SABATTUS – Selectmen on Tuesday gave Road Commissioner James Wood approval to pay for grading and ditching on Furbush Road ahead of time so it wouldn’t affect the 2004-05 budget.

Pike Industries was awarded the $8,900 project. It does not include the cost for the estimated 12 culverts needed along the approximately one-mile stretch of road.

The paving of Furbush Road is budgeted for the upcoming fiscal year at $90,000, which was approved during the annual town meeting.

Furbush Road is one of many projects the town is targeting for next year. With this year’s anticipated opening of the new Maine Turnpike interchange in Sabattus, selectmen said they want to ensure that roads will be up to par to meet the anticipated traffic.

“Authorities estimate an increase of 225 percent on Route 132 once the turnpike exit opens,” Selectman Gino Camardese said. That is an increase of approximately 67,500 vehicles per day. That does not include the estimated 69 percent increase on Sabattus Street that the Maine Turnpike Authority is expecting.

“We need to put some lights in there to slow down traffic,” Camardese said.

Traffic lights have been proposed at the intersections of Main Street, Lisbon Road and Route 126; Route 132 and 126; and Pleasant Hill Road and Middle Street. This three-part proposal will be discussed at the June 17 technical meeting and the June 23 policy meeting.

In the new fiscal year, Sabattus-based Alternative Payroll Services will take over payroll obligations for the estimated 25 town employees. Town officials said this will give Town Administrator Tracy Fabrizio more time to do what she was hired to do. This transition will require non-salary town employees to use time clocks.

Police Chief Thomas Fales Sr. said this is going to cost the town a lot of money. He said his staff often does paperwork off the clock to help reduce overtime.

“They don’t put in for half of what they work,” he said, but that will soon change once this policy takes effect. That could increase the overtime costs, he said.

The town also has changed its June 22 town Employee Policy Meeting from mandatory to optional. Employees attending the meeting who go over a 40-hour work week will be paid overtime. Department heads are being encouraged to attend the meeting at 6 p.m. at the town hall.

The town has purchased a new marquee sign that is expected to hang under the Town Office municipal sign. Selectmen believe the $26,842 sign will inform the public of town issues and meetings.

The sign should be up sometime in July, town officials said.