OTISFIELD — Town Administrative Assistant Anne Pastore said officials are looking to build a database of information gleaned from veteran Road Commissioner Richard Bean.
Bean has served for over 50 years and has “accumulated a lot of knowledge about the town roads and the history of the roads,” Pastore said. “The town wants to start gathering all of the information he has. The idea is to hope for the best, but plan for the inevitable. We want to plan ahead for when Richard is no longer road commissioner.”
Pastore said town secretary Tanya Taft will ride with Bean while he talks about the history of each road and what he does to keep them in good condition.
“She’ll ride with him while taking notes, and when she gets back, she’ll put all of the information into our Road System Management Software so we have the data on hand for the future,” Pastore said. “For instance, if we have a really bad storm and there’s a washout, the data should tell us which roads need to be addressed first, and where the problems have been in the past.”
She said officials are also looking to the future of the roads by asking residents at the June 24 annual town meeting if they wish to transfer money from the Heniger Park lease fees to the equipment reserve account.
During a public hearing June 2, Board of Selectmen Chairman Hal Ferguson pointed out that Bean owns a lot of the equipment the town uses to plow and fix roads.
“This is our way of looking ahead and making sure we’re covered,” Ferguson said then.
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