Staff Writer
HOULTON — The expansion of North Road’s water and sewer service was raised recently during last week’s regular Town Council session. Councilor Walter Goodrich opened a discussion during councilor’s remarks saying the town needed to address the issue in the near future.
“I’ve brought this up before and I just keep getting pressure on it — the sewer and water on North Street is just strangling the town as far development and it’s probably something that should have been done 30 years ago,” he commented. “I know it’s a difficult thing but I just think it’s something we need to be aggressive on. The possibility of development and revenue in the future is tremendous on that area and that’s where the town is going to grow and it can’t right now.”
Council Chair Paul Cleary told Goodrich, and fellow councilors, that the town manager was discussing doing a workshop on where the town will be in five years as far as development goes. Cleary said the North Street expansion is one of the issues that needs to be addressed during those meetings.
“We do have a TIF program that will help with that,” Cleary said.
Hazlett said there are TIF development costs included in the 2008 budget.
“Part of that is in reserve accounts for infrastructure improvements,” said Hazlett. “That is an excellent time to discuss when it might become a reality.”
