THE CASCO VILLAGE LIBRARY entrance has been improved and the parking lot has been paved. The job of striping the lot started this week. (De Busk Photo)

By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

CASCO — A highly visible road in Casco Village that leads to a popular beach and two boat launches will get its “day in the sun.”

Mayberry Hill Road, which provides public and private access to both Pleasant Lake and Parker Pond, will be paved this summer.

It has been a number of years since Mayberry Hill Road was scheduled for an upgrade.

The Casco Board of Selectmen awarded the paving job to Glidden Excavating and Paving, Inc.

The bid price for Mayberry Hill Road is $97,000.

Also, the board awarded a second bid to Glidden; $21,750 is the price to pave Hillside Avenue.

Hillside Avenue is the road that runs somewhat parallel to Route 302 near Tenney Hill Road and the redundant Crooked River Bridge, which was removed last summer.

The board voted “to proceed with paving of Hillside Avenue at $21,750, and to confirm that $97,200 is the accurate price for Mayberry Hill Road. The vote was unanimous, 4-0. Selectman Grant Plummer was absent.

One reason behind the board double-checking on the price for Mayberry Hill Road is that “apparently we thought it was 2.3 and it is 2.8 miles,” according to Chairman Holly Hancock.

Also, the board wanted to make certain the shim coat was included.

The selectmen were faced with a choice of which roads to pave and which roads to put off until the future.

The amount of money earmarked for paving “will allow us to do Hillside. There’s not enough money to do New Road and Glenn Drive,” Hancock said.

Selectman Mary-Vienessa Fernandes talked to the road commissioner about a possible order of importance of these roads prior to making her decision.

“I asked [Casco Town Manager] Dave [Morton] what he would propose. He said Mayberry Hill hasn’t been done for a while,” Fernandes said.

Hancock provided more information about Hillside Avenue.

“Hillside is the one we didn’t put a top coat on,” she said.

Glidden is a business with which the Town of Casco is acquainted.

“We have done work with Glidden. They did Libby Road and the back of the library lot,” Fernandes said.

“With these RFPs keep in mind asphalt prices have gone up $2 a ton since May so there is no guarantee they won’t continue to increase,” Fernandes said. “He will honor these prices for 30 days.”

Hancock said, “It’s my understanding that this price is for the additional shim.”

The parking lot for the Casco Village Library will be striped about midweek or a week and a half before Casco Days, according to town officials.

The paving of the library parking lot was finished in June. It provides four front-row handicapped parking spots that in the future will be surrounded by concrete planters.

The planters are being put in as a way to slow down the vehicles driving behind the Casco Community Center and the library, according to Hancock.

“We have four concrete planters. Right now, we are redirecting the traffic with cones. There will be ADA-complaint parking signs with concrete planters to designate those parking spaces,” Hancock said.

“There are signs that say ‘Yield’ to oncoming traffic. It is one lane [so] we are trying to slow people down. It has been a speedway. By diverting traffic, people will slow down,” she said.

Also, the library now has a new entrance with sidewalks and hand railings so the area is in line with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

“People are very thrilled with the handicapped ramp. That was definitely a nice addition to the library access,” Librarian Michelle Brenner said.

The library parking lot was torn apart so that a septic system replacement could be done. The old septic system served the library, the town-owned building leased by a private business (All the Raven Salon & Cottage Antiques) and the Casco Community Center. Also, as part of the upgrade, a septic drain field, also called a leach field, was put in.

One advantage to this project: It was paid for using some of the Tenney Hill waste oil facility settlement money from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

In most cases, tax dollars are used for a town’s infrastructure improvements.

In the town of Casco, there is leftover roads bond money — and that is being applied to a few road overhauls on tap.

Ditch work has already begun on Tenney Hill Road.

This spring, R.N. Willey & Son Excavating was awarded the contract to repair Tenney Hill and Cooks Mill roads.

Work will start on Tenney Hill Road first, and only portions of that road will be reclaimed. By contrast, Cooks Mill Road construction will start later in the summer and the entire stretch from Route 11 to the Naples boundary will be improved, reclaimed and repaved.