OXFORD – Voters agreed Thursday the town doesn’t need the state’s help to build an expensive salt storage building.

Instead, they voted at a special town meeting to appropriate up to $35,000 from the municipal facilities account to construct a more modest salt storage shed at the highway garage.

The 22-foot-by-34-foot shed will replace what Town Manager Mike Huston referred to as the “rather dilapidated unsafe building” now being used for salt storage.

One voter asked why the town had to pick up the whole tab for a salt shed, when the state has a program that reimburses towns for replacing aging salt storage buildings.

Huston said the state only reimburses a portion of the cost, and state standards would require a building costing anywhere from $250,000 to $400,000.

The Municipal Facilities Committee met three times over the past six weeks to discuss the need and review plans for a salt storage shed, Huston said. The committee asked for bids based on the size and design they thought would best suit the town’s needs. Two bids for $44,000 and $33,500 were received, Huston said.

Based on the bids, and knowing that there is $67,000 available in the Municipal Facilities Account, “the committee felt it was prudent to move ahead,” Huston wrote in a memo to voters.

The shed will be built on a concrete pad with 7-foot concrete walls.

ggeraghty@sunjournal.com

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