NEW VINEYARD – Resident are being asked to attend a special town meeting this weekend, to revisit the issue of the Barker Road Project.
The meeting is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 27, in Webster Hall. Only two articles appear on the warrant, after the selection of a moderator.
The first is to address an omission at the last town meeting on March 8, when voters approved a plan to rebuild a mile of the Barker Road. At that time, the road was costing thousands of dollars a year to maintain, and residents warned that it was unsafe. Since then, $50,000 from the surplus account and the entire $148,000 in the Barker Road Construction Fund have been used on the project.
However, the other element of the project was to utilize a 10-year, $222,000 bond to help pay for the remainder of the project. Residents, at the time, believed that paying the 4 percent interest on the bond would be cheaper than waiting and trying to keep up with the rising cost of asphalt.
According to Administrative Assistant Arlene Davis, when the town went to take out the bond at the state municipal bank, they found that a copy of the financial statement had not been included with the article. This is required by the bank.
“When we went to the bond bank,” Davis said, “to get the money with the article, they said that the financial statement needed to be in it.”
Voters will also be asked to spend $9,500 from the surplus account to put a metal roof on the town office building. According to Davis, that building’s shingled roof has begun to leak.
