Taxpayers will be asked at Aug. 27 town meeting to support road repair plan

SHARON — A special town meeting has been scheduled for Friday, Aug. 27, at 8 p.m. to vote on a $6,280,000 bonding package for repairing and rehabilitating roads throughout town.

The package has been long in the works. First Selectman Bob Loucks first announced that he was putting the package  together at a public hearing in late April.

If approved, the funds will be used for repairs to the culvert on West Woods Road No.2 and for work on at least 45 other town roads.

The money will cover the design, construction, materials, equipment, engineering and all other resources associated with the project.

If approved, Loucks said, the bond will be repaid over a term of 20 years, with the town paying $315,000 a year.

Loucks is encouraging taxpayers to attend the meeting.

“This needs to be done,� he said. “I can’t emphasize this enough. These roads cannot go another winter without being fixed up. It is up to the people of Sharon.

“We need to get this passed now so we can have time this fall to get this project out to bid and then have the roads repaired. We can’t just keep patching them up over and over again. It doesn’t work anymore.�

He said Sharon has 55 miles of paved roads — and 27.7 miles of dirt roads that are also in bad shape.

“It’s much more expensive to maintain dirt roads,â€� he said in an interview in April. “Last year we had to deal with a heavy rainy season and they suffered dramatically. Thank goodness we didn’t have a mud season this year.â€� 

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