At last nights Selectmen meeting.
The excavator for the highway department is back and now a new one will cost 203 thousand dollars with a trade allowance of 10 thousand which makes the dollar exchange at 193 thousand dollars. Apparently the trade in value went down from 14 thousand to 10 thousand. a point made by the highway supt. was it was getting hard to start the excavator without using starting fluid aid so rather than spend the approximate $2500.00 to fix the estimated problem, you buy a new machine.

Chapter 90 money was discussed and it was pointed out that what could be the three worst roads in Town was Crotty Ave., portions of South Road and a portion of Hubbardston Road. It was stated that one of these roads alone would use up all chapter 90 money the town now has if the road was fixed completely. There will be an expenditure of 45 thousand dollars from chapter 90 money for engineering for a drainage fix on Otter River Road, which was one of the roads that was paved last year.

One thing observed last night was that John Columbus does not like to have much input, questions or discussion from town residents present at the meeting. One resident made a comment on a subject then after a few minutes, the same resident wished to speak again and Mr. Columbus said that topic was done, at which point there was a little back and forth and then the resident got up to leave saying he thought the BOS meeting was open to the public for discussion and the resident said he was leaving and sorry for bothering the meeting. This in my opinion is a low point in selectmen affairs. I have also been cut off by Mr. Columbus when trying to ask a question or make a followup point. What bothers me is when residents take the time to show up for a selectmen meeting, they get shut down by a chairman who does not seem interested in hearing alot of comment or discussion, in my opinion. I know that when a chairman allows all people to speak and offer comment, meetings can drag on and take longer than expected but when residents take the time to attend and wish to speak, I believe they should be given the opportunity. In my opinion, Mr. Columbus and I differ on what is an open meeting and how residents should be treated.

Jeff Bennett