Purkis dropped from summer road work

BUCKFIELD — Needed repairs to Purkis Road will be put off until 2013, according to the modified road improvement plan approved by selectmen at their meeting July 3.

According to Road Committee Chairman Jerry Wiley, parts of Purkis Road are in such bad shape that they will need to be entirely reconstructed and there is not enough funding available this year to tackle the project.

The original road improvement plan called for $445,000 to repair four town roads, but after voters rejected $174,000 in new borrowing, the plan was trimmed down. 

The town now intends to spend $246,809 to complete work on part of High Street and Bear Pond Road.

The repairs on High Street will go from the town center to Old Sumner road.

Focusing on the two roads leaves $24,251 in funding that will be invested in maintenance on other town roads that are beginning to show signs of wear.

The decision to eliminate Purkis Road from the 2012-2013 plan was not easy, said Wiley, but the committee is focused on heavy-traffic connector roads.

"There's not enough money to do everything," said Wiley.

"The connector roads is what we've always had as a priority," he continued, "not that these other roads don't need it – they need it badly."

Recently-elected Selectboard Chairman Robin Buswell said that the alterations to the plan concerned some people in town and asked Wiley for assurance that Purkis Road would be top priority for next year's roadwork.

"I gotta be able to look some people in the eye and tell them, 'next year, god willing the creek don't dry, Purkis Road is priority,'" he said.

Wiley agreed that Purkis would be top priority for next year's road improvements.

He said he had already been approached by one resident on Purkis Road who was upset with the changes.

"He wouldn't even listen to what I had to say, he was so upset," Wiley recounted, "I finally had to walk away; he just wouldn't listen."

Wiley said he sympathized with the resident's concern with the condition of Purkis Road, but the hard truth was that there was not enough money in the budget, and the committee had to make some difficult decisions.

The board of selectmen unanimously approved the amended road plan. A bid request for the project has already been issued. 

Selectwoman Martha Catevenis expressed some concern over the bid notice, mainly because it addressed the entire original four-road plan.

She said that the notice was too complicated and contractors might be confused about the scope of the project.

Town Manager Dana Lee said that a few companies have already expressed interest in the project and he would make sure that respondents understood that only two roads were included.