BRISTOL -- Voters will likely be asked in November to approve a $5 million bond to repair sidewalks throughout town.
The Town Council last week voted unanimously to hold a referendum during the general elections asking voters to approve borrowing money to fix sidewalks starting in downtown and then radiating out to other parts of town.
If voters approve the bond referendum, the town would start the project next year and would spend $1 million annually for five years to carry it out.
Town Administrator Joseph F. Parella said that $5 million would likely be enough to repair all the town's sidewalks.
"I'm confident that it will get the job done," he said. "Once you get out of the downtown there aren't a lot of sidewalks."
Parella said the town would pay off the bond over 20 years.
The town's bond counsel presented the proposed referendum language to the counsel last Wednesday evening. Now, it will go to the General Assembly, which must give its approval before the vote can be held.
Each year, the town devotes $150,000 to road and sidewalk repairs, but council vice president David Barboza said that money represents "a Band-Aid solution" to long-standing problems.
"In order to solve the problems once and for all we need a bond," he said yesterday. "Many of the complaints the council receives are about the sidewalks."
Some of the sidewalks around downtown date to the 1930s and have never been replaced, said Barboza.
The proposed bond issue comes at the same time that the state Department of Transportation is planning repairs of Route 114 and its sidewalks in Warren and Bristol. The work in Bristol will cover a stretch of the state road from the Warren town line to Washington Street.
That project is set to start in the fall to reduce the impact on Bristol's Fourth of July celebrations.
Rep. Fausto C. Anguilla, D-Bristol, Warren, has said the DOT work will complement the repairs the town wants to complete.
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