Road repairs going back to referendum

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Repairs to Blackberry Hill Road in Beacon Falls, seen here after being torn up during the heavy rains of Tropical Storm Irene, will be funded through grant money. Town officials are looking to put another referendum for other road repairs in town before the voters. ELIO GUGLIOTTI
BEACON FALLS — The town will once again ask Beacon Falls residents for their approval on a bond package to fix roads.

Beacon Falls is looking at a referendum tentatively set for Sept. 29 to vote on a $10 million bond package to fix the town’s roads.

Selectman Michael Krenesky said he is concerned that $10 million may not be enough to repair all the roads listed because prices could rise over the next 10 years.

“We’re playing a guessing game here that I know we’re not going to win,” Krenesky said.

In the meantime, Beacon Falls has secured enough grant money to repair Blackberry Hill Road, which was hit hard by both Tropical Storm Irene and another storm weeks before.

The town went out to bid for those repairs this week and the Board of Selectmen plans to award that bid at its next meeting Sept. 12. Work on the road will start immediately after that, Cable said.

According to Krenesky, the town will hire someone to fix Blackberry Hill Road from the Bethany town line to bottom of the hill at the intersection of Route 42 and Skokorat Road.

He said the town is also looking to replace the storm water drain line from top of the hill all the way down and put in a larger pipe.

Krenesky said construction at the top of the hill has clear cut trees and caused more water to flow to the road, which has caused damages.

The bottom third of the road was repaved with money from a bond package two years ago, but the town didn’t have enough money to finish the road, Krenesky said.

Even though replacing the water drain means tearing up the relatively newly-finished road, the town doesn’t have a choice, he said.

1 COMMENT

  1. By the way, Ms. Cable currently lives on Blackberry Hill and has also been impacted by the drainage problems caused by natural events.

    (OOPS, Where did that come from ?)

    Isn’t it odd that we’re now looking to pave a road we paid to pave two years ago ?

    Is it more odd that a town that cut street sweeping from the budget can do what it takes to find funding (in a matter of days/weeks according to this article) to have the town leader’s road paved twice in three years or that another (OFTEN quoted) town leader says “We’re playing a guessing game here” ?

    I don’t begrudge a leader getting his/her road finished nicely, I think it’s one of the rewards for dealing with things like the insanity of hurricanes (which I believe was handled very well), but I do object to doing it every couple of years. I would be surprised if there wasn’t significant planning and engineering paid for on the drains put in 2 years ago. We should be holding whoever collected on that accountable to foot the bills until it’s no longer a problem.

    With regard to playing a guessing game, in the case of leadership like this, we’re also getting what we pay for.