Final funding found for Shore Road Path

After nearly 20 years, it looks like Cape Elizabeth’s dream of a Shore Road Path will finally become a reality.

At its regular meeting Monday, the Cape Elizabeth Town Council voted to appropriate $75,000 from an existing infrastructure improvement capital reserve fund to act as the required local match in the $1 million project.

First proposed in 1993, the two-mile walking path along Shore Road will connect the town center on Route 77 to Fort Williams Park. The project won a $729,000 grant late last month.

However, the money, funneled from the Transportation Enhancement Program though the Maine Department of Transportation, only covered 70 percent of the $1.03 million construction cost

A local group, Safe Access for Everyone (SAFE), raised “a little more than $100,000” in private donations, and the town could count money from other sources, like a center sidewalk fund and credits from the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System (PACTS). But that still left the project, until Monday night, short on the local match required to get the federal money.

At Monday’s meeting, a large crowd broke into applause, clasping hands and hugging after the unanimous vote, according to Town Manager Michael McGovern. That behavior, said McGovern, is something almost unheard of during his 30-plus years in Cape Elizabeth.

“It’s very significant,” he said Tuesday. “I have seen applause and hugs at council nettings, but I’ve never seen it when government votes to do something. Generally, you only see people get excited like this when they succeed in stopping something.

“It’s nice to know there is such strong support,” said McGovern.

“We had some work to do,” said SAFE co-chairman and treasurer Jim Kerney. “Many of our gifts have been $20 and $25, so it was a long and arduous path to get to the numbers we are looking for, but it was our job to get people motivated.”

Town Planner Maureen O’Meara said all permits are in place.  Construction can begin as early as this fall, once the money is made available at the start of the next fiscal year, July 1. 

“Everything was designed to be in the right of way,” said O’Meara, “so nothing will be taken by eminent domain. We did ask for one drainage easement, and that was donated by the Barber family.”

Because the $75,000 appropriated by the council Monday will actually be used to fund a $93,000 contingency account, equal to 10 percent of actual construction costs, there is a chance that some, or even all of it will remain once the path is completed. Any dollars that are left over would roll back into the infrastructure improvement fund.