ROXBURY — Selectmen met Tuesday afternoon with the town’s winter roads contractor to address plowing concerns.

Selectman Tim Derouche said contractor Pat Gorham asked to meet with the board at 4 p.m., because he couldn’t make it to the board meeting at 6 p.m.

“The meeting was to sort through some items of concern,” Derouche said. “The winter contractor has been doing a good job with the numerous snowstorms to date.”

The board addressed 11 concerns with Gorham, the first being Town Office parking lot plowing. Selectmen told Gorham the lot needs to be plowed in a timely manner during each and every snowstorm no matter what day. The board told him there can be meetings any day of the week and the town firetruck can exit the fire station beside the Town Office at any time.

The board will look over the parking lot and show Gorham what is expected.

Gorham shared his concern about dangerous driving at Roxbury Pond during windy conditions. Selectmen decided to investigate signage for caution for when the wind drives snow across Main Street from the pond.

Regarding a concern about pushing back snowbanks, Derouche said the service is available from the Maine Department of Transportation. Gorham said he would notify selectmen when the service is needed with the understanding that it could take MDOT two weeks to assist the town. After being notified by Gorham, selectmen agreed to contact MDOT for the service.

Gorham gave the board his contact information for his cellphone, pager and home phone to inform him of concerns and/or needs.

Addressing one concern involving access to the flag pole area at the Town Office, selectmen decided the area doesn’t need to be cleared during winter because it’s a grass area and they wanted to minimize damage to the lawn.

The board did tell Gorham that he must clear access to the sign area for each and every storm. Then they addressed a concern that one of Gorham’s drivers doesn’t have a driver’s license. Derouche said the driver has been driving a front-end loader at the sand pit and removing snow in areas throughout town.

Selectmen decided they would check the legality of driving the loader without a license and Gorham said he would restrict the driver to the sand pit only and not allow the person to drive on the road.

Gorham shared his concern about access visibility to Route 17 from Canwell Hill Road. He said this is outside his contract with the town.

Selectmen suggested that Gorham bill the town when he thinks any request from selectmen or town office personnel is outside the contract, so that it can then be discussed at a selectmen meeting and reviewed with his contract to determine if this should be paid.

Derouche said the snow has been pushed back with future possibilities of the MDOT doing the work. Additionally, the road commissioners, who are the selectmen, will be informed to request that the stop sign and the street signs be relocated to ease snow removal at this intersection.

The last item concerned usage of material during the early February blizzard. These were 27 yards of winter sand, 14 yards of winter salt, 12 hours of front loader work at the pond on Main Street, and eight hours of snow plow truck work.

Selectmen reiterated the concerns and their solutions during their regular board meeting that followed at 6 p.m.

tkarkos@sunmediagroup.net

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