9/15/1981 BOARD OF SELECTMEN Minutes

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NOTES ON ADMINISTRATIVE MEETING BOARD OF SELECTMEN J September 15 , 1981 Present: Chm. Garland, Selectman Thomas and Exec. Sec. Joseph Murphy 1 ) Superintendent of Highways Walter Jacobson appeared to discuss a problem he is having with the by-law requirement to do "temporary repairs to private ways" . There are just too many requests for the Highway Dept. to handle. They are being forced to devote so much time to them that they find they are not having enough time to do the work that is needed on public ways. He pointed out that they had spent 4 days at Pirates Cove, before it could even be oiled. That means 8 men for 4 days, plus one additional day for oiling, will amount to 320 manhours , costing the town approximately $1,700. Now a request has come in from Rock Landing Road , which will require equipment and man hours. He has heard that requests will be forth- coming from the Popponesset Beach Association, John Ponds Estates and Clipper Ship Road, who are all considering having the Town assume repair of their roads. All these roads were put in the 1960 's , and all are now beginning to deteriorate. He finds that when residents pay for the materials , they become very demanding about having the work done. He gets several calls a day from the Pirate' s Cove resi- dents. One alternative is to go out to bid and get private contractors to do the work, but he doesn't think this would be an advantage to anyone. Sel. Thomas stated that of course, these problems are going to increase as the Town grows . Mr. Jacobson said he just has 8 men to do the Town work - and he is getting by marginally, at that. Chm. Garland asked what would happe8 if the Town declined to do this work, except on an emergency basis. Or , perhaps , the Town could just act as the agent, and put the work out to bid and have several jobs could be put out to bid together to make it worthwhile for a contractor to bid on. A third possibility would be to do it only at certain times of the year. Mr. Murphy stated that the advantage to .going out to bid saves on the labor. Chm. Garland mentioned that it would also be difficult to determine "what' s an emergency?" Sel. Thomas siad it might be a good idea to touch base with the Town engineer, set priorities for the roads to be worked on, and then pub- lish the list, as some other towns do. The Execututive Secretary mentioned the Legal Ad that Falmouth had placed in the paper, saying they did not intend to add any roads this year, due to fiscal restraints. He suggested the Town might set a certain time for requests to be in, but caution the residents that the • Town could only do a certain amount each year. Sel. Thomas said she feels we should provide the taxpayers with some service in this area. Chm. Garland said that we can't let the public roads suffer to provide the taxpayers with wervice for their private roads. Mr. Jacobson stated that he could only work on the roads 6 months out of the year, and he is running out of time this year.