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Selectman: DOT said we had to pay ' a certain amount' for bridge replacement

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Clockwise from left, Selectmen Royce Heath, Paul Nadeau, Christine Torno and selectmen secretary Susan Collins. (Lebanon Voice photo)

LEBANON - A Lebanon selectman said on Monday that a Maine Department of Transportation engineer said at an August selectmen's meeting that the town would have to "pay a certain amount or percentage" for the New Bridge Road bridge replacement to go forward, despite the bridge being documented by the state as "state owned" and "state maintained."

"He said we had to pay a certain amount or percentage and that we could borrow it," Lebanon Selectman Paul Nadeau said Monday afternoon.

Nadeau said he didn't question why the town had to pay, because he believed Maine DOT engineer Jim Foster was stating a fact.

However, Maine DOT spokesman Ted Talbot said earlier this month that while a pledge of partial funding might improve the Lebanon-Milton bridge replacement project's chance of moving forward for the 2019-20 fiscal year, it wouldn't guarantee it.

Talbot sought to quantify the x-factor of the Lebanon funding option by stating that a pledge of partial funding might boost the chances of the project getting the go-ahead for 2019-20. Conversely, he said that if Lebanon doesn't pledge any money, the state might decide to go ahead with the project, anyway.

Meanwhile, New Hampshire DOT engineer Nancy Mayville, has confirmed to The Lebanon Voice the bridge project is moving forward on their end with replacement already set for FY 2019-20, which would mean sometime between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020.

The loss of the bridge, which was removed in 2012, has been a burden to local residents and businesses, causing one business, a Milton convenience store, to shutter its doors permanently.

The funding mechanism for bridges between Lebanon, Maine, and Milton, N.H., have historically been that Maine pays half, with New Hampshire's half being shared between Milton (20 percent) and New Hampshire (80 percent).

Selectmen Chair Christine Torno, who wasn't at the earlier meeting with Foster, said the board would schedule another meeting with Foster to try to clarify his department's position.

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