Sangerville selectmen debate ‘dual role’ as road commissioners

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    SANGERVILLE — When the Sangerville Board of Selectmen took on the additional duties of road commissioners a few years ago, there wasn’t a policy in place on how the public works crew was to be supervised.

    At the June 27 board meeting, several steps were taken to smooth out the situation, starting with the “official” promotion of Peter Drummond to public works director.
    “We had two Road Commissioners’ meetings after town meeting; and in both of them, we said that wanted to ‘turn Peter (Drummond) loose’ and have him run the road projects,” Selectman Melissa Randall said.
 She cited the minutes of a recent Road Commissioners’ session where Drummond was praised for his “work ethic and job performance,” and letters were put in his files with the evaluation noted.
    Randall said, however, that Drummond’s promotion to public works director at the Road Commissioners’ meeting “was not the way it was supposed to be done. So I’d like to see it voted on again – on the record – at a selectmen’s meeting to make it official.”
    Randall also said she wanted to see “the squabbling over who should supervise Peter put to rest … We are a town manager form of government, and the town manager supervises the department heads. We have no right to order him (Drummond) around.”
    In addition, Randall said that if Town Manager David Pearson had to discipline the public works director or any other town employee, “we (Board of Selectmen) are his board of appeals. So we can’t be involved in the day-to-day running of public works.”
    Randall also recommended that policies be written to outline the exact duties of the road commissioners. She added that the original reason why the Board of Selectmen took on the additional duty “was to assure that the townspeople got the projects done that they wanted done.”
    Selectman Bill Rowe agreed. “I’d like to see something in writing to know which hat I’m wearing,” he quipped.
    On a vote of 3-0, the board voted to work with Pearson on drafting the policy. Selectman Tom Carone remarked that by virtue of serving in the dual role as selectman/road commissioner, some residents may have assumed that he was familiar with highway maintenance and construction. “To be honest with you, I’m a person that repairs equipment. I don’t build roads. I don’t fix roads,” Carone said. “I do like this proposal.”
    Carone added that eventually, Sangerville may want to have a single road commissioner “as a paid position — perhaps seasonal. But that’s in the future.”
    In other action at the June 27 meeting, Pearson announced that Sangerville’s revenue sharing this year would drop to $67,731 from $99,260 because of cuts in the state budget. But Pearson noted that one version of the budget would have cut revenue sharing completely. “So this is better than losing everything,” he said.
    Town Hall Renovation Committee Chairman Brent Randall also updated the board on the restoration of the porch and two sides of the historic structure. Randall noted that since the original clapboards are more than 100 years old, they’d crack if any attempt is made to nail them. So they’ll be replacing them with pre-stained pine boards in the same color as the original siding. The quoted price for materials and labor is $46,071.