MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury voters on Tuesday, April 12, will vote for a second time on a $3 million bond issue to finance various road improvement projects throughout town.
The second Australian ballot vote, to take place at the municipal building, is needed to affirm a Town Meeting Day vote of 467 to 158 in favor of the bond. That initial vote was improperly warned and therefore must be ratified.
“It is to take care of the glitch,” Middlebury Town Manager Bill Finger said of the second referendum.
The proposed 20-year, $3 million bond issue is to take care 17 different road improvement projects that might otherwise linger on the drawing board.
The bond debt would not be paid through a property tax increase. Rather, it would be paid down with funds Middlebury already budgets annually for capital improvements.
It’s a strategy Middlebury has already employed. Last July, Middlebury residents backed an identical $3 million bond to chip away at a mounting backlog of needed repairs to the town’s water system infrastructure. Some of those water projects are now ready to go, but officials believe it would make sense to mesh some of that work with some complementary road projects while the sites are dug up.
The proposed bonded highway work, slated for the next four construction seasons, would involve paving, ditching — and in come cases sidewalk, curbing and drainage upgrades — to sections of Buttolph Drive, Rolling Acres, South Street, Painter Road, Grey Ledge, Stuart Lane, Juniper Lane, South Gorham Road, Creek Road, Quarry Road, Duane Court, School House Hill Road, Foote Street, Green Mountain Place, Seminary Street Extension and Seymour Street.
The selectboard will hold an informational meeting on the bond on Monday, April 11, at 7:30 p.m., at the town offices.
Reporter John Flowers is at [email protected].