By Mary Chasse, Neighb News Correspondent
At its meeting on Friday 11/30/21 the Acushnet Selectboard discussed taking ownership of South Main Street, and leasing some replacement vehicles for the golf course.
The board started the meeting with a moment of silence for town employee Jessica Rego who recently passed after a short battle with cancer.
Chairperson David Desroches said Ms. Rego was a town employee for three years and worked as the Senior Clerk for the Accounting Department. Mr. Desroches said she leaves behind her husband and three-year-old son. The board honored her with a few moments of silence.
In another matter Mr. Desroches informed the board that they needed to allocate more money for the speeding signs on Slocum Street. The board voted unanimously to make a reserve fund transfer of $5,000.
The board alsomet with Ed Issac from the Golf Committee about some equipment that needs to be replaced.
Mr. Issac said the good news is that golf participation has been very strong. He said the bad news is that delivery time for new golf equipment to be shipped is very backed up. He said delivery times are between August and September of 2022.
Mr. Issac said he was there to request that the Selectboard place an order for four replacement vehicles/ mowers that are critical to maintaining turf quality. The cost of all four vehicles is around $157,000 , which will be in next year’s budget.
The board unanimously approved the lease for all four vehicles.
In another matter the board discussed ownership of South Main Street. Mr. Desroches explained that the street is controlled by the state and there are a few options on how the town can take ownership of the road.
He said one option is that the town can take the road now and pay cash to the Department of Transportation, but it will take 12-15 months to get complete ownership of the road.
Option two would be to take ownership of the road after the Department of Transportation does all of the improvements which could take over two years.
Mr. Desroches said that any utility work would take 6-9 months and also needs permits.
He said that they might want to take the road over sooner rather than later.
Board member David Wojnar said that it was definitely worth exploring, but it will require town meeting approval.
He said that they do not have to take over the road tomorrow, but he would love to have more in depth discussions about it and discuss it with District 5.
Mr. Wojnar explained that if the town took ownership over the road they would have more control over PJ Keating and the truck traffic there.
Board member Kevin Gaspar said he was interested in discussing it further.
The board voted unanimously to allow Mr. Wojnar to engage in dialogue with officials at the Mass. HIghway District 5 Office, which includes Acushnet.
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