Three bridge projects were passed by Antrim voters during an annual Town Meeting Wednesday night, including a $30,000 article to outfit a walking ramp near the Peace Bridge located by Memorial Park.
Select board Chair Mike Genest said a walking bridge that’s currently being used on West Street would be moved over to replace an existing footbridge near Memorial Park that’s more than 20 years old. Select board member John Robertson said the move would make the area handicap accessible.
Money from the project is slated to be pulled from the town’s unassigned fund balance.
Gordon Webber, an Antrim resident, said he opposed the item.
“I just think this is really unnecessary,” Webber said during the meeting.
Webber asked the select board whether it had engineering report. Genest said they didn’t have a report, but that an engineering firm had looked over the project and given them a recommendation.
The article overwhelmingly passed.
The town also approved the Craig Road Bridge. The replacement will cost about $100,000 to complete. Genest said funds for the project are slated to be pulled from the town’s unassigned fund balance. A third project, the Elm Street Bridge, also passed. The bridge will cost about $90,000 to complete. The majority of those funds will come from SB 38, which was passed last summer, and set aside money for red-listed bridges, among other things, in communities across the state. Antrim received $81,164 in state money, which will be directed at the Elm Street project. The remainder of the funds, about $8,836, will be pulled from the town’s unassigned fund balance.
The annual meeting breezed by in under an hour this year with voters passing every article.
There was some discussion about the Water & Sewer Department entering into a $30,000 five-year lease agreement to replace one of its trucks. The department’s Superintendent Matt Miller said a 2004 truck that needs about $4,000 worth of work, an amount that exceeds its trade-in value.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense to put more work into the truck than it’s worth,” Miller said.
Genest spoke in opposition of the town purchasing a new truck. He said the truck needs new brakes and some minor body work, which largely can be done in-house to push down costs. He argued that the Water & Sewer Department have some big projects coming down the pike.
“With water and sewer rates already high, we should be trying to minimize costs where we can,” Genest said.
Select board member Bob Edwards said he supports the department’s decision to purchase a new truck instead of dumping money into a new vehicle that’s “working its way to being fully depreciated.” He said he would like to see the department put its trucks on a 10-year cycle.
The article passed.
After some discussion, taxpayers also voted to abolish an advisory budget committee established in 2010.
Edwards, who suggested doing away with the committee, said the committee was established in 2010 when the town was coming off of a deficit budget. He said it was a petitioned warrant article from a group of people who felt there needed to be oversight from others beyond the selectmen. He said the hope was that the advisory committee would continue to work with the board into the future, but once the deficit issue was squared away it became difficult to fill the six-member board.
“Right now, I think it’s ineffective,” Edwards said about the advisory board.
A resident opposition of doing away with the committee completely.
“I think it’s silly to wait until we have a crisis to then regenerate it,” Janet McEwen said. “I think it’s far better to try to get more people to participate in it.”
Edwards suggested residents attend and commen t during select board meetings while they’re combing through the budget.