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| By Danielle Paine Reminder Assistant Editor HAMPDEN - Town officials believe that the timing is right for voters to approve a $1.5 million bond for critical road and drainage system repairs at the election on May 7. Proposition 2 1/2, is set to hit the ballots, though it was defeated last year by a vote of 391 to 324. This year, officials hope that the upcoming pay-off of a current town debt will give this bond a fighting chance, as it will now have minimal, if any effect on taxes. "We have some debt that is being retired so this is a good time to take this action and we can do this with a minimal amount of impact on the taxes," said Duane Mosier, chair of the Board of Selectmen. Since 2002, Hampden and other local communities have had their state funding for road repairs drastically reduced. This has lead to little progress on damaged roads and drains made worse from storms and flooding in November 2005. "I believe that it becomes more and more obvious each year that certain roads, such as high traffic roads, need to be repaired, especially drainage systems," said Duane Mosier, chair of the board of selectman. "They have a life and they are either at or exceeding it." One of the first projects to be addressed, if the bond is approved, will be the reclamation and repaving of Somers Road. Highway Department Superintendant Dana Pixley is hoping to offset the costs of repairing town drainage systems with a hazard mitigation grant he has applied for. Though approval will not be granted or denied until November, the $125,000 project, to be paid for through the grant, would be replacing a critical drainage system on Main Street. If the grant is denied, this project will be one of the first to be funded through the bond, if approved. "I would tell anybody to view it as though they owned a home and the home needs repairs," Pixley said. "They have an investment and they need to maintain that similarly to the taxpayers investment in the town. There are benefits to spending money to protect that investment and not have the value diminish." Last year, Pixley secured $158,179 in Chapter 90 funding from the state. This money is basically the state tax on gasoline, (21 cents per gallon) which is reimbursed to towns for road repairs. This provided a much needed lift to the current $18,000 budget for repairs. This was coupled with an additional $45,000 from last year's approved rehire of two previously cut positions. Only one of which was filled and the unused monies from the second postion was also added to the repair budget. The chapter 90 funding was used to rehabilitate an entire mountain subdivision including Valley View, Forest Hills and Chestnut Roads where new catch basins were installed, curbings were repaired and the roads were cleaned and repaved. Ames Road was also repaved. Pixley has estimated that about $300,000 per year is needed to maintain the town's infrastructure. This will be possible for five years if the bond is approved, allowing the highway department to catch-up on fixing damages before they can further escalate into problems of a much bigger scale. |