MEXICO — The Board of Selectmen tasked Town Manager John Madigan with figuring out how much it would cost the town to finish paving Backkingdom Road, Main Street and Alder Street during Tuesday evening’s meeting.

Discussion about paving began during the April 8 selectmen’s meeting, when Selectman George Byam suggested that the town include an article in the town warrant that would ask voters for approval to raise and appropriate funds to finish paving the roads.

Madigan said that he received estimates from Bruce A. Manzer Inc. about how much it would cost to finish the paving of Backkingdom Road, South Main Street, Alder Street and Oxford Street.

“There are 39,011 square yards remaining on Backkingdom Road that needs to be finished,” Madigan said. “That will cost $205,740. At our last meeting, I was thinking that it would be more like $300,000.

“As for South Main, Alder and Oxford Streets, there are 9,114 yards left to finish,” he said. “The cost of doing a final pave would be $55,980. In the end, we’re looking at about $250,000 combined to do those roads.”

Madigan added that he recently drove on the roads in question, and found that “they still have a lot of sand on them,” and that “some small cracks started to pop up on Backkingdom Road.”

Selectman Reggie Arsenault said, “If we hold off another year, what is the shape of those roads going to be like? If we get another winter like we had this year, with the rain and the ice, and it gets into the cracks, we’re looking at a whole different ballgame.”

“The problem is, we’ve already got a couple of loans out already,” Chairman Richie Philbrick said. “We already have enough debts, and we’ve got to realize that people are struggling to pay their taxes and get by. We’ve got to take a good, hard look at this, because it’s easier said than done.”

Philbrick later clarified that he’s “not knocking the idea of taking out a loan.

“I just think we’ve got to look at how we’re going to do it without putting more strain on the people,” Philbrick said.

Byam pointed out that they needed to decide by Friday whether they wanted to place a question on the ballot asking voters if they wished to approve more money to finish the paving.

“It’s easier said than done, George,” Philbrick said. “I want to have figures before we do anything. I don’t want to just throw a question on the ballot without figuring out how much everything would cost and how it would affect residents.”

Arsenault pointed out that the town may have to wait until later in the year and hold a special town meeting to discuss the issue, to which Philbrick agreed.

Madigan told the board, “What concerns me is that we’ve never raised enough money for road work, which is why we had to borrow money in the first place. I think people are going to realize we’ve invested over $1.5 million into building Backkingdom Road, and about $1.2 million into building the other streets. That’s a lot of money, and we need to finish the pavement to bring it all together.”

“The voters will either accept it or deny it,” Ouellette said. “It’s going to be a hard sell, but it’s something that needs to be done.”

Madigan told the board he would attempt to figure out the exact amount of money that would be required to borrow before deciding whether the question goes on the 2014 annual town warrant.

mdaigle@sunjournal.com