Select Board moves $350,000 paving allocation to warrant article, trims salt appropriation

The Brentwood Select Board on Oct. 28 approved moving the highway department’s hot-top paving funding into a warrant article and adjusted several budget lines after a multi-hour review with highway staff.

Highway business manager Jim Hajar and highway superintendent Wayne reviewed this year’s expenses and remaining balances and outlined upcoming work on Mill Road, Robinson and Pine Road, guardrail needs and culvert/ catch-basin cleaning. The board debated whether to maintain the current hot-top funding rate (the meeting referenced a $3.80 tax-rate component with $3.50 earmarked for hot-top) or to move a dedicated amount to a warrant article to ensure the money is used only for paving.

Board members voted to move $350,000 into a town-meeting warrant article restricted for paving; the highway budget was adjusted accordingly. The board also reallocated $5,000 from road construction to the culverts-and-basins line to increase that account for catch-basin cleaning. During discussion staff and a Select Board member identified a procurement/measurement issue in the salt contract: historical per-load assumptions differed from actual dump-truck tonnage (actual loads measured roughly 33.5 tons), which affects total tonnage estimates and vendor minimums. Based on that review, the board voted to reduce the operating salt/sand/patch line from the requested $77,633 to $45,000 and to direct staff to encumber funds against the signed salt contract as necessary before year-end if purchased tonnage warrants it.

The board approved the highway operating budget as adjusted (documented in the meeting materials as $475,389). Members asked highway staff to coordinate warrant wording that specifies which roads will be paved so prospective voters know what the warrant funds would accomplish.