TOPSHAM

The Topsham Community Fund Committee is recommending levels of spending on community development projects for the 2013-14 fiscal year.

Gary Fogg, committee chairman, presented to selectmen a four-year plan to fund the Topsham bike path — a project the committee selected to raise funds for last year.

The bike path would extend The Androscoggin River Bicycle and Pedestrian Path that runs along the river in Brunswick into Topsham, ending at Elm Street.

Fogg said this is an 11-yearold project awaiting funding and support.

The Maine Department of Transportation has extended the proposed start of construction until 2015, leaving the town more time to raise its match of $160,000 for the $800,000 project.

This first portion of the multiphase trail project would stretch from Main Street to Community Drive. Fogg said the Topsham Community Fund Committee proposes in the four-year plan that about $50,000 be raised through taxation; about $60,000 through non-tax sources such as the Whittier Fund, an endowment for recreation purposes; and another $50,000 from private sources.

At town meeting in May, Fogg said the committee will ask residents to reallocate $16,000 in existing money from the Planning Board open space account to this project, plus $19,000 from the Whittier Fund account, while raising $10,000 in taxation.

In related news, selectmen Thursday voted to appoint Matthew Nixon to the Conservation Commission.