In light of rising costs to renovate its downtown sidewalks, the Brunswick Town Council unanimously passed a new ordinance to take on more bonds to fund the project.
The town council passed an ordinance last December to fund the renovation of the sidewalks on Maine Street, called the Downtown Streetscape Enhancement project, for $3.2 million. The project, which is four years in the making, looks to renovate the sidewalks from Mill and Mason streets to Pleasant and School streets, and to add planters, bike racks, benches and more. The project will also make the sidewalks more compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
But the town initially received zero bids for the project, because prices for labor and materials had increased, Brunswick Town Manager John Eldridge said during a Dec. 18 meeting. Construction labor and material costs increased 20 percent in 2022, according to Boulos, a Maine commercial real estate firm.
The town put the project back up for bid on Oct. 2 of this year, and received one $1.5 million more than the initial budget. To bring costs down by about $400,000, the town altered the contract by choosing to implement a number of planters, benches, bike racks and trash receptacles themselves. The town also received a grant from the Village Partnership Initiative through the Maine Department of Transportation for $500,000.
This still leaves $600,000 to be paid for by the town. At the Dec. 18 meeting, Eldridge suggested taking bonds instead of using the tax incentive funds that the town currently has, since Maine Street will eventually need more upgrades.
“I came here tonight with all intentions of voting no. I think it’s too costly,” District 1 Councilor David Watson said. “But the problem being is if we delay, it’s going to cost more.”
Sally Costello, Brunswick’s economic development director, said the town didn’t want to dip into any taxes, so taking on bonds and using the tax incentive funds is the best way to go about it.
“I think this was a very good solution that our town manager working with staff put forward to the town council because I think it checks all the buckets in that we didn’t want to increase taxes to be able to move forward with this,” Costello said.
When construction starts, the project will be finished in two years, Costello said. The large amount of traffic and businesses on Maine Street will complicate construction and renovations will have to be done block by block.
After those two years of construction, more renovations have to be done to downtown Brunswick.
“It gets a project done that is sorely needed for the economic development health of our downtown but also addressing the very much deteriorating sidewalks and the ADA issues,” Costello said.