VAN BUREN, Maine – Van Buren will host a meeting with officials from the Maine Department of Transportation, the Northern Maine Development Commission, and engineers at Gorrill Palmer next month to discuss finalizing a design plan for the Village Partnership Initiative program.
The VPI program involves creating plans in communities that revitalize their village and downtown centers while emphasizing each town’s unique character and history. These areas have speed limits below 30 miles per hour and provide goods, services, housing while also containing a civic or religious facility.
Other Aroostook towns, including Caribou, Presque Isle, Fort Kent and Madawaska, are also involved in the VPI program.
Van Buren Town Manager Luke Dyer said during a July 17 meeting that the next public meeting for the VPI is planned for 6 p.m., Aug. 21.
“That’s basically to finalize the design plan so we can keep this moving forward,” he said.
MaineDOT Regional Planner Jarod Farn-Guillette said Van Buren’s VPI plan covers about two miles altogether. If approaching Van Buren from Caribou and traveling on Route 1, the coverage area begins around the Borderview Rehabilitation and Living Center on State Street, and then goes left down Main Street until it reaches Keegan Variety on the outskirts of town.
He said the project will address pedestrian and non-motorist safety concerns, improve the look, feeling, and character of Van Buren, and addresses connectivity with the waterfront, seaplane port of entry, and customs port of entry.
It will also incorporate gateway treatments, which include features like a center median island and helps to slow traffic coming through.
“And it also announces that you’re entering the village center and downtown,” he said of the gateway treatments. “You’re entering a community. So it’s a great opportunity to address destination development and placemaking.”
And while there are currently a lot of unknown variables in terms of development and construction, Farn-Guillette said that the project will likely cost between $10 million and $15 million altogether. He added that this is a preliminary estimate, and the final cost may be higher or lower.
MaineDOT will use grants and congressionally directed spending to cover up to 80 percent of the total project costs, with a limit of $25 million.
He said that, ideally, they would like to see the project finished in four years.
“In a perfect world, the last truck will run through, the last shovel will tamp down, and we’ll have the big ribbon cutting ceremony four years from now,” he said. “But it tends to be like a moving target; some things happen faster than others. It’s really just making sure we’ve got all our ducks lined up with regards to permitting, design, and then advancing the applications for federal grants.”
The upcoming meeting will happen as part of a regular town council meeting in the town office. MaineDOT is also planning a Madawaska Village Partnership meeting the following night, Aug. 22, in the Madawaska High School at 6 p.m.
Farn-Guillette encourages the public to come out and participate in the upcoming meetings and express their concerns or hopes for the roads in their communities.
“This is really a process that’s grounded in a thorough public engagement and planning procedure,” he said. “We have to get as much robust public engagement as possible.”
