SCARBOROUGH — The soldier now gazes over Route 1 traffic toward Dairy Corner. To one side of him, cars are fueling up at the Mobil station. On the other, drivers are waiting for the light at the intersection to change.

The Soldiers Monument has stood at Dunstan Corner since 1913. The area has become so busy that improvements to the intersection may lead to the relocation of the granite monument, a soldier holding a musket atop a series of pedestals.

Town officials are seeking community input about that possibility They have scheduled a meeting for all interested parties for 7 p.m. Wednesday at Town Hall.

Scarborough has been working with the Maine Department of Transportation to redesign the Dunstan Corner intersection, where Broadturn Road, Pine Point Road and Route 1 meet. The design work is still in its preliminary phases, but a right-hand turn lane from Broadturn Road onto Route 1 is expected to be part of the final plan.

Since that turn lane would encroach upon the space now occupied by the granite Soldiers Monument, town officials want to talk to residents about whether there’s a more suitable home for the monument elsewhere in Scarborough.

“What we are really trying to explore is: Is there a place in town where it can be moved to where it can be more celebrated and recognized?” said Assistant Town Planner Jay Chace.

Some possible locations include a vacant space kitty-corner to the monument’s current site, Dunstan Cemetery on Route 1 and Memorial Park in the Oak Hill neighborhood, Chace said.

The monument occupies a snow-covered area dotted with small trees, part of a once-larger area known as Dunstan Common. The words “Scarboro/To Her Sons/Who Fought/For The Union” are inscribed on a pedestal with the dates 1776-1913 below. It’s not clear whether the statue of the mustached soldier represents a particular individual.

The statue was erected at a cost of $2,500. Residents raised the money — an ice cream social and bake sale were part of the effort — and the town also contributed.

One of the groups Chace contacted about the monument is American Legion Libby-Mitchell Post 76. Members of the post voted to relocate the monument if the intersection is redesigned as planned, said David Dolloff, the post’s commander.

The intensity of the traffic in Dunstan Corner means the monument is no longer a stop for the annual Memorial Day parade organized by the post, Dolloff said. Instead, the post holds ceremonies with a firing squad, the playing of taps and the laying of wreaths there and at monuments at three cemeteries before the parade, he said.

These days, 25 or 30 people usually attend the ceremony at Dunstan Corner, while both sides of the street are lined with spectators along the parade route from the high school, down Route 114 and Route 1 to the Maine Veterans Home, Dolloff said.

At the Scarborough Historical Society, volunteer Sarah Matteau reminisced about the monument’s role in Dunstan Corner. When she was a Girl Scout in the 1940s, her troop marched there and met up with Boy Scouts and veterans for memorial ceremonies. As a Dunstan School student, she walked by it every day.

“That’s where it was put, that’s where it should stay,” she said.

The intersection project is tentatively scheduled for late 2012 or early 2013, according to Mark Latti, a spokesman for MDOT. An average of 32,500 vehicles pass through that section of Route 1 each day, he said.

Traffic, especially in the summer, has been a problem at Dunstan Corner for decades, said Town Manager Thomas Hall. The proximity of the traffic light on Route 1 there and the one just north of it creates a cascade effect as traffic backs up behind vehicles trying to turn left onto Pine Point Road, he said.

Staff Writer Ann S. Kim can be contacted at 791-6383 or at: akim@pressherald.com