WELD – Board of Selectmen Chairwoman Nancy Stowell was stunned Wednesday to find that five of eight large shrubs bought with bottle money as part of a town beautification project were stolen.

Stowell said she had placed the red twig dogwood and winter berry shrubs out Tuesday afternoon in buckets, set far enough back from Center Hill Road so that they wouldn’t be noticed. Some of the shrubs were 5 feet tall.

They were going to be planted Wednesday morning after holes were dug.

The town was awarded a grant to repair a section of Center Hill Road near where it intersects with Mount Blue Road, which leads to the hiking trail, Stowell said. The town had to match 25 percent of the cost and had used personnel and equipment toward that end, she said.

One of the items in the town match was to plant indigenous shrubs along the ditched banks to absorb water. Some trees were cut down and the shrubs would help to ornament the landscape, she said.

Stowell said people had dropped off bottles and cans at the transfer station all summer to go toward paying for the project.

It wasn’t the $150 in shrubs that were taken that bothered her so much, Stowell said. “It was the fact that someone would steal from a town beautification project.”

She added, “What’s stopping someone from stealing them again when I get more to plant?”

Stowell hopes people in the area or those passing by will keep watch on the shrubs in the future. She said she reported the theft to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department.