RUMFORD — Swain Road could soon get a concrete box culvert designed to handle greater flows from Bean Brook should the town get hammered by another tropical storm or hurricane.
Selectmen unanimously approved a bid of $99,855 by George Roberts Precast Concrete Products of Alfred on Thursday night for a concrete box culvert.
The board also voted 5-0 to hold a special town meeting to authorize use of the Undesignated Fund Balance money to buy and install the culvert.
“I would really like to expedite this, because we all know winter’s coming and we’ve got to do something,” Selectman Jeremy Volkernick said.
“When you install something like this, it’s installed very fast,” Town Manager Carlo Puiia said.
“They are pre-fabbed concrete boxes, but it takes a crane to set them in place. But when said and done, it will be a good system.”
The previous Swain Road culverts at Bean Brook were taken out by Tropical Storm Irene in late August.
“It’s a lot of money in this time,” Selectmen Chairman Greg Buccina said. “Is it a guarantee? I hope so.”
“I think this is a need,” Selectman Brad Adley said.
In other business, the board also unanimously OK’d including a nonbinding straw poll questionnaire on the Nov. 8 warrant to evaluate the result of the vote on the proposed Wind Energy Facility Ordinance.
After a majority of voters killed two proposed wind ordinances in two years, selectmen want some guidance from voters should they also defeat the third ordinance.
“An ordinance has been defeated twice and we don’t know why it was,” said Selectman Jolene Lovejoy, who sought placement of such a questionnaire on the Nov. 8 ballot.
Buccina read a list of reasons on the document that Puiia drafted one or more of which can be checked by voters should they choose.
These are:
* The ordinance was too restrictive.
* The ordinance was sufficient.
* The ordinance was not restrictive enough.
* I support having wind power in Rumford.
* I do not support having wind power in Rumford.
* None of the above.
There will also be room for comments.
“I like this idea a lot,” Volkernick said.
Puiia said that if voters don’t approve the third proposal, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection wind power regulations would cover such development in Rumford.
He said he may include this information so voters understand what would happen. However, should the ordinance get defeated again, selectmen could try to create another proposal.
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- During a short discussion Thursday night on work to develop a policy for tax-acquired properties, Rumford Selectman Jolene Lovejoy tells the board and a small crowd that the town should sell its tax-acquired buildings. “I do not want to be a slumlord,” Lovejoy said. “I do not want to hang on to property and do nothing with them.”
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