The condition of Somerville’s roads and what will be done about them in the future dominated the conversation at this year’s Annual Town Meeting in Somerville on March 26.
Every item on the warrant passed, but there was lengthy conversation concerning the creation of a roadwork plan, salary increases for town employees and the construction of a new town office.
Voters approved a town budget of $420,658. The school budget will be handled separately.
In the only contested race for a municipal office on this year’s ballot, Carolyn Doyle defeated Walter Nichols and incumbent Arthur Barnett for a seat on the Somerville Board of Selectmen. Doyle received 38 votes, Barnett received 37 votes and Nichols received 31 votes.
“I’m thrilled,” Doyle said March 28. “Now we’re just going to roll up our sleeves and see what we can do about the roads.”
Voters passed an amendment to one of the articles on this year’s warrant intended to require the town to create a plan for roadwork in the coming years.
With a particularly hard spring hitting Maine’s roads, Somerville’s dirt roads are as bad as many residents can remember them ever being.
Many residents are not receiving their mail and have been told by the post office it’s because the roads are so bad, residents said. John Vaster and Sally Oliver didn’t receive their mail for almost two weeks earlier this month, they said.
“In 20 years of living here, I’ve always received my mail unless I didn’t shovel out my mailbox,” said resident Catherine Ladd, who also missed several weeks of mail delivery.
Currently, “it’s the responsibility of the Road Commissioner to set priorities for roadwork,” said David Stanley, Chairman of the Somerville Selectmen at the Town Meeting.
Several residents expressed their frustrations over what they see as a failure on the part of the town to properly maintain the roads. Voters unanimously approved this year’s roads budget as requested, $77,000.
Several residents questioned whether raising the amount budgeted for roads would help, but others pointed out that for the last few years, there has been a surplus in the roadwork account.
“We have to have a plan for how the roads are going to get done,” said resident Phil Harris. “We can’t just keep putting a Band-Aid on the problem.”
The Road Commissioner’s term in office ends this year. Due to an administrative snafu, that election was not held with the other town officer elections, and will instead be held at a special election on April 29. The race is contested, and profiles of each candidate will be available in The Lincoln County News in the coming weeks.
Before passing the requested three percent raises to all municipal salaries, some residents felt that with the economy down, this was the wrong time to give raises.
“The town doesn’t reimburse for anything,” including mileage, Stanley said. “We bring our own pens and pencils to the meetings.”
With gas prices going up, these small raises are a big benefit for municipal officers, Stanley said.
The raises for all employees totaled a $1000 increase to the budget. The article passed 27 to 20.
There was also significant discussion about an article allowing the selectmen to borrow $40,000 and use $15,000 from surplus to build a new town office.
The article passed as written 25-17.
The plan, Stanley said, is to buy one of the portable units from the old Jefferson Village School and build a foundation for it on the former Sand Hill School site, which the town already owns.
The new town office will give the town more room for meetings, and allow the town to store all of their various files and records in one location; currently important town documents are spread between their current office attached to the Somerville School, the basement of the school and several people’s houses.
“Given the economy – as nice as it would be to have a new town office – I don’t see this as the right time,” Harris said.
Other residents questioned whether the town could afford to take on the maintenance and upkeep costs for a new building.
Stanley did not have an estimate for the annual costs of the building, but said that the $40,000 loan over the next 10 years would cost the town no more than $5400 per year, depending on their interest rate. “It will likely be lower than that,” Stanley said.
“We’re never going to find a deal like this again,” said Somerville Fire Chief Mike Dostie, referring to the approximately $4500 cost to purchase the trailer.
Residents were also concerned that the project be put out to bid.
“Some parts, where it’s practical, will be put out to bid,” Stanley said.