It won’t be long before work on Boothbay’s $3.3 million roundabout project begins. On April 12, selectmen signed a Business Partner Initiative agreement with the Maine Department of Transportation and local businessman Paul Coulombe. The agreement calls for all three parties to finance the Route 27 Re-development Project to improve traffic flow and safety within the community.

Later in the meeting, a contractor was chosen. The board voted 4-0 to accept Sargent Construction’s bid. The Stillwater contractor’s $3,130,521 proposal was the low bid of four received by the town. With the BPI signed and contractor chosen, project consultant Steve Sawyer of Sebago Technics expects construction to start soon. “There is a pre-construction conference scheduled for Tuesday (April 18) and you may see activity as soon as late next week,” Sawyer said.

In the three-way partnership, Boothbay is the project manager. The town will provide space in the municipal building for Sebago Technics employees to oversee the project.

In other action, selectmen approved creating an ad-hoc committee to track the town’s progress on implementing the new comprehensive plan. Residents approved the plan last November. It was the plan’s first update since 1989. East Boothbay resident Nell Tharpe served as the comprehensive planning committee’s co-chairman. She recommended creating a committee with one to three members charged with ensuring benchmarks written into the document were met.

“The plan lists specific benchmarks and identifies parties with primary responsibility for implementation. I consider this is a living document like the ordinances and it needs someone or a committee to make sure what the residents voted for are realized,” Tharpe said.

Selectmen appointed Tharpe as the committee’s first member. Town officials will email other comprehensive planning committee members requesting volunteers for the committee. Selectmen will meet next at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 26 in the municipal building.