from the Gardner News;

WINCHENDON — There are many streets that have not been accepted by the town. Some are subdivisions where the roadways needed a little work to pass required specifications, and others were built long ago and just never went through the process. It was a surprise when the town discovered that parts of Central Street in the center of town were not an accepted way.

As part of the project to reconstruct Central Street, one of the checklist items the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) requires is an accepted layout of the road that they are working on. The town has been able to determine that a portion of Central Street was never accepted by the town of Winchendon. The reason is pure speculation.

Department of Public Works Director Al Gallant and the town clerk have been working with the engineering firm Tighe & Bond to view the information available.

“It appears that only portions of Central Street have not been accepted,” said Town Manager Keith Hickey. “There are also small portions of Summer and Railroad Street that abut Central Street that also were not accepted”

Selectmen received a copy of the layout on Central Street for approval coinciding with the existing layout of Central Street as it appears today. Hickey and Gallant asked the board to accept the layout as presented. The layout would then be moved to the Planning Board for its consideration. If approved by the Planning Board, it would go back to selectmen by Aug. 10 for a final vote to be placed on the warrant for the annual Town Meeting — the town would ask residents to vote to accept the layout of Central Street.

Selectman Audrey LaBrie asked Hickey for a more specific identification of the parts of Central Street that were not accepted by the town. Hickey said they were seeking approval for the total layout as presented. He said different portions were accepted by the town at different times in the past.

“This will allow for a clean process to allow people doing reviews in the future to be able to determine that this roadway was essentially approved in 2020,” he said.

Selectmen Chairman Michael Barbaro asked if the work recently approved for Railroad Street would be slowed by the fact Central Street had not received acceptance.

Hickey said that work would not be held up.

The board voted to approve the Central Street layout.