This week, the town of Naples purchased the first piece of its new salt/sand shed, proposed to be built behind the public safety building off Route 302.

The piece, bought separate from the overall construction currently out to bid, is a glue-laminated arch designed to hold up the shed’s entryway.

Though the town has not yet signed a contract for construction, Pine Tree Engineering of Bath, who designed the shed, projected its cost at $650,000. However, only $600,000 is available in the town budget and the town may still need to hold a special town meeting to approve additional money for the shed.

In the meantime, the town is looking for ways to trim that $650,000.

The new concrete shed will house 6,000 yards of salt/sand mixture with ample room for distribution trucks. The town currently stores its salt/sand at P&K Gravel on River Road. According to Town Manager Derik Goodine, the town uses about 5,000 yards of salt/sand during the winter season.

The town recently decided to remove an entryway door from the shed budget.

“We were going to have a big door, but it’s just going to be a big opening,” said Rick Paraschak, Chairman for the Naples Board of Selectmen.

The selectmen decided in September to keep the excavated dirt on site instead of paying for it to be removed. Excavation costs for digging and off-site removal total $90,000. Some of the dirt excavated from the shed site may become seeded loam to level out a sloping cemetery on Route 11, but it will be dumped near the shed for residents to haul off.

“We’re trying to weigh the possibilities of what is best for the town with the timeframe and the cost,” Paraschak said at the September meeting.

At that same meeting, selectmen questioned whether the 11-foot shed walls needed to be embedded three feet into the ground since the depth contributes to excavation cost.

The reason for the three-foot depth, Goodine said, is because the walls have to be sturdy enough to hold the arched entry in place. Pine Tree had informed him that arches have a tendency to push out on the walls, which has led to problems in other towns.

The town will be reviewing construction bids from contractors on Oct. 18, Goodine said. If all goes well, the town hopes to have most the shed completed by winter.

“Basically, the hope is we’ll get this thing up, but it’s questionable whether we’ll be able to use it for this year,” Goodine said.