PALERMO -- Selectmen agreed Thursday evening to pay $3,500 for the asphalt divider they don't want.

The raised paved area, 152 feet long by 3 feet wide, will separate the Town Office parking lot from North Palermo Road.

State highway department officials required it as a safety measure.

Currently, the parking lot fronts directly on the road for almost 200 feet. Drivers can turn in and out at any point and from any angle, creating the potential for collisions.

The new configuration will leave a 20-foot-wide entrance near the office building and a 20-foot-wide exit at the far end of the lot.

Selectmen had two price quotes. They unanimously accepted the lower, from Littlefield Paving of Benton.

Road Commissioner Scott Childs and board members said they will need to provide entrance and exit signs, and perhaps have the parking lot painted with directional arrows and parking slots striped.

Board members agreed that people will be unhappy with the new arrangement, and that the divider will be unlikely to survive many winters' plowing.

Selectmen accepted price quotes on two more town projects Thursday evening:

* Childs, doing business as S. D. Childs and Sons, will put up the town's winter sand, for a price of $7.98 per cubic yard, the lower of two offers.

* China forester Tim Basham's will cut nine rotting trees in front of and inside Smith Cemetery for $2,500, with approval for the work from the cemetery association and the cemetery caretaker to take the wood.

Childs said a state transportation department official told him the town can wait until next year to replace the culvert on South Liberty Road, postponing one expenditure board members have been discussing.

The road commissioner also reported the new door for the sand shed has been ordered.

The total price, including installation, is $12,600, selectmen said.