By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

CASCO — For several weeks during the month of August, a digital speed limit sign was placed where many area residents were likely to see it.

The digital sign was set up near Leach Hill Road, which is where the Casco-Naples Transfer Station and Bulky Waste Facility is located.

Although it was located within the Casco town boundary lines, the sign is actually the property of the Maine State Police.

According to Casco Town Manager, the sign was place there after two or three property owners, who live off Cooks Mills Road, complained that drivers were exceeding the speed limit, making it difficult to turn onto Route 11 from Cooks Mills Road.

While the digital sign on Route 11 is owned by the State Troopers, the Town of Casco does have its own digital speed limit board, Morton said.

Residents should not worry that the sign will be sprung on them because it will not be “up and running” until sometime next spring.

“We received one from the state, and we ordered a trailer,” Morton said.

“We do request them periodically. We have had them” supplied by the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office and by the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT), he said.

“Now, we’ve acquired one,” he said.

The MDOT offered a grant program; and one of the requirements to receive the digital board was for someone to attend a training, he said. That was completed, and the sign was delivered to the town.

However, a trailer is required to move the digital sign from place to place, Morton said.

“We ordered the trailer. So, we will have our own digital board. “It won’t be fully-operational until the spring time,” he said.

The apparatus will provide the town with information such as the number of vehicles that travel on the road and the speeds of those vehicles, Morton said.

Most likely, the digital board will be set up “in our village areas,” such as Casco Village and Webbs Mills Village, he said.

“It will be moved around. It is a mobile unit,” Morton said.

“A day or two after the speed sign” is set up, there will be a law enforcement presence in the same locale to write speeding tickets for offenders, he said.