BRISTOL — At its Monday meeting, the Bristol selectboard met with Kristen Underwood of the town conservation commission to discuss possible real estate negotiations.
The meeting was held behind closed doors in executive session and Town Administrator Bill Bryant declined to discuss the details of the real estate negotiations.
No decisions have yet been made regarding the negotiations, he said, and if an agreement is met, the town would release the details.
In other news from Monday’s meeting, the Bristol selectboard:
•  Promoted Bristol Police Officer Randy Crowe to the rank of sergeant. Bryant said the board has been extremely pleased with Crowe’s performance over the past two years, as the department has dealt with a staffing shortage. Crowe will assist Chief Kevin Gibbs with administrative duties and training of part-time officers.
•  Approved Wayne Johnson and Michael Zani’s proposal to set up a food cart by Bartlett Falls. The company, called Two Buds Souperlative LLP, will serve up fresh soups and foods. They’ll also be open early for breakfast.
•  Approved access to Bristol streets for a five-kilometer race on July 29 at 8 a.m. The race is part of the annual cystic fibrosis fundraiser, the Three Day Stampede.
•  Reviewed the proposed changes to the town plan that the board approved at its last meeting. According to Bryant, the board made some slight alterations to wording on Monday. The most substantive change, Bryant said, was to a sentence in the land-use section of the plan. Previously it read: “Bristol residents have expressed a desire to protect the Village Planning Area.”
Now it reads: “Based on the survey conducted and participation at public meetings, there appears to be a desire to protect the Village Planning Area.”
•  Met with residents who live on the private road off of Bristol’s East Street, once known as Gardner Lane, to talk about plowing their road.
In 1997, the selectboard wanted to cease maintaining five private roads and driveways and treat them like other private roads, which the town didn’t plow, said Bryant.
Due to a legal hang-up, the town decided to keep maintaining them. But the selectboard at that time didn’t add them to the state aid system, so the town wasn’t reimbursed for the plowing.
Unless the road can be officially added to the town highway list, the selectboard doesn’t want to maintain the private road anymore.
The residents in attendance told the board that they thought the issue had been resolved more than 10 years ago and didn’t fully understand why the road wouldn’t be maintained, said Bryant.
“The selectboard heard them out and told them that if they lay that road out as a highway, the town will require greater road width, easements and deeds from the landowners,” said Bryant. “We’ve got to have an adequate town turnaround so one of the owners would have to give up property to have that turnaround.”
Bryant said the issue is still up in the air, and residents on the “road of questionable legal status formerly known as Gardner Lane,” as Bryant put it, would have to decide if they want to make the aforementioned concessions to have the town plowing their road.
Reporter Andrew Stein is at [email protected].