Newcastle Selectmen met to decide on road and maintenance projects for the next five years, but some citizens arrived believing that the selectmen were planning to establish a Department of Public Works, despite a vote against it two months ago.

At a lightly attended meeting, voters narrowly decided against establishing a Department of Public Works.

After a brief exchange, the board assured the town that they would attempt having only a road commissioner and contractors for the work for at least a year, and revisit it in terms of cost at that time.

Ben Frey said that the goal was saving money. “If it turns out that it is more expensive to hire contractors, you’d want us to reexamine that, wouldn’t you?” he asked.

His question was met with some searching glances from the attendees, most of whom had worked or are working in construction.

It was decided that in the current fiscal year, the town would work on Lewis Hill Road, which needs a new culvert, tree work, road paving and re-striping. Additionally, it was decided to sweep only the downtown area rather than the whole town, as had been done previously. Some brush and cleanup work needs to be done at Sheepscot Cemetery and Glidden Road cemetery needs tree work done.

Steve Reynolds said that after July, in FY17, the fire station roof will be replaced with a metal roof for $58,000, and the Sheepscot Station firehouse needs some work done as well. There is a site plan scheduled for a Mills Road brownfield site, with the hope of turning at least part of the site into a public park. The North Newcastle landfill site will be assessed for a photovoltaic solar farm. It is currently planned to re-side Town Hall and remove the vinyl siding.  The siding work is expected to cost $12,000.

A ballpark figure for road and general construction for FY17 is about $77,500, but the figure cannot be stated concretely until requests for proposals return from the contractors.