In Bethel, half of the town’s population went to the polls.
By Terry Karkos
Staff Writer

BETHEL – Election Day voters OK’d two capital improvement projects to expand the town ambulance barn and relocate a road. They also approved funding the projects with money from the undesignated fund balance.

Town Clerk Christen Mason said the polls drew 1,185 voters, 50 percent of the town’s population.

“The turnout was very good. It was steady all day long,” Mason said Tuesday night.

The first of two town referendums asked if voters would approve a project consisting of the design, rehabilitation, construction and equipping of an ambulance barn to improve existing facilities and appropriate a sum not to exceed $150,000 from surplus for the costs.

The third referendum asked if the town would approve a project consisting of the northerly relocation of a portion of Taylor Smith Road and appropriate a sum not to exceed $8,000 from surplus for the job.

The ambulance barn expansion project was approved, 862-289, while the road relocation project passed by a 619-516 vote. Despite voter approval on the road relocation project, it won’t happen unless selectmen ultimately approve it.

Tuesday marked the second time in the same year that voters had to decide upon the ambulance barn project.

At town meeting in June, the Bethel Ambulance Service barn expansion project was shot down by a tie 314-314 vote. At that time, the warrant stated that the town would take out a loan for up to $150,000 to fund the project. A recount later confirmed the tie was accurate.

At an August Board of Selectmen meeting, Selectman Reggie Brown asked the board to reconsider the issue by placing it before the town at the Nov. 4 statewide referendum election.

The ambulance barn, which is located at 183 Main St., consists of a 750-square-foot bay for two ambulances and a 20-by-26-foot training room that serves as sleeping quarters, the ambulance director’s office, a day room, kitchen, training room and equipment storage.

The expansion project would essentially double the station’s square footage, creating room for two sleeping quarters, a kitchen, a secure office, and a day room. Additionally, it would provide a 6-by-8-foot room off the training room for disposable supplies and an attic to store hard supplies like backboards.

Created in the early 1970s, Bethel Ambulance Service is a volunteer emergency medical service that is part of the municipality of Bethel. Its coverage area extends to the Maine-New Hampshire border in Gilead, up to Grafton Notch State Park, Riley and Mason townships, and half of Albany Township.

The road issue involves moving the intersection of Route 26 with Taylor Smith Road 600 feet in a northerly direction. Proponents said the move would increase motorists’ north-south sight distance at the intersection from 537 feet minimum to more than 1,000 feet in either direction.

That relocation, however, requires the abandonment of 1,225 feet of existing road – which was in place long before Route 26 was built – and construction of 900 feet of new road.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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