PERU — Town Clerk Vera Parent issued a reminder at Monday night’s selectmen meeting that the second half of property taxes is due Feb. 9.

She also suggested the board think about setting money aside to restore town record books.

“It can be quite a costly endeavor, around $15,000,” she said.

Parent said after the meeting that the town started restoring its record books years ago, but never finished all of them.

“You’re looking at six or seven books that contain town clerk records such as minutes of meetings,” she said.

The pages of the bound volumes — some date to the 1800s and are 3 inches thick — are worn, she said. 

Parent surmises the book bindings will be broken so each page can be scanned and possibly stored on a flash drive. The original pages would be coated with a acid-free substance to preserve them and rebound into a new volume.

“Each book costs probably $1,500 to $2,000,” depending on its size, she said.

Selectmen asked her to draft an article for the annual town meeting warrant in June. If the board approves it, voters would decide whether to have the restorations done and how much to spend, she said.

Parent said she doesn’t anticipate asking for enough money to do all the books in one year.

In other business, the board will draft a letter to Cross Excavation of Bethel asking it to pay for repairs to Lovejoy Hill Road.

According to Road Commissioner Brad Hutchings, the company was doing tree work on Coates Road and said it was unable to get its tractor-trailer up Lovejoy Hill Road to transport its mulcher to the work site, so they drove the mulcher on the road Jan. 9.

The mulcher, Selectman John Witherell said, had tracks with large cleats.

Hutchings estimated damage of between $50,000 to $65,000 to the pavement.

“The whole road may have to be skim-coated,” Hutchings said.

“At the end of the day, the town needs to remain whole and the road needs to be repaired,” he said.

Staff Editor Mary Delamater contributed to this report.

emarquis@sunmediagroup.net

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