By Michelle Kim
NEW BOSTON – An aging sluiceway, a proposed footbridge and confusion over procedural issues took up most of the discussion at the deliberative session of Town Meeting on Feb. 4.
About 40 residents attended the meeting, which lasted more than four hours.
A pair of citizen petition articles regarding a clogged and crumbling sluiceway sparked the most debate and procedural maneuvers.
Residents John Palmer and Jason Unger, who were among the petitioners, saw their property on Route 13 and Clark Hill Road flood last spring when a sluice way running through their land to the Piscataquog River failed. They explained that the articles asked the town to maintain the drainage system, which affected multiple properties as well as state roads, since there was no record of what entity had originally built the sluiceway.
The Board of Selectmen and several residents voiced reluctance to see the town take on the responsibility, citing the unknown scope of the problem and the unwanted precedence it would set.
“The issue is, should we spend public funds for a private system?” posed Selectman Gordon Carlstrom.
Multiple amendments attaching dollar amounts of $10,000 and $5,000 to the articles for drainage system maintainence failed. Attempts to move the articles onto the ballot also failed, which meant the articles would still appear on the ballot as originally proposed – a result which frustrated several attendees.
“A little disappointing that something failing doesn’t mean a damn thing,” said resident Brandy Mitroff.
Finally, an amendment introduced by road agent John Riendeau that committed the town to exploring the problem, instead of maintaining the system, was approved and passed.
An article raising $19,000 for the proposed Mill Pond Footbridge also drew fire, with many questions and comments for and against the project, but was ultimately put onto the ballot unchanged.
The $3.7 million operating budget article was reduced by $2,500 because of a stipend that was removed, according to Carlstrom. The estimated tax impact would still be an increase of 18 cents per $1,000 assessed property valuation.
Representatives from Verizon Wireless Networks spoke at the meeting regarding an article that would allow the Board of Selectmen to enter into a lease for a cell phone tower.
Most articles will go on the ballot unchanged, including a total of approximately $650,000 in special and individual warrant articles.
Town Moderator Lee Nyquist, a 16-year veteran of his post, observed that this year’s deliberative session seemed to have more substantive debate, harkening back to the traditional town meetings New Boston used to have before 1999, when the town went to the SB2 form of goverment that separates discussion from ballot voting.
The town election takes place on Tuesday, March 11, at New Boston Central School, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.