Hebron's road budget strained

HEBRON — It has been an expensive winter for the town of Hebron.

At a selectmen's meeting attended by Road Commissioner Warren Packard, it was revealed that $113,000 had been spent on road maintenance in 2011, far exceeding the amount spent at this point last year, when the town spent $130,000 for the entire year.

The already-drafted warrant to be discussed at Town Meeting suggests $140,000 for winter roads, the same amount as 2010.

Selectmen decided to recommend at town meeting on March 19 raising that amount to either $160,000 or $170,000 to cover anticipated costs for late fall and early winter. In the mild winter of 2010, $54,800 was spent from the winter roads budget between October and December. Going forward with the amount suggested on the warrant would leave less than half of that amount for the end of 2011.

Selectmen believed that raising enough up front to cover costs in line with last year would be preferable to either finding a way to raise it late in the year or being forced to take money from the town's savings. Raising $170,000, rather than $140,000, would mean the town could be confident there was enough money there to take care of the roads.

"If we spend what we did last fall, that would be $168,000," said selectman Dan Eichorn. "We can't predict the future, but we can hope like heck that we don't have to spend it."