With up to a $500,000 matching grant available, town officials and the town’s engineer see this grant as an excellent opportunity to help move the project forward. The rotting timbers used to hold the wharf present a safety issue at the popular facility used by area residents and tourists for fishing, picnicking, swimming and boat launching, according to Greenville Town Manager John Simko.

Constructed of untreated timber in 1987-88, the wharf has deteriorated.

Several options for the replacement have been proposed by the town’s engineer, A.E. Hodsdon of Waterville, ranging in cost from $231,750 to $1.5 million.

Selectmen on Wednesday directed the engineer to come up with three different levels of funding and the amount of work each level would fund for presentation at a public hearing at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 16, in the town office. It is expected residents will be asked if they would prefer to borrow $150,000, $250,000 or $331,000 for the project.

As for the local match required by the grant, the town has a congressional earmark for the wharf project of $121,000 and the town expects to receive an $8,000 canopy grant submitted by Ken Woodbury of the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council. Planned work by the Department of Conservation on the boat launch also could be applied. In addition, town officials plan to seek a commitment from Piscataquis County commissioners through the UT budget and would like to bond the remaining amount, depending upon the scope of the project identified by residents at the public hearing.

A special town meeting on bonding for the project would be held May 7.

"Whatever we do, we want it to be done to last," Al Hodsdon told selectmen Wednesday. The options he presented represent 50-year solutions, he said.
"This content originally appeared as a copyrighted article in the Sunday, April 06, 2008 edition of the Bangor Daily NEWS and is used here with permission."