SHELBURNE — Whether you call it “Smead Road” or “Smead Hill Road” probably doesn’t matter much in conversation — except if you need emergency response to a specific location.
With no questions or discussion, special town meeting voters have unanimously approved 13 rural name-changes to the list of Shelburne road names used by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
The proposed name changes were the result of a two-year project, along with the approval of residents that could be reached on those roads. Most of the “new” names are already used by town government and local first responders. Most of the changes are slight, but could be confusing if Mass. DOT had to assist with a road problem and didn’t have the correct name in its data.
The old name, Anderson Road, becomes Mercy Anderson Road; Jim Barnard Road is changed to James Barnard Road; Cooper Lane Avenue becomes South Cooper Lane; Cooper Lane Road is now just Cooper Lane; and Koch Road is Old Albany Road.
East Shelburne Cemetery Road is shortened to East Cemetery Road; Roberts Road is now Percy Roberts Road; Shelburne Common Road is now Church Common Road; Smead Road is Smead Hill Road; South Road is South Shelburne Road; South Road Branch is now called Lucy Fiske Branch Road; West Deerfield Road is now Hawks Road and West Road is now Prolovich Road.
Voters also unanimously approved about $49,000 in money transfers within the budget for electrical upgrades in Memorial Hall, along with software and hardware for town government-related needs: GIS online town maps, a split server, server rack, data storage and IT costs to migrate the town’s current Comcast email to a new system, Office 365 for Governments.
They also transfered $338,117 of “free cash” surplus into the general stabilization account, which gives Shelburne about $750,000 in rainy day funds.