he said. “I think it’s a good thing to go up there and finish up the project, next year it probably wouldn’t be as conducive for me to go up and do that. We’re already mobilized and working up there.”
Brown said that there will be some down time during the reconstruction project while the Houlton Water Co. installs new lines and that would be a good time to complete the Aurora Circle work.
“I don’t believe that area has been touched since the subdivision was put in for 40 years,” he said.
Similar to Aurora Circle, many of the town’s roadways are pocked with serious imperfections and the town has fallen behind on ongoing road maintenance with rising costs and no corresponding increase in the roads budget, according to Clark.
One of the more pressing roadways was Reservoir Hill Road that often floods during storms.
In May, a municipal referendum vote authorized Houlton officials to secure a $750,000 road reconstruction bond to help get the project off the ground this summer without raising town taxes.
On Tuesday, Brown Construction crews were on Reservoir Hill Road taking test samples in preparation for the project’s early July start, Clark said.
During the next town council meeting, the donation for Aurora Circle will need to be accepted by councilors.
