Road equipment update
NEWFANE — NEWFANE - Road Foreman Todd Lawley shared the status of some of the town's highway equipment at the May 18 regular Selectboard meeting.
The 2007 Ford F-350 pickup truck has been sold.
The 2011 F-350 the town currently uses needs to have the u-joints in both axles replaced. Lawley said the truck was scheduled to go to Durand Ford in Westminster on May 22.
After putting out a request for bids on a new loader, the town received three responses. Lawley said he wants to try out all three loaders and examine the service options included in the bids before he makes a decision. He said he will bring his findings to the Selectboard's next regular meeting.
The town's grading machine has been skipping. Lawley said. Nortrax, the John Deere dealer in Springfield, Vt., is scheduled to come look at the vehicle.
In his Road Foreman and Road Commissioner's Report, dated May 18, Lawley wrote the grader “goes OK for a while then it skips again. They can't seem to figure it out.”
Roads report
NEWFANE - At the May 18 Selectboard meeting, Roads Foreman Todd Lawley told the board the roads, post-mud season, are “shaping up pretty well.”
He said he and his crew have dealt with “the worst roads first,” and will address the side roads next.
They have been “going around with the backhoe,” repairing ditches and cleaning the town's culverts, bridges, and intersections, but “it's going to take a while to get to all the roads,” he said.
Steepway Road suffers damage
NEWFANE - A construction firm installing a cell tower will make repairs to Steepway Road after the town received “a lot of complaints” about its condition.
Roads Foreman and Selectboard Chair Todd Lawley told the board at the May 18 board meeting of drivers' distress.
Lawley said workers from a firm installing AT&T's cell tower on Newfane Hill “took it upon themselves to haul stone, fill our ditches in, and leave a bunch of stone in the road.”
He said he asked Administrative Assistant Shannon Meckle to “write a letter to the cell tower company and the state to ask them to fix it up to what it was before.”
In his written report to the board, Lawley wrote, “They have responded to the letter and are going to come back this week to start on it.”
“We'll be keeping an eye on that,” he said to the board.
Health officer responds to complaint
NEWFANE - The town health officer has submitted a report to the Selectboard recommending that a trailer at 990 Dover Rd. “not be rented or inhabited until serious deficiencies are addressed.”
Selectboard member Carol Hatcher read the report of Health Officer Timothy Shafer M.D. into public record at the board's May 18 meeting.
Hallie Moffit, owner of the trailer, attended the meeting and told board members she was transferring ownership to Ervin Moffit, the son of Grace Moffit, who owns the property upon which the trailer sits.
She said the trailer is unoccupied.
Ervin Moffit told the board he was in the process of removing the trailer from the site and, as of the date of the board meeting, had already begun cleaning up the property.
Selectboard Chair Todd Lawley said he had been by the site, and “it already looks better.”
Arch Bridge work prompts detour
NEWFANE -Roads Foreman and Selectboard Chair Todd Lawley told the board that “our favorite, Arch Bridge” will be closed from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. “tentatively from May 25,” for 10 to 14 days.
The Agency of Transportation (AOT) is “doing borings down to the ledge to see how much ledge is there,” Lawley said at the May 18 Selectboard meeting.
He explained the work is part of the state's plans for replacing the bridge, which spans the Rock River at the Grimes Hill Road intersection. [“Arch Bridge needs replacing ... but with what?,” Town & Village, May 27].
Lawley told the board he was with the AOT to obtain detour signs to direct travelers over Grimes Hill while the work takes place.
Town Garage alarmed
NEWFANE - Thanks to a 50-percent matching grant from the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, the town garage has a new fire alarm.
Selectboard Chair and Roads Foreman Todd Lawley reported at the May 18 board meeting that the fire alarm was installed that week.
He said having both alarms “should help lower our insurance cost.”
The town garage already has a security alarm, but Lawley said, “several town garages have burned the last few years because they didn't have a [fire] alarm system, so we really pushed to get that in there.”
Paving bid secured
NEWFANE - Springfield Paving of North Springfield has been awarded the bid for a paving project covering approximately one mile of road on Dover Road, from Stratton Hill to Monroe Bridge.
The proposal was one of four received and reviewed at the May 18 Selectboard meeting.
Meeting time remains
NEWFANE - The June 15 Selectboard meeting will begin at its usual time, 6 p.m.
The board had previously voted to change the June 15 meeting time from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Slate roof remains ridden with peril
NEWFANE - Todd Lawley announced at the May 18 regular Selectboard meeting he picked up from the Town Hall's yard two slates that had apparently fallen from the roof.
With that, Lawley, Selectboard chair, gave the board an update on the progress of the slate roof's repair.
He said the estimate he received was for “about $4,000” to replace “about 100 slates.”
Town Clerk Gloria Cristelli said some slates fell in the Town Hall's yard near where she has recently been gardening.
“Can we just do something so nobody gets killed this summer?” she asked the board.
Board member Marion Dowling reminded Cristelli that the June 1 Selectboard meeting will be the “priority meeting,” where the board will list and assess the necessary Town Hall repairs.
Resident Gunther Garbe recommended the town sell the slates. Board member Carol Hatcher suggested the town have a “slate tag sale.”
“I'll buy three of them,” said Dowling.