With Town Meeting looming, the Billerica Board of Selectmen, Monday, met briefly to recommend two final warrant articles and discuss possible uses for the old Ditson School on Boston Road.
The board approved a capital article that would take $500,000 from free cash to purchase a new backhoe, bucket truck and the replacement of water lines in the Rio Vista section of town.
Though he supported the warrant article, Selectman Andrew Deslaurier asked why these purchases were not made in the normal budgetary process in the spring.
Town Manager John Curran responded that the town and received more revenue from new economic development than officials had previously anticipated.
Curran also stressed that the items were of an urgent need. Curran said that town employees had been called to the Rio Vista section of town approximately 21 times in recent years to fix line breaks. According to Curran, the town could save a significant amount of money in labor and overtime play if the lines were replaced.
“These are essential, frontline services of government,” Curran said.
In other news, Curran met with officials for the Massachusetts Housing Authority to discuss the agency’s interest in renovating the old Ditson School into elderly housing.
Curran said that the MHA was more inclined to help communities develop private properties into affordable housing units.
This is something of a setback for town officials and local housing authority members who have tried for years to find a suitable use for the old school property.
Still, members of the board of Selectmen remain reluctant to give up any authority over the Boston Road site. They forwarded the matter to the housing subcommittee in the hope that the committee will be able to come up with a proper use for the antiquated school.
“We need to explore all the avenues so we can make informed decisions,” said Correnti.
This was the final board meeting before Town Meeting convenes Tuesday. Curran, who at times has shown noticeable frustration with the body’s reticence to approve capital infrastructure improvements, said that he hopes in this session members will realize that the town can move ahead with major capital infrastructure projects and keep a reasonable tax rate.
“We can manage our debt service and still manage our infrastructure,” said Curran.
