Town Manager Stephen Eldridge said there is ledge that may need to be blasted.
GREENE – Selectmen agreed Monday night that Barrelshop Road has turned into a mud hole with warming weather and needs to be a high priority for paving Monday night.
Residents of the dirt road said it is impassable in places and that some vehicles that got stuck last week had to be towed.
“Since I’ve been a selectman, the Barrelshop Road has been an issue,” said Maurice “Moe” Levasseur.
“It’s probably the highest-traffic dirt road we have in the town,” Selectman Mark Christman said.
Town Manager Stephen Eldridge said there is ledge that may need to be blasted. That cost has not been determined. He said the town will look at the specifications for the project this month and seek bids in April.
In other business, the board authorized Emergency Vehicles of Maine in Auburn to begin building a pumper truck for the fire department. The town received a 90 percent matching grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to purchase the $222,650 truck. The town will pay 10 percent. That expenditure was authorized at the annual town meeting on Saturday.
The board postponed the annual evaluation of Eldridge and the setting of his salary until March 22 due to the absence of Selectman Timothy Doyle.
Eldridge’s salary is expected to remain at its current level due to a lengthy debate at the town meeting Saturday over a warrant article for an appropriation for administrative wages and benefits. The appropriation was reduced from $195,000 to $192,388. At issue was the town manager’s salary and benefits package. A group of voters attacked most articles that involved spending. A truck for the Public Works Department was nixed.
Selectmen reappointed Deborah Dupris to a three-year term on the Planning Board, and Kathryn Grefer-Kirkland and George Schott to one-year alternate positions on the Planning Board.
Eldridge was reappointed town manager, town clerk, road commissioner, tax collector, treasurer and general assistance administrator. Bruce Tufts was reappointed code enforcement officer and plumbing inspector. Alden Peterson was reappointed as emergency management director.
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