Governor says trail funding on the way

Gov. James Douglas promised Monday that despite budget pressures on transportation projects, the state's share of rebuilding Route 143 was guaranteed.

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Governor says trail funding on the way
By Susan Smallheer Herald Staff - Published: January 15, 2008

SPRINGFIELD — Gov. James Douglas promised Monday that despite budget pressures on transportation projects, the state's share of rebuilding Route 143 was guaranteed.

Douglas, who was in town to talk to the local Rotary Club, talked with reporters afterward and said the promise to rebuild Skitchewaug Trail had been reached during the administration of former Gov. Howard Dean.

At that time, the state had estimated that rebuilding the five-mile road, which links downtown Springfield with Route 5, would cost about $1 million, in the town's agreement with the state to host the now-constructed Southern State Correctional Facility.

"I believe the commitment will be kept," Douglas told reporters. "It was an estimate and the state has over-promised many communities."

Currently the state is expected to spend $3 million on the project, with a local match of $300,000 for the five-mile repaving project. A more ambitious rebuilding project, estimated to cost $8 million, was rejected by the state.

Under the prison agreement, the state gave Springfield about $12 million in exchange for hosting the large, 350-inmate maximum security prison. The funds were used for economic development, a local recreation center, and renovating and rebuilding the town's sewage treatment plant so it could accommodate the sewage from the prison.

The rebuilding of Skitchewaug Trail was one of the key aspects of the agreement, but by all accounts "slipped through the cracks," for several years, getting no attention or budgeting from the Agency of Transportation. Douglas has been governor for about six years. The prison opened more than three years ago.

Douglas said the state in the past had "over-promised" communities when it came to transportation projects.

But he said the state share of the rebuilding and resurfacing of the Skitchewaug Trail project would be budgeted and not reduced.

Douglas said the state was planning a variety of transportation projects with limited resources and he said the state's transportation fund was suffering from the effects of a poor economy and high gasoline prices.

According to Douglas, people are holding on to their cars longer and not buying new cars and people aren't driving quite as much.

Douglas also said construction costs were going up an average of 1 percent a month.

"Construction costs are outstripping our revenues … our transportation fund has been soft," he said.

Later in the day, Town Manager Robert Forguites said the rebuilding and resurfacing of Skitchewaug Trail would start in the spring of 2009, according to his information.