ATHOL – Voters at the Nov. 9 Special Town Meeting will be asked to decide on the town’s responsibility for the upkeep of private roads, however, the article to be presented will deal solely with minor road repairs.
At its meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 14, the Private Roads Bylaw Advisory Committee were presented with several model bylaws from other communities, as well as a draft by Town Counsel John Barrett. The draft contained language detailing the procedures to be followed if residents of a private road asked the town to do either minor or major repairs.
Several committee members expressed concerns about the paragraph dealing with major repairs, mainly due to questions over funding. Town Manager Shaun Suhoski said at present, the town doesn’t have the funding for any major repairs in its operating budget, and that borrowing money would be problematic.
“We’re laying people off,” said Suhoski. “We don’t have the money to create new debt service. Anyway, borrowing would require a debt exclusion, which goes to town meeting.”
Suhoski explained there is no separate line item in the town budget dedicated to upkeep of private roads.
“Years ago, there used to be money set aside – around $2,000 – which was used to fill potholes in the springtime so a police car or ambulance could get down the road,” he said. “But it was a minor amount for minor repairs.”
Committee Chair Marc Maxwell asked Barrett if the panel could delete the paragraph on major repairs from his draft and keep the section on minor repairs, to which Barrett agreed. Maxwell felt the committee should act on a bylaw that at least addresses minor repairs, while continuing to meet to work on details regarding major work, with the intention of bringing that proposal to Town Meeting in June 2027.
Finance and Warrant Advisory Committee Chair Ken Duffy, who stressed he was speaking only for himself, said, “The problem, whether it’s for minor repairs or major repairs, you’re using public funding on private roads; that’s public money, whether it $800 or $8,000. Technically, we’re not allowed to do that unless you have specific guidelines, which we don’t have. Typically, by state statute, you don’t have the authority to use public funding in a private manner.”
Barrett’s paragraph on minor repairs notes that action on these would require a petition from abutters on a private way. The number of signatures to be required, however, he left up to the committee. Since the issue revolved around minor repairs, the committee determined a petition would need to be signed by only one or more abutters and presented to the superintendent of public works for consideration.
That led Duffy to interject, “The decision on whether to do the work shouldn’t just be on the superintendent. Again, we have public money and public resources being used – equipment, manpower – and I think there needs to be more than one judgment call here. Maybe the petition doesn’t need to go to the Select Board, but maybe to the town manager. But there should be two sets of eyes.”
“I understand what you’re saying,” said committee member Mike Butler, “but this has been done for years.”
With little time to finalize wording on the bylaw in time for the Special Town Meeting, the committee asked Barrett to rework the paragraph on minor repairs in order to better answer the concerns of committee members. The committee will convene again at 5 p.m. on Oct. 20 in Room 21 at Town Hall.