The bridge on Alna’s Dock Road has a deck and substructure both in poor condition and a superstructure in satisfactory shape, according to Maine Department of Transportation. MaineDOT has the state-owned bridge on its work plan for rehabilitation in 2024-25. And that has the state asking the town about the history of what lies near the 1936 bridge MaineDOT estimates has 320 vehicles a day crossing it.

The agency’s work plan at Maine.gov puts the project’s cost at $1.6 million. 

Town Archivist Doreen Conboy said there are historic homes on both sides of the bridge. “If any blasting is planned, abutters and neighbors should be given advance notice,” Conboy wrote First Selectman Ed Pentaleri via email Sept. 22, after he contacted her about the state’s request for information on any historic properties adjacent to the bridge. 

Conboy noted she does not know what impacts the project would have, “except the disruption of traffic flow and the noise and inconvenience to the near and abutting homeowners.” As for the history there, she said the yellow house next to the bridge was “the early home of Rodney C. Jones, scow builder and operator whose son, Capt. Joe Jones, was the last person to operate a scow on the Sheepscot River. The early home on the hill to the south of the Jones house belonged to Alna’s last surviving Civil War veteran, Thomas Nelson Ayer, who died at age 94,” Conboy continued.

She said according to her notes Ayer was at the bridge’s dedication in October 1936. Its wooden predecessor “was washed out in a flood.”

Conboy added, the nearby Village School at Puddle Dock is on a Maine Historic Preservation list “to prepare for recommendation to the National Register ... Another historic district has been discussed that would involve the earlier homes on Dock Road but that is a major undertaking that , if possible, would be a much later project” than the year or more for the one involving the former school.  

Sierra Millay, an environmental specialist III with MaineDOT’s environmental office, emailed the town Sept. 18. The emailed explained, the town is considered a “consulting party” likely to have information on or concerns with historic properties near the project; the bridge spans the Sheepscot River .22 of a mile south of Route 194.

The National Historic Preservation Act calls for MaineDOT to seek the town’s input, according to the email.

Forwarding Conboy’s email to Millay on Sept. 23, Pentaleri invited Millay to ask Conboy or him for any further help.