HARTFORD – Selectmen voted this week to order a culvert for Town Farm Road and buy the land next to it to build a better bridge.
The present culvert, which serves as a bridge, is old and deteriorated, Selectman Lee Holman said. It carries a stream that leads into a bog and sometimes is not large enough to handle the flow. Also, she said, the bridge is narrow, on a turn and at the end of a long, steep hill that buses use.
The new culvert will be larger and longer so the road can be widened and guardrails installed, she said, which the road committee recommended.
Norm St. Pierre reported that he and Road Commissioner Alan McNeil had worked on and received a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant of approximately $15,700 for damage done to roads in last spring’s heavy rains. St. Pierre said he is applying for other road grants as well as one from Wal-Mart for the town office flag pole.
McNeil submitted a report that he and Bob Calawa of the Road Committee prepared, showing all the road work and costs over the last two weeks. Selectmen praised the effort. McNeil said the next report in two months would contain the running cost of road work to date.
The long-running dispute between the town and Sigrid Houlette and Kurt Margeson continued this week before selectmen. More than a year ago, McNeil, as a private contractor, installed a culvert for the two, but the water from Town Farm Road bypasses it and runs onto their property and driveway, Holman explained.
McNeil maintains that the water going across the property is not from the road but from a hill. He once owned the property, he said.
“All they want is permission to dig a ditch along the roadside farther down the road and turn the water out farther down the road so it doesn’t run across their property,” Holman said.
McNeil said all they have to do is dig a ditch across their property. However, Houlette and Margeson maintain there are trees that prevent them from doing that.
McNeil said he won’t allow them to divert the runoff into the Town Farm Road ditch.
“It would be a really easy thing for the town to adjust,” Holman said. However, fellow board members Hope McCabe and David Bowen agreed with McNeil this week that it’s his decision to make.
Houlette indicated she would be in touch with her attorney.
Selectmen voted to give hourly pay to town employees who are required to attend meetings. They also approved paying town employees their stipend at any time after they sign an agreement to return any money due the town should they leave the job.
The board also requested that before any member of a committee call the town attorney, selectmen give their approval.
The town office will be closed Sept. 15.
Staff Editor Mary Delamater contributed to this report.
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