By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

CASCO— Something is afoot in Casco’s Public Works department.

Rather, someone is a foot taller than the PW director.

Mike Genest, the public works director and road foreman, introduced new hire Griffin Miller to the Casco Board of Selectmen on Tuesday.

“He is doing a good job. It is a lot easier having two people. It is greatly appreciated. We are moving in right direction to have more help during the day,” Genest said.

“It is a real pleasure having someone sitting beside me instead of riding around by myself,” he added.

“Hopefully, he is enjoying it and I’m teaching him what he needs to know. Hopefully, he will ask questions when he doesn’t understand,” he said.

Another interesting thing that has been taking place is literally under one’s feet or under one’s tires.

“We’ve changed the salt and sand mix. We are using the same amount of salt, and less sand. We are melting more ice without putting as much material on the road,” Genest said.

He added that this road-treatment technique will be appreciated in the spring when there is less sand to clean up.

“We have spent quite a lot of money on continuing to improve our roads. Pre-storm, even though we have done preventive maintenance, we have serious water problems [such as] culverts being plugged,” Genest said. “It would have been a heck of a lot worse if didn’t continue our program.”

Concerning a plan for the town to take over snow plowing on public easements sometime in the future, the department has been determining how to proceed. C. Pond Plowing has the current contract.

“Chris Pond — his response times are quicker. We are getting better product than in past. I hope everyone in town can see that,” Genest said.

The topic of snow plowing brought a positive response from a couple people.

Board member Mary-Vienessa Fernandes agreed the service had improved.

“It has been much better. They go past my house at 2 o’clock and 4 o’clock and 6 o’clock. The roads are much clearer,” Fernandes said.

Resident Courtney Walsh went to the microphone to speak. She lives on Johnson Hill Road.

“You are going a good job. We moved from Rhode Island. The roads there are horrible. When we moved to Casco, we thought, ‘This town is killing it. There are no potholes,’” Walsh said, adding the snow removal has been timely, too.

Genest touched on a few more topics.

He and the Town Manager Tony Ward plan to attend a course on gravel road maintenance.

“We have 5.6 miles of dirt roads. We are in the process of figuring out how to get up to standards,” he said. “As far as ditching, we are going to continue on what I did last year. We have a private contractor in town helping us with longer spans that we cannot do by ourselves because we don’t have equipment and man power.”

He used that opportunity to pitch for moving toward a true public works department by saying a couple trucks would help get the work done and eliminate the need to contract out.

“It’s about making our town self-sufficient,” he said.

Town Manager Ward said that during this upcoming budget process, the selectmen can decide in which direction public works should go. Those options are: remain status quo and keep bidding out, make the change incrementally and in phases, or invest in the equipment to become more self-sufficient.