Stafford Road & Construction Updates

"There's good stuff going on here in Stafford," said First Selectman Bill Morrison at last week's Board of Selectmen (BOS) meeting. He acknowledged a rough budget season, but that while we're about to go to a third referendum (at $5,000 a pop), running the town goes on. And we heard about some of that from Director of Public Works Devin Cowperthwaite about how his team is doing while they are shorthanded.

Usually, the highway department has nine laborers. Two are out on medical or workers' comp leave. And because the highway department is contractually restricted from taking vacation during snow plow season, the rest of the department often has to rush to use vacation in the spring before the fiscal year changes over on June 30. Speaking os snow plow season, Cowperthwaite pointed out that as recently as April 12, they were treating for snow and ice.

Still, Cowperthwaite shared some stats about what the department has been up to.

• Graded 9 miles of gravel roads

• 21+ miles of paved roads have been swept

• 42,000 pounds of asphalt in potholes

• Replaced 11 full catch basins, mostly on Old Springfield Road, in preparation for paving

Old Springfield Road is slated for paving this year, and the contractor is available during a short window in June. This means that drainage work has to be done early in the month.

Among other projects underway is the Whispering Pines Road bridge work. The Levinthal Run multi-use trail project will start as soon as school ends. As a reminder, in January of 2024, Stafford learned the town received $883,844 from a Transportation Rural Improvement Program (TRIP) Grant to help complete an eight-foot-wide sidewalk project on Levinthal Run that will make it stretch from Stafford High School to Stafford Middle School. It will also include several exercise trails along the way and a shortcut from the middle school by Arute Fields and down to the high school. The project officially began in 2022 when the ARPA Committee allocated $550,000 to start the engineering process.

During the meeting, Cowperthwaite also asked to waive the bidding process for a construction inspector. The town already put out a request for quotes (RFQ) but received no responses. Later, Cardinal Construction, a company that Stafford has worked with in the past, reached out, saying they had a person who had become available for the project. However, because of the compressed schedule, there is no time to go through the formal bid process again. The funding for this position was already included in the project, so the selectmen voted to approve waiving the process.

Drainage and paving work at Kealy Field and the Community Center will likely occur in late summer and fall.

You will also see state workers taking on projects all over town, though some may start sooner than others. The intersection of Route 190 and Hampden Road will be the site of the work, which includes a three-day planned closure. Part of Route 30 will also be chip-sealed, while Route 19 will also get some attention.

Residents may have also noticed tree work happening on Hampden Road. In addition to being a hot spot for power outages, the town has applied for a $1 million STEAP Grant to fix this much-complained-about road. STEAP is a competitive program, so Stafford is not guaranteed to win this grant. Still, it's forging ahead in hopes that paving can be covered with grant funds.