Council OKs paving bids

By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    HOULTON — Town roads may soon get a facelift after the Houlton Town Council approved a street paving package at Monday night’s council meeting.
    The council unanimously approved a low bid of $85.95 per ton for asphalt street paving from Steelstone Industries.
    “The next step is deciding which roads need work,” Town Manager Doug Hazlett said. “We are in the process of inventorying all of our roads and that data will be taken to our Roads 2000 committee. That group will then make a recommendation on which roads and sidewalks need work.”
    Hazlett said unlike other towns in the area that saw significant damage to roads as a result of heavy rain storms this past winter, Houlton’s roads actually weathered the storm fairly well, with the exception of one road.
    “I’m a little disappointed with what’s happening on North Street,” Hazlett said. “It’s showing more wear and tear than it should be, but it’s not anything terrible. We have most of the potholes that opened up pretty much patched. We didn’t have any severe damage as a result of the winter.”
    The council also awarded two bids for striping roads in the town. Jordan’s Striping of Westfield was awarded a bid of $7,808 for hand-placed pavement markings; while Fine Line Pavement Striping of Hermon was awarded $7,618 for machine-placed markings.
    Hazlett said the line painting would not begin until the end of May or first of June, depending on the weather.
    In other agenda items, the council:
    • Signed a proclamation recognizing May as Health Services Foundation Mammography Month.
    • Renewed taxi licenses for Lawrence Clark, doing business as Houlton Cab Incorporated and Leigh Dow, doing business as Dow’s Taxi. Both businesses operate two taxis in the town.
    • Respectively appointed Hazlett and Walter Goodrich as the municipal representative and alternate for the Northern Maine Development Commission.
    • Approved a bid of $1.72 per gallon to Maine Potato Growers for liquid calcium chloride. Hazlett said the bid was up slightly from last year’s figure of $1.69 per gallon. The mixture is used to keep dust down on dirt roads in the town.
    The next regular council meeting will be Monday, May 9 at 6:30 p.m. in the council chambers.