Jaffrey voters overwhelmingly supported a $2.84 million bond proposal during Saturday’s Town Meeting to replace water mains in town.
The bond passed by a ballot vote of 101 to 16 and is to replace around 13,251 linear feet of water mains on School Street, Squantum Road, and Stratton Road, with the possibility of also replacing water pipes on Aetna Street, Wheeler Street, and Lawrence Street.
“This is important so we don’t fall behind,” Select Board chairman Frank Sterling said,.
He added, there have been seven water main breaks in town since 2018, including four this year. “Those are expensive and costly repairs.”
This is the second phase of a proposal that aims to replace over 45,000 linear feet of water mains in town. The first phase of the project replaced over 12,000 linear feet of water mains on Main Street and Mountain Road in 2017 and was paid for through a 20-year, $2.63 million bond.
Sterling said it would probably be another two or so years before another warrant article would be pitched to voters.
None of the 35 warrant articles discussed and voted on during the four-hour meeting failed, though two were passed over: one that would have raised $50,000 for a police cruiser and another that would have raised $29,500 for preliminary engineering for improvements on School Street.
Voters did not need to raise money for the police cruiser, as the article prior created a new capital reserve fund to replace or refurbish police cruisers. When it was approved by voters, $50,000 for a new cruiser was placed into the fund.
School Street improvements were due to be completed in conjunction with a Jaffrey-Rindge School District project that aimed to restructure parking at Jaffrey Grade School, but the $2.1 million bond that would have paid for the project was voted down on Tuesday.
“The bond issue failed so there’s no reason to go ahead with this,” Sterling said.
Price reductions for two highway equipment related articles were announced during the meeting due to the town receiving a better quote.
A loader dropped in price from $176,500 to $129,500, while a dump truck with a plow dropped from $108,500 to $85,320. Both pieces of equipment will be paid for through the town’s highway equipment capital reserve fund.
Despite the reduction, a few voters questioned the need for the equipment, including one who said he would rather see the money go towards fixing the roads.
Voters also passed the $6,688,733 operating budget – a 2.57 percent increase over last year – the $950,912 water budget, and the $2,028,591 sewer budget.
Major areas of increase to the budget include $77,903 for salary and wage increases, $32,500 for road salt and sand and $20,811 for the library.
Twelve articles asking for a total of $99,724 to support area nonprofits were passed, though some requested that more information and representation be provided at future meetings.
“I know they cannot be at every single town meeting, but surely there are people within our town who could come with the dollars and the statistics and the details because it’s money,” resident Caroline Hollister said. “It’s being allocated here by a lot of good will, and I’d like to see that good will respected.”
Looking to the future, a number of appropriations were made to capital reserve accounts including $160,000 for the highway equipment capital reserve fund, $200,000 for the municipal building maintenance capital reserve fund, and $50,000 for the town office capital reserve fund.
The money being placed in the town office capital reserve fund is currently intended to go towards building a new town office building in the near future.
Nicholas Handy can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 235 or nhandy@ledgertranscript.com.