Clarksburg Officials Approve Road Projects From $1M Borrowing
Officials are hoping to address some of the town's roads by this fall — but more likely it will be spring before paving can begin.
iBerkshires.com reports Road Foreman Kyle Hurlbut has been chomping at the bit to get bids out for shimming and paving on three roads: Henderson, School and Gleason. But, he said, he wanted to make sure the Select Board would endorse his choices since it would be coming out of the $1 million borrowing authorized earlier this year.
But what won't be getting done is a widening of the south end of Middle Road from the four corners to the pump station. The board at a special meeting on Wednesday afternoon voted to return a $77,838 Complete Streets grant back to the state and hold off on paving.
The Finance Committee on Monday had endorsed returning the grant after Hurlbut explained that the town was short about $50,000 to do the full project.
The Complete Streets grant was only for specific aspects — such as the widening and the outside white line — but couldn't be used for other issues such as drainage or center lines. The town had been planning to put its state Chapter 90 road funds toward the project. The original estimate had been about $210,000 but the lowest bid had come in $275,878 for 1,500 feet of road.
The town is also awaiting word on a STRAP grant, or Small Town Road Assistance Program grant through the MassWorks Infrastructure program, for the north end of Middle Road that is in particularly poor condition and prompted a large number of complaints this past spring. The up to $1 million grant would be used to address the roadway from Wood Road to River Road.