By Thomas Nucci
MERRIMAC — Selectmen met last Monday with representatives from National Grid looking for approval for street crossings over River and Skunk Road to replace high-tension wires.
The construction plan in Merrimac involves erecting three new towers, removing several old towers and replacing one of the 23 kilovolt power lines with a 115 kv line to reduce the load on the current system. These power lines connect to a new substation being built in west Amesbury.
The residents of the abutter property crossed by the wires, Dan Russel and Pamela and Carrol Freeman, asked about the construction, if there was any insurance for value lost and other issues. However, according to the representatives, the project falls within the terms of the original warrants, given before the current residents moved in, and any value changes would be speculative, so no additional guarantees are currently being offered.
As the vote was on the public crossings, not the private property, selectmen could not base their decision on those issues, and so approved the street crossings. They did ask National Grid to keep them informed of correspondence with the abutters.
The town denied a request from West Newbury Board of Selectmen Chairman Glenn Kemper, asking to meet to discuss regionalization of finance departments. The request was denied due in part to the selectmen being busy with other issues, such as the regional dispatch and budget preparations, and also that the regionalization of finance departments is likely illegal under state law.
Also, due to a call from a town resident, asking why the town was paying for bottled water for town employees, selectmen approved a measure to cut spending on bottled water for municipal buildings starting March 1. The only exception to the decision was the Sewer Department, which gets bottled distilled water for use in the laboratory.
