OAKLAND — Members of the Gazebo Committee met at the library Thursday to brainstorm the next step in its town improvement project.
The gazebo will be placed at the boat landing and beach on Messalonskee Lake for use by town residents and is a “capital investment” in the town, Chairman Mike Willey said.
The group previously had been looking at grants with the help of grant writer Clare Heffernan, who is on the committee. In order to apply for any large grants, though, the scope of the project would have had to increase greatly, Willey said.
After coming up with some ideas to increase the size of the project, the committee decided to back down to what it had originally been working on.
“I think we made the right decision to back off of that,” Willey said at the committee meeting.
At a Town Council meeting on Wednesday, Willey and Town Manager Gary Bowman updated the council on their new direction, saying they had to circle back to the gazebo’s objective.
“The objective of the gazebo is to help this kind-of-long-term project that we have to make Oakland have this really nice sense of community,” Willey said at the meeting. “And it’s for the people.”
Committee members agreed with Willey and Bowman at the meeting Thursday that a smaller scope was better.
They also voted on the type and size of gazebo to install. They all agreed to a traditional round-style gazebo with a 30-foot diameter.
The committee also planned a tentative meeting for the week of July 4 with someone to decide where to place the gazebo and to estimate the cost of laying its foundation and concrete.
Willey also created a subcommittee of members Clee Duncan and Gary Bennett to get started with ideas about getting donations. Some members said they already had heard that local businesses were interested in helping the project.
The committee will have a stand at OakFest with information about what type of gazebo they want to put at the boat landing, as well as the estimates for the foundation work and for a gazebo kit from an Amish company, Amish Designs, in Pennsylvania. Although nothing is set in stone, members left the meeting feeling they had accomplished something.
Bowman said he thinks people are getting behind the idea of improving the town.
“I’m seeing lawns mowed that I didn’t see mowed last year,” he said.
Madeline St. Amour — 861-9239
mstamour@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @madelinestamour
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