Residents press Select Board on capital-reserve balances, Bell Street paving, EV chargers and wall repair

At the Select Board meeting residents pressed town officials for details about capital-reserve fund balances, project scopes and projected maintenance costs for proposed infrastructure investments.

Resident Mike Donoghue asked for the current balance of the highway maintenance capital reserve fund and was told it was $66,021.44; the board is proposing to appropriate $75,000 for highway maintenance this year, of which $15,000 is earmarked for the stone wall repair adjacent to a roadway and $60,000 for emergency work, according to board comments. Donoghue questioned why the stone wall had been identified for replacement, saying he observed no bulging, major cracking or settling when he inspected it and suggested targeted maintenance work might be preferable to replacement.

On road work, Donoghue asked whether the town has a multi-year paving plan. Officials said they rode town roads with the town engineer in the fall and have a handwritten inventory; they intend to convert that list into a spreadsheet and a formal plan but have not yet completed a multi-year, documented pavement-management plan. The board said the engineer judged town roads to be “generally in good shape.”

Donoghue also asked about the scope of a proposed $40,000 sidewalk project near the underpass toward Lincoln; staff said the existing pavement will be pulled and relaid, not merely overlaid. He asked about an EV-charging station project estimated at $110,000 with an 80% grant expected; the board said that if the grant is awarded the town would pay the remaining share (roughly $22,000) and plan to recover operating costs through user fees, but staff did not provide a detailed maintenance-cost projection at the meeting.

Board members and staff said the lead-service replacement effort will be coordinated with planned paving where feasible, but that final sequencing depends on whether service lines are found in paved corridors during service-line inventories. One resident asked whether overlaying a road before checking for lead services could require digging the road up again; staff acknowledged sequencing is a consideration and said the town would review service lines as part of project planning.

The discussion also raised Bell Street and Mitchell Street conditions; Select Board members agreed to re-check Mitchell Street, which residents said is rapidly deteriorating.

The Select Board asked staff to provide further clarifications on differences between expendable trusts and capital reserve funds (including oversight and Attorney General requirements for expendable trusts), and to return with more precise project scopes, maintenance-cost estimates and the formal MS-737 reporting for final votes.

Quotes from the meeting included resident Mike Donoghue’s line of questioning on the highway fund and proposed projects: “Can you tell me how much is in that account?” and later, “Do you have a 2 year, 5 year, 10 year? Whatever is there a written plan in place for paving of roads in town?” Officials confirmed the highway capital-reserve balance and described the planned next steps on project planning.

The board closed the meeting after approving the procedural warrant amendments and reminded attendees of a follow-up meeting next week to finalize warrant pages and MS-737 documents prior to town meeting.