The first details of a long-awaited road improvement program in Seymour were revealed during a Selectmen’s meeting July 2.
First Selectman Kurt Miller unveiled a five-year plan for maintaining about 20 of the 90 miles of roads in town. He said Thursday (July 25) he’d likely share information about roads that need more extensive repairs at the selectmen’s meeting Aug. 6 .
Improving the town’s roads has been a priority for Miller — it was one of the hallmarks of his campaign for first selectmen in 2011 — but he told selectmen July 2 that it will take several years for the town to build up an appreciable amount of money with which to actually do the work.
Residents approved a budget last year that set aside $75,000 for road work, and this year’s budget earmarked $125,000.
Miller said he wants to see that number grow to $650,000 by 2018.
About $100,000 per year will go toward chipsealing roads in decent shape so they don’t deteriorate, with the rest of the funds going toward repairing run-down roads.
But the work isn’t cheap — each $100,000 corresponds to about four miles of chipsealing — so Miller said last year’s money was “held back” in order to combine it with this year’s.
The chip-sealing schedule is posted below. Article continues after the document.
In addition, Frank Loda, a private citizen, recorded most of the meeting and posted it to YouTube. Click the play button above to see the meeting. The roads discussion begins about five minutes into the video.
Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis asked how the roads for this year were selected.
“It’s a matter of driving around and locating areas we believe will benefit by it,” Public Works Director Dennis Rozum said.
“We tried to look at groups of roads,” Rozum said. “When we do the chip-sealing we’re going to be stockpiling stone, and we don’t want to be traveling from one area to another area. We try to group and chip-seal those roads which we believe will add some longevity to roads.”
Miller said the chip-sealing work will begin within the next couple of weeks.
Significant resurfacing work will take longer to begin because the town is waiting for information regarding grants to repair Brook Street and Dolan Circle, he said July 5.
Delays have been frustrating, he said.
“The unfortunate thing is we’re very far behind,” Miller told fellow selectmen during the selectmen’s meeting. “$200,000, as Dennis will tell you, is not going to get us all that far. If we stick to our plan, when we get up into 2017, 2018, we’ll be able to start putting substantial sums of money towards our roads.”
Miller said during the meeting that anyone with input or suggestions about the road work could contact him directly.
