VAN BUREN, Maine — Loring Job Corps students will help design and build new improvements to Van Buren’s Main Street Park, which is situated at the intersection of Main Street and Bridge Street and has hosted the town’s recent “Music on Main” concert series.
Town Council on Wednesday night voted to spend up to $20,000 out of a TIF, or tax-increment financing, fund for the project.
TIF financing lets towns capture taxes on a property and use them for public or private development projects.
Town Manager Luke Dyer said the town was planning to fund building a pocket park after buildings in that area were torn down, but that this did not end up happening at the time.
“The [$20,000 budget] is consistent with what the TIF allows for us, and it will let them create an amazing downtown park for us.”
Dyer said the park will include picnic tables and areas where guests can have their own fire pits. This decision will reflect the trends he has seen at previous “Music on Main” events.
“People are sitting at picnic tables, having conversations with each other, and the music is in the background,” he said.
The renovated park will be more of a community gathering center, and include space for food trucks.
“I want us to be able to light the area, and I want us to be able to do other things down there,” Dyer said. “I want people to be able to get down there during the day if they just want to sit and have a sandwich.”
Councilors voted unanimously in favor of giving the project to Job Corps, saying that the area currently looks like an empty lot.
Dyer said that parking could be allowed in the area during Christmas in July — Van Buren’s largest annual event — but it could be otherwise closed off to parking so people could socialize in the area without vehicles driving in.
The status of Job Corps in Maine is currently unclear. The Trump administration earlier this year made an effort to close the program, although a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction barring this effort.
“You all know the status of Job Corps,” Dyer said after council approved the funding, “and this is an opportunity for them to really shine and show what they’re capable of and what they’re learning.”
