Alna selectmen May 21 continued eying how to possibly get drivers to slow down on Sheepscot Road. First Selectman Nick Johnston updated the board with information he'd gathered since a resident of the road pleaded with the board May 7 for help.

Johnston said Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission saw a newspaper article on that meeting and reached out, putting Johnston in touch with Mike Hori, Midcoast and western regional planner with Maine Department of Transportation's planning bureau. Johnston said a subsequent email packet he got tells about different traffic calming measures and how to seek permission to use them on a state roadway.

"The town would have to develop a traffic calming plan for the areas that are being targeted," Johnston said. "It would have to involve public input from the people that live there (and) travel through there. It would all have to be part of a public meeting. You have to get that all done to then submit to (MaineDOT)." Grants through MaineDOT might help with costs, including one grant for a traffic calming study, Johnston said.

Meanwhile, Johnston said he is still exploring getting speed limit signage in the Sheepscot Road area to be placed more visibly. 

On another roads topic, Third Selectman Coreysha Lothrop expects to hear back by the end of June on two more grants she has sought to add to the town's funds for Skip Lisle to create Beaver Deceivers at culverts in town. His work thus far has attracted onlookers wanting to learn about them, including a Whitefield roads committee member, selectmen said.

Second Selectman Steve Graham thanked Stone for her efforts on the project to keep culverts unclogged without killing beavers. Lisle has said beavers have tremendous ecological and hydrological value. 

"I would've been lazy about it. But you weren't," Graham told Lothrop. "And Skip made a point of mentioning that, in a very positive way," when Graham visited one of the sites. "Something like, 'She's pretty tenacious' ..."

Lothrop said it is amazing Lisle has gotten so much done, given all the people who have shown up. "When I talked to him one day, he had five or six people he had spoken with that day alone. I was like 'How would you get anything done?'"

Also regarding roads, Graham shared an idea he said Road Commissioner Mike Trask suggested the board consider: Paying a number of plowing contractors by the hour, instead of continuing to award a lone contract for all the work. Graham said he has asked Trask to come talk about it with the board. 

The town's contract with Mike Jewett has one year left on it "locked in, and then we could have him for one more year after that," Johnston said.

On a question from Lothrop, Johnston did not know other towns addressing plowing the way Trask suggested looking at, but Woolwich, as Johnston noted, has long had multiple contractors cover specific routes, rather than a lone contractor for everything.