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Springfield to vote on beefed-up road paving plans
Rutland Herald | January 25, 2017
By SUSAN SMALLHEER
STAFF WRITER
SPRINGFIELD — Voters will be asked in March whether they want to continue to spend more money on paving the town’s roads.
The Select Board voted Monday night to put about $ 500,000 in proposed additional funding on a separate warning article. If approved, it would mean the town would spent a total of $800,000 on road paving and rebuilding in the 2017-18 fiscal year, since there is already $300,000 in the budget, Town Manager Tom Yennerell said.
Last year, voters overwhelmingly approved spending another $400,000 on paving roads, in addition to the $300,000 that was already in the budget, for a total of $700,000.
Selectman George McNaughton noted the paving article was the most popular of any article at town meeting in 2016, and was approved by a greater margin than the town or school budgets, or any of the candidates running for town office.
All five Select Board members approved the spending Monday. It was endorsed by the Springfield Budget Advisory Committee, according to Chairman Mike Martin. The group has been studying town services, as well as the proposed $11.2 million budget.
Last year, the town adopted a general plan for bringing all the town’s roads up to standard, with each road evaluated and put on a schedule depending on its condition. The plan calls for increases in annual spending on the roads to get the town back on a sustainable schedule.
Selectman Peter MacGillivray said he heard praise for the paving projects in 2016, including the major repaving of Main Street, which was done by the state rather than the town.
“ I’ve heard a lot of positive comments in the last five or six months,” he said. “People are very impressed.”
Select Board Chairman Kristi Morris said for many years the town couldn’t afford to repave its road, and roads and road maintenance had been underfunded for “so many years.”
Morris said, “It does put us way behind.”
Where can one find a copy of that schedule; preferably on-line?
ReplyDeletePaving the streets is a good place to start. Individual properties may look bad, but that's on the owners, to a large extent. The town is responsible for the roads. If they look good, the town looks better.
ReplyDeleteWhat schedule? Are you referring to the Road Maintenance Plan that the town is following with regards to the paving appropriation and budget? I am not sure whether it is posted online or not, but you can view it at the Town Office. It does not specify which roads get paved when, but it does indicate how much will need to be appropriated each year for, I believe, the next 20 years. Last year it called for $700,000.00, so there was $300,000 in the budget and $400,000 in a separate article, this year it called for $800,000 so there is $300,000 in the budget again and $500,000 in the article. Next year I believe it increases again.
ReplyDeleteSpringfield should be ashamed of Eureka Road, the typical band aid paving won't be enough to fix though. It needs all new drainage done with the paving and to tear up all the old paving.
ReplyDeleteI'll definitely vote on this.