With one of the project's grants expiring next spring, a leading advocate for Ben Brook Bridge's replacement, former Alna selectman Ed Pentaleri, urged the board Oct. 24 to not let time run out.

The special board meeting, called to add an item on the bridge to the Nov. 1 special town meeting warrant, ran an hour, some of it stemming from resident Ralph Hilton's suggestion the bridge, which is on Egypt Road, doesn't need replacing or anything close to it. Some residents also questioned how and where funding of more than $86,000 has been tapped so far for the project. 

Selectmen said voters would be asked Nov. 1 to OK taking up to $167,000 from surplus, to match a federal grant of about $836,000; they said the surplus tap could come to less.

Pentaleri explained, a $125,000 Maine Department of Environmental Protection stream crossing grant the town got two and a half years ago runs out next May. "We've got to start doing some work right now, to ensure we can spend those funds before they expire."

That state grant needs no local match, but the larger, Federal Highway Administration one does, Pentaleri said. Between engineering and superstructure costs, close to $90,000 of the state grant can count toward the match of the federal grant, he said.

"It's really important for us to do this ... Calderwood Engineering made it very clear that this bridge has reached end of life. They estimated that we could patch the bridge to extend its life for maybe another 10 years for about $200,000," an estimate now years old,  he said.

Given the grants, replacing the bridge costs "way less" than the 10-year fix, Pentaleri continued. And if the town does nothing, he said, the bridge would eventually be closed, "and the town of Alna will be left with the full cost of replacing that bridge, or we'll have a bunch of citizens that won't have access, except through Jefferson."

Hilton recently spent a couple hours walking through the culvert, upstream and downstream and taking pictures. "It doesn't need a million-dollar bridge. It needs to be cleaned out underneath the guardrails so the water doesn't build up in the middle of the road ... Spending a million dollars on that stupidity really doesn't get it ... There's nothing wrong" culvert-wise, he said.

Hilton said he saw no culvert corrosion. "It looks like (the culvert) was done yesterday."

Third Selectman Coreysha Stone said Hilton made good points, "if it was just that simple." She said aspects of the project have helped get the aid and, if the state then takes over the new bridge's upkeep, "to me, that's a benefit beyond anything ..."

Past selectman Linda Kristan recalled getting the state's renewed "bad bridge letter" about the site's condition. She said experts have looked at the bridge multiple times, "and it does need to be replaced."

As for residents' questions about $86,450 selectmen and Pentaleri said has already been put into design and environmental review, and which Pentaleri expects will be reimbursed under Congressionally directed spending, Wiscasset Newspaper asked Alna Treasurer Amy Stockford the morning after the meeting.

Stockford replied, "all the funds we’ve put forward for Egypt Road repair have been paid out of surplus and we are hoping to get reimbursed sooner than later."

The special town meeting, which also decides unrelated spending from American Rescue Plan Act funds, is 6 p.m. Friday Nov. 1 in the fire station's meeting room.

Also Oct. 24, at Hilton's suggestion, officials said they would announce at Alna.maine.gov that Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit Superintendent of Schools Howie Tuttle has been named Maine's superintendent of the year.

"He's been our superintendent for a dozen years. Usually superintendents ... last only a couple years ... He's done a hell of a job for us," Hilton said.