Derry board to consider roads work bids Health officer hopes to compile community contact list

By Bruce Frauman
©2018 Telegraph Publishing LLC

With four contractors looking on, Londonderry Select Board chair Jim Ameden read aloud six bids for road repair and paving projects at Monday’s board meeting. He also said that he and Road Foreman Mathew Rawson would review the bids before making a recommendation to the board.

A special session may be needed to approve the winning bid, he added.

The bids averaged $1.5 million for the projects that includes work on Landgrove, Middletown and Thompsonburg roads, Parsons Lane and the apron that leads to the driveway at the

Transfer Station. The work specifies reclaiming the roads, or breaking up the road, then paving.

Dick Dale said the town Traffic Committee is working with the Windham Regional Commission to do a traffic count for Thompsonburg, Landgrove and Spring Hill  in the next two weeks.

He added that the WRC has submitted a request to the state Agency of Transportation to conduct a more comprehensive safety study on Thomsonburg Road, preferably to be completed before construction begins in August. Dale said it would help if the Select Board would petition VTrans to request a traffic count of Route 11, which the WRC has already requested.  No action was taken by the Board.

Planning Commission budget; emergency contact

Planning Commission chair Sharon Crossman told the board that the commission will underspend its budget for the first six months of 2018, but overspend by about the same amount in the July 2018 through June 2019 period.

She said the underspending is because the Town Office Planning Project, which includes landscaping designed to ease the buildings’ moisture infiltration, has slowed down since Town Manager Robert Nied hasn’t had time to write a request for proposals for the project.

And, she added, the overspending will come because the cost of rewriting the town’s bylaws will be larger than expected. She said she will keep the board posted.

Irwin Kuperberg, acting as the town Health Officer, returned to the board to again request that a list of phone numbers of property owners be compiled to be used in cases of emergency. Kuperberg said it took him several hours to find a contact number for a house where food scraps had been attracting bears.

Ameden emphasized that while phone numbers can be requested, they cannot be required.

Town Clerk Kelly Pajala said the original handwritten list of names and emails for the town’s email list can be viewed during office hours. And board member George Mora suggested that Kuperburg may need to be creative in collecting the contact information.

In other business:

• Speaking of bears, board member Tom Cavanagh said Transfer Station has been bear-free for two weeks, with fencing and other deterrents seeming successful.
• Solid Waste Coordinator Esther Fishman asked Mora to publicly thank Londonderry Hardware and the Weston Marketplace for handling punchcard sales. This has allowed people to purchase cards to deposit their solid waste at times when town offices are closed.
• Labeau said that the job listing for an assistant to the town administrator is on the website but has not yet attracted any applicants.
• Kelly Pajala announced that the first Music Monday will take place at Pingree Park on July 9 and continue every other Monday throughout the summer. The music will start at 6 and people are encouraged to bring blankets or chairs and picnic dinners. Editor’s note: You can find this and other events in the new Chester Telegraph calendar.
• Dick Dale said that Candy Bliss deserves recognition for collecting more than 20,700 cans last month, which he called “extraordinary.” Proceeds are split between the Parks Board and Little League. Dale asked that people take their cans to the Transfer Station building holding cans and bottles to be redeemed rather that leaving them in the general recycling bin.
• Pajala said the Parks Board has hired Leigh Nanee to work 10 hours a week to help maintain town parks during the summer. Pajala told The Telegraph some of her duties will include water testing at Memorial Pond, trash pickup and general maintenance and appearance.