(June 25, 2026) – The Town of Ayer has posted the warrant for the July 13th Special Town Meeting called to resolve a property owner’s concerns about the West Main Street Bridge replacement project. Meanwhile, detour signs and a new traffic signal with alternating lanes (one-way traffic at a time) have been set up and are directing drivers and pedestrians.
You can find the warrant on the town’s website here. A short announcement with a link to the meeting warrant was posted to the Town of Ayer’s Facebook page on June 25th.
A few months ago, the Town of Ayer’s DPW hosted a bridge project information session for the public on Jan 28th. On May 27th, the town announced it was starting to put up traffic detours and the traffic signal via its Facebook page.
Then on June 16th, a trustee from an investment trust came forward and spoke during public input at the Select Board meeting. He said the trust owns land on both sides of the West Main Street Bridge over Nonacoicus Brook, including the billboard that stands there. The trust learned the land was being used without the trust’s permission, he said, and that the area had been cleared, environmental booms installed and a cement containment structure had been built next to the billboard there, within 24 inches of a support beam.
He said the trust notified the town on April 24th, posted no trespassing signs and requested contractors stay off the land until the access issue was resolved. He said he has worked with the Town Manager and DPW Director to identify a way to resolve the issue, exploring the possibility of a memorandum of understanding agreement and a license agreement, however neither addressed the needs. There was no response to his comments at the Select Board meeting.
On June 24th, the Select Board met and went into executive session, then reconvened in open session and called a Special Town Meeting on July 13th with one article. If you check the Special Town Meeting warrant, the explanatory note states in part that the article would authorize the Select Board to acquire temporary and permanent easements for the bridge replacement project and future maintenance. You can read the full explanatory note here. There will be a presentation made at the Special Town Meeting.
“This important public infrastructure bridge project is currently in the construction phase, and action at the Special Town Meeting is required to authorize acquisition of permanent and/or temporary easements in a timely manner for construction work associated with the West Main Street Bridge Project over Nonacoicus Brook in the interests of protecting public safety,” states one line from the longer explanatory note.
We also share a few photos taken on June 28th, showing the back of the billboard and the area set up for the construction project. We chose to take photos from here because this is as far as we could walk with the construction signs and cones.
West Main Street
From West Main Street, back of billboard.
From Union Street, looking out on West Main Street