When ballots are cast on March 10, the council hopes voters will take into consideration the condition of town roads and what road repairs could cost in the future if the $12 million bond fails this year.

The proposed bond would continue the road reconstruction program for three more years in annual $4 million installments, in addition to an annual $1 million in maintenance. Begun six years ago, the town has already spent two bonds – $8 million approved in 2003 and $12 million in 2005 – on the program. Those funds were set to run out in 2008.

“If we don’t continue, we’re going to regress back to some degree and it’s going to cost us more money in the future,” said Town Councilor Michael Scanlon. “Hopefully, we’ve learned the lessons of the past.”

In 2008, two competing road bonds at $8 million and $12 million failed. A two-thirds vote was required to pass. This year, the Town Council voted 6-1 to put a $12 million bond on the ballot for the 2009 election on March 10. Councilor Paul Roy was the sole dissenter.

But the council will not publicly campaign for the bond because of the recession, said Chairman Mike Izbicki.

Izbicki voted for the bond to give the public a choice, but he personally does not support it.

“I will not go out, try to sell this to the voters because I don’t fully believe we should go forward with this right now because of the economic conditions,” Izbicki said.

The economy aside, Izbicki said the fact that the town could lose more than $1 million in revenue in the state budget proposed by the governor is reason enough to oppose another road bond this year.

Scanlon is backing the bond as an individual and a town councilor. Normand Longval likewise is encouraging people on his own to vote for it. Like Scanlon, he said the town should continue its progress on the roads.

Councilors say the program has been a success, citing a positive review from CMA Engineers, an independent consultant.

As a result of the work so far, the Pavement Condition Index — a measure on a scale of 1 to 100 of the overall quality of town roads — went from the mid 40s in 2003 to 68.5 in five years, according to town records. But without more funding, Scanlon said that progress could be undone.

“I believe our roads will start to slowly deteriorate back to where they were,” he said.

Scanlon said the town is at the halfway point in fixing up its roads. When the road program was inaugurated in 2003, he said the town estimated that it had about $50 million worth of reconstruction and maintenance to do. The town now has $26 million under its belt — $20 million in the two bonds and $6 million in maintenance over six years.

Bob Young, also a supporter of the bond, said the council can decide when and how to bond, so that it could delay interest and principal payments until other bonds expire. That would smooth out the impact on the tax rate.

“We need to approve the authorization of the issuing of up to $12 million in road bonds to continue our road rebuilding program,” Young said. “The key to this authorization is to continue rebuilding our roads while developing a financial approach that allows us to minimize the increases in annual tax rates by making sure the bond payback coincides with when our other bonds are paid off.”

Town Manager Russ Marcoux said it is difficult to predict how the bond would affect taxes.

“It all depends on when you take it out,” Marcoux said. A 10-year bond at a 3.8 interest rate would add an estimated 46.3 cents per $1,000 property value to the local property tax rate, said Marcoux. A 15-year term would be 35.6 cents per $1,000 property value and in 20 years would be 32 cents per $1,000 property value, depending on interest rates.

Time of year also makes a difference. If the town takes out the bond after January, it will not have to start paying on the principal until the following year.

Interest payments only would be an estimated 12 cents on the tax rate. But, Marcoux said, the after-January rule could change depending on what is happening in the bond market.

Scanlon understands that some taxpayers may turn down the bond over concerns about whether they can afford it.

But, he added, putting off road expenses to future years will only lead to higher costs over the long term. Plus, he said, the town owes residents who paid taxes for the first bonds but have not had their roads done.

“Now it’s time that these people reap the benefit. We always asked people to be patient. We couldn’t get to every road in the first year,” Scanlon said. “I believe that people who live on roads that have not been addressed are owed the opportunity to get their road fixed.”

Scanlon admits he has been more confident in the past that the road bonds would pass. He expects that the economy will be a factor for those who vote no, but he said the bond is also suffering for a lack of official support from the Town Council as a group — something Scanlon says is “kind of sad.” He puts the bond’s chances of passing around 50-50.

If it fails, Marcoux said the town has an obligation to come (back to voters) with a third one in the March 2010 election.

The following roads are tentatively scheduled for varying degrees of reconstruction over the next three years, if, of course, the $12 million bond passes on March 10. The focus is on heavily traveled collector roads. Local roads near the main roads are addressed at the same time.

2009: Joppa Hill Road, King Road, and Cider Mill Road.

2010: Perry Road, South River Road River, Liberty Hill Road, Constitution Drive.

2011: Boynton Street, Wayside Drive, Holbrook Road, Wallace Road.