By REMY TUMIN

Deferred maintenance on town roads in West Tisbury has created a potentially large bill for town taxpayers this year, and voters will be asked to approve close to $3 million to repair stretches of nearly every town road.

At the annual town meeting in April, residents will vote on whether to approve borrowing $2.6 million and spend an additional $84,000 of Chapter 90 funds to repave about seven miles of roads. With asphalt prices at an all time high and expected to go higher, interest on loans very low and the roads in disrepair, the town’s capital projects committee and highway superintendent are pressing for action now.

The roads that need repaving are divided into two priority groups. The highest priority roads include New Lane and Tiah’s Cove, Lambert’s Cove Road, and Middle Road, and would cost $1.75 million to repave. Scotchman Bridge Lane, Old Courthouse Road, Indian Hill Road and Old County Road are second priority, and would cost $1.2 million.

Highway superintendent Richard Olsen said the town paved New Lane, Tiah’s Cove Road and Lambert’s Cove Road—the worst of the roads—five or six years ago with a two-inch coating of asphalt. Mr. Olsen said it was time to do the job now on the remaining roads.

“We’ve got 14 miles of road, close to half [of which] needs to be done,” he said. “We did the first half six years ago, and the idea was within a couple of years we were going to do the rest. Every time I brought it up [to town officials], there were too many things in the fire.”

Mr. Olsen said the new paving would last 20 years. Asphalt is $123.50 per ton this week. He estimated the price per ton goes up about $5 a month.

The capital campaign committee, which is responsible for long term capital improvements such as the new town hall, the new police station and the new library, is asking for the full $2.6 million but if voters reject the number the article may be amended to the lower figure of $1.75 million for only the first set of roads.

The town paved half of the roads in 2004, and chairman of the capital programs committee Kathy Logue said yesterday the price of asphalt has tripled since then.

“It cost just under $1.1 million and now to do the rest of them is somewhere in the $2.8 million to $3 million range,” she said. “Police details and labor costs will have gone up some but not anything like that.”

And the borrowing rate is low across the southern New England region, she said.

“Going out 10 to 20 years [rates] are under three per cent, some of them are even lower than that,” she said.

Town accountant Bruce Stone said the town has accumulated around $380,000 over the years in chapter 90 money, cash given to town highway departments from the state, and will set aside the 2012 allocation as well. The $2.6 million is in addition to those funds.

After a lengthy debate about whether to ask voters for the full amount or the lesser figure of $1.75 million, selectmen two weeks ago approved placing the borrowing article on the warrant late last month with a corresponding ballot question to exclude the debt from Proposition 2 1/2, the state tax cap.

West Tisbury voters are not the only town looking to repair their roads. Tisbury voters will vote this spring whether or not to build a connector road from Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road to State Road, and Oak Bluffs voters rejected spending $250,000 at their annual town meeting last year to repave some roads, despite highway superintendent Richard Combra Jr.’s protests about asphalt prices skyrocketing.