This summer, there will be a little extra help for the Damariscotta Police Department, especially on the weekends.

The Damariscotta Police Department was recently awarded a $10,000 grant from the Maine Bureau of Highway Safety. The Damariscotta board of selectmen approved the grant during its April 1 meeting.

Chief Ron Young said the money will be used to help deter impaired and drunken driving. The money will be used to pay for an extra officer on duty on Friday and Saturday nights to increase visibility.

Young said the supplemental officer will be used in shifts to increase visibility during the weekend shifts when impaired driving is most likely. But, the grant money could also be used to bring in an outside agency to assist with sobriety checkpoints.

“We've looked into incorporating some vehicle checkpoints,” he said.

In the past, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office has assisted other agencies with sobriety checkpoints; and Young said that with his time with the Lincolnville Police Department he worked with the Maine State Police to set up the checks.

When the time does come for checkpoints, Young said the town and motorists will be made very aware of the increased presence.

“We aren't hiding behind billboards any more,” Young said. “There's no hiding. We want people to know where we are.”

Within the last year, there have been 170 motor vehicle accidents, Young said. While most of those didn't involve drugs or alcohol, a large number did.

“In the past week we've have three OUI arrests, including one today (Wednesday) where the driver was three times over the legal limit,” he said. “That (driver) was arrested before 9 a.m. this morning.”

The grant was part of the DriveSober Maine! program, which tries to curb impaired-related driving by boosting police presence during peak hours.

In Damariscotta's case, that means two six-hour overtime shifts per week until September. According to a release sent out by the Damariscotta Police Department, Young wrote that the increased presence is to further curb impaired driving.

"We want to send the message that impaired driving is not going to be tolerated in Damariscotta,” he said in the release.