SALEM — A $2.3 million state loan to replace the town's residential water meters was rejected at the polls Tuesday, but the project is not off the table.
The meters will be up for discussion again Saturday at the second deliberative session.
Voters turned down the loan, which needed two-thirds approval, 1,742 to 2,324. The article on the ballot would have replaced all the meters in town in a single-phase project. The interest rate on the 10-year loan was 1.8 percent.
At the second deliberative session Saturday, voters can approve the first phase of the project in cash, for $459,710. That project would have five phases and a greater impact on the water and sewer rates — 36 cents for water and 25 cents for sewer, as opposed to the 20-cent and 14-cent increases that would have come with the loan.
Neither item would have an impact on the tax rate. Replacing the meters — which measure water less accurately as they age — would help the town recoup lost revenue and make billing more fair. The new meters would be read electronically.
Public works Director Rick Russell said he was disappointed the loan article failed, but said he thought people supported the water meters — not the method of payment. Everyone who has asked him questions about the meters supports replacing them, he said.
"That's why I'm more inclined to believe that the vote was against the method of payment as opposed to the meters themselves," he said.
The cash option, while hiking the rates, would be complete in five years.
"A lot of people want to pay cash for it and get it done," he said.
The water meter proposal is one of many slated for a vote at the town's second deliberative session Saturday. The town also is asking voters to pass a $1 million road stabilization program that would repair several roads in town.
"This is the first year of a very ambitious, retooled road program," Selectman Michael Lyons said.
The program cost $400,000 last year and focused on Route 28, Russell said.
"We've had so much positive feedback on what we did last year out there on Route 28, and there's so much more we can do," he said. "I just think people are so happy with it. Roads are a big issue."
The stabilization program focuses on maintaining roads before they need more major work, Russell said, and the more minor repairs cost a third of what repairing a failed road would cost.
Another warrant article asks voters for $2.3 million to repair and reconstruct Cluff Road. Selectmen are planning to amend down that article, Finance Director Jane Savastano said, because bids for the project were lower than expected. The project came in $386,000 under-bid overall, with $356,000 of that having an impact on the tax rate. The remaining $30,000 comes from the town's water fund.
Voters also will consider whether to support 10 nonprofit groups whose funding was cut when the town eliminated money for outside human service agencies from its budgets.
The town will consider whether to purchase five new police cruisers, with the option of buying them outright or lease-purchasing them. Other warrant articles ask voters to lease-purchase four DPW trucks and vehicles for Town Hall use.
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