The Hanson Select Board on Tuesday, April 23, approved, contingent on some final changes, a modified road opening permit application process, mainly geared toward utility companies who must open the road surface for repairs.
Town Administrator Lisa Green explained that the town has had a road opening permit application process on file for many years, but that she had never actually seen the form until Interim Highway Director Curt McLean had brought one in to discuss the changes he’s looking for.
“He realized that there are quite a few improvements that could be made that would better serve the town, and be a better watchdog for the town, so companies put the roads back in the condition that they found them in – or make them better,” Green said.
The permits govern what companies seeking to open the roadway pavement to make repairs and must be applied for through the Highway Department.
“I’ve noticed some of the utilities are, I’ll say inconsistent and, perhaps, not as judicious as we’d like them to be, about sealing things back up after they’ve torn everything up,” Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
The application is more extensive, at eight or nine pages compared to the page or two of the past, McLean said.
“This here really holds companies to the gun, that when they’re done, they will restore the road – full width – and basically come in and mill the road an inch and a half, and then repaving an inch and a half,” which is the Highway Director’s responsibility to check.
“East Washington is kind of a disaster area,” he said about recent work there. “[It’s] understandable, they did a lot of work. … Now we have to do a refurbishment of the whole road. The gas company is putting money forth toward that. Is it enough? No.”
He said this policy will prevent that in the future.
The gas utility is now looking to do 2,800 feet on West Washington Street, with the policy in place, they would have to refurbish the whole, roadway where they are working.
Green said town counsel has not yet reviewed it.
“Thank you for taking the initiative to point out something we could do better,” FitzGerald said, noting a legal review would be prudent.
Vice Chair Weeks asked if the new policy has been reviewed with a fine-tooth comb to make sure there are no contradictions within it.
“How do you hold someone’s feet to the fire?” he said, asking how the town’s interests are protected.
FitzGerald-Kemmett said there are enough checks and balances in it that the policy update is a definite improvement.
“I’m not saying the questions negate the pros that this brings,” Weeks said. “We’ve been burned a couple of times … and we’re still kind of paying the price for [that]. … I feel a lot more comfortable if someone internally is the one who’s signing off on it.”
Weeks asked Green if he could send a list of items for town counsel to check, to which she agreed.
They have to apply for the permit, McLean stressed of the construction companies, adding that the Highway Director is the one who is going to be checking on the process of how the road repairs are made.
“If they don’t abide by it, good luck getting another permit in town,” McLean said.
FitzGerald-Kemmett also wanted to see fees, which are now doubled, to be increased to protect the town.
“If you’re coming to seek forgiveness and not permission on something like opening up our roads, I don’t think just doubling a $100 fee is very punitive at all,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
Ed Heal asked if the mention of West Washington Street meant there was a time-sensitive issue.
McLean said it is a little time-sensitive, because the work there is being considered for a start in early May.
In other business the Select Board, which had voted to seek ARPA funds to pay for a new ambulance during a recent meeting, heard an update Green on the effort to obtain that funding.
She said she has completed the grant application and submitted it, but a grant agreement is required, which the board had to approve and sign it so she can submit it to the Plymouth County Commissioners.
The board also has the issue as an article on the May 6 Town Meeting warrant.
The process through which the Select Board processes reapplications of former Planning Board members that had been part of a recent investigation was also clarified by the board.
“We’ve had a couple of people in the past who, either we chose not to appoint to the ZBA or we chose to remove from the ZBA, seeking to be reappointed to the ZBA,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “Is it the will of the board to entertain those applications?
She noted that previously, when the board discussed the issue, it had centered on an individual who had been removed from the ZBA after a hearing and unanimous decision that the board did not want to “exhume that body,” she said, and go through that whole process again, because they had already made a decision.
She asked if the board had the same feeling about such situations now.
“My opinion hasn’t changed,” Board member Ann Rein said.
“We’re not putting that band back together,” FitzGerald Kemmett asked.
“Right,” Rein replied.
“It makes sense [to ask],” Weeks said. “Every time there’s a new board we [should] circle back to this, because the will of a previous board might not be the will of the current board. As long as there’s a status check every once in a while, I think that’s the fairest way to do it.”