FARMINGTON — Public Works Director Philip Hutchins shared details at the selectmen meeting on March 11 about downtown sidewalk and road work expected to start in 2026 and be completed in 2027.

“VPI, Village Partnership Initiative, this is a grant program,” Hutchins noted. “It’s designed to be available to willing communities that have agreed on a local vision. Projects can vary from small spot improvements to very large. $500,000 projects all the way up to $10 million to $15 million projects. It’s a one time investment, can only do it once.”

Last November town officials and five representatives from Maine Department of Transportation toured the downtown following a pedestrian fatality, Hutchins noted. They looked at different areas regarding pedestrian safety and traffic issues, he stated. “They did recommend us to approach and apply for the VPI spot improvement grant,” he said.

The program is used to better define the limits of villages and improve safety using gateway treatments, traffic calming and pedestrian enhancements to improve pedestrian safety and ADA compliance, Hutchins explained. “VPI can focus on everything outside of the roadway which is sidewalks, better lighting,” he said. “Anything to enhance pedestrian, bicycle safety.”

Farmington is under contract with MDOT and MPI [Municipal Partnership Initiative] which covers roadway and pedestrian safety, Hutchins noted. “In November, Farmington got awarded an MPI grant for $1.5 million dollars,” he said.

Tentative schedule

March At the annual meeting on March 24,  citizens will consider using $45,000 of local tax money for engineering design for all of the downtown and Main Street, Hutchins said. “Since we’ve already been awarded that grant in November, that $45,000 will double,” he noted.

April and May “If the funds are approved, we’re going to put out RFPs [request for proposal] to engineering firms for this,” Hutchins said.

June/July “This is where it all begins,” Hutchins noted. There will be meetings for design input with the Select Board and the public with approved engineering firm present, he said. The first meeting will address design preferences, what is desired to be incorporated in the plans, he explained. “The engineer is going to take the information back from everybody, put it on a conceptual design, draft it up on plans,” he stated.

At the second meeting the engineer will have a set of plans for review, Hutchins said. Changes such as adding more street lamps, using different curbing can be suggested, he noted. Meeting three will return to the board for the final set of drawings and the final design approval, Hutchins stated.

August/September “We’re going to start to release construction bids on our final design to find a construction contractor,” Hutchins said.

September/October Select Board will approve  a contractor, Hutchins noted.

May 2026 “Phase one, that’s when we break ground, construction starts,” Hutchins said.

May 2027 “Phase two,” Hutchins stated. “The MDOT plans to rebuild the Town Farm Road this coming season. That will give us an opportunity to redesign everything, get it all planned. We may see a lot more heavy traffic come through Main Street because they are rebuilding Town Farm Road. 2026 it’s going to flip flop. All the heavy traffic will be on Town Farm Road after the reconstruction.”

The process is similar to what was done on Front and High streets, Hutchins noted. “It’s going to involve a lot of input through the design process, going to involve a lot of heavy engineering compliances,” he said. “As we look at our municipality, we are going to look at finances too. This year we’re trying to appropriate $100,000 towards capital roads. If we do that consistently for the next three years, we can stay on track and get this done through MPI grants.”

Selectman Dennis O’Neal asked about the availability of federal funds.

“There’s no absolute right now which is one of the reasons that we are going to do what we can,” Town Manager Erica LaCroix said. “We are going to apply to both, put the bulk of it on the MPI because we can get a lot of the stuff that we want to get done with the MPI. It’s just the funding is a little more limited. The maximum for the MPI is $1.5 million. The VPI would open that up to a bigger pool of money, there is just no guarantee.”