Voters Will Have Say on Road, Open Space Questions This Fall

Following separate votes by the Johnston Town Council on Monday night, local voters will have two bond items to consider on the November ballot.

The first, for $4 million, would pay for repairs to roads in Johnston, while the second, a $1 million request, would fund purchase of land to preserve as open space.

During an interview at , Mayor Joseph Polisena explained the process of deciding which roads will be repaired, if the bond item is approved.

"What we did was we had the council members draw up a list of roads they thought were bad and needed help," Polisena said, adding that if voters approve the bond, "we'll rate [the roads by condition] and then we'll send the list back to them."

Public Works Director Arnie Vecchione provided the preliminary list of roads, which includes major arteries like Central and Scituate Avenues and smaller side-roads like Railroad Avenue (parallel to George Waterman Road), which is partly gravel.

Vecchione said there's no way to tell how far the $4 million will go, since different roads are in different conditions.

"You don't know what it's going to cost until you get there and see what's needed," Vecchione explained.

Polisena said the town is taking the bond route to avoid adding the costs to its operating budget.

"The only way we can fix the roads is if we borrow money, so we're asking the people for it," Polisena noted, "and this is a binding question; if they say 'yes,' it's yes, and if they say 'no,' it's no."

Polisena also spoke about the benefit of the proposed $1 million bond item, which the Johnston Land Trust and town council will use to identify and buy land for preservation.

"The good thing about the $1 million for open space is that we can use that money to get matching grants, so that $1 million might turn out to be $2 million or $3 million," the mayor said. "I want to do it now, because I want to protect the future of the town as far as open space — I don't want someone here 15, 20 years from now saying 'persons before us should have thought about open space.'"

If approved, the bonds would be added to the town's long-term borrowing in fiscal 2014, Polisena said.