Why Outsource Our Roadwork?
November 10, 2006

It mystifies us, especially when considering the alarming rate with which tax rates have increased over the last couple of years in Goffstown, as to how the board of selectmen, by a 4-1 margin, could have voted against saving Goffstown taxpayers $600,000 when doing so would have caused no loss of services to the community.

This year, $600,000 was set aside in the road plan for use on the lower portion of Mountain Base Road but was not spent because the Goffstown Department of Public Works was understandably overwhelmed with repairing flood damage during the year.

Next year, another $600,000 appears in the budget for the same project, for a total of $1.2 million.  DPW director Carl Quiram has said that without that money, the town would have to forgo either reclamation work on Mountain Road or Snook Road.

But wait a minute.  DPW's plan is to complete the Mountain Road project for $1.2M and outsource the Snook Road project for another $1.2M.  But if DPW were to put off Snook Road for one year and complete the project itself in-house, the cost drops to only $400,000!

Why is DPW planning to outsource this project at a cost of $1.2M when the work can be done in-house for $400,000, saving the taxpayers $800,000?  And if the project is to be outsourced, what will DPW be doing in the meantime?  Can the work wait a year in order to save taxpayers nearly a million dollars? 

At least one selectman thinks so.

Nick Campasano on Wednesday said he had hoped the rest of the board would agree to his proposal of removing next year's planned $600,000 because the loss to DPW would have been offset by the $600,000 that will be leftover from this year.  But the board of selectmen voted 4-1 against that proposal.

We agree with Mr. Campasano - it's time for intelligent planning, fiscal responsibility and plain common sense to take hold in Goffstown, and quickly...before we all go broke.

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