By Ted Hayes

Westport has cut ties with a Mass DOT plan, five years in the making, to build a new bridge over Kirby Brook on Drift Road.

Citing concerns over aesthetics, the lack of willingness by DOT officials to adjust their design to fit local requests, and the ultimate cost to the town down the road, select board members voted unanimously last Monday, with Manuel Soares Jr. absent, to walk away while looking for other funding sources should a new bridge be needed at some later date.

I don’t want “to make a deal with the devil, the commonwealth,” board member Jake McGuigan said, over a bridge that could ultimately cost $4 million or more, 25 percent of which would be paid for by the town.

“There’s not a lot of motivation to go along with a plan where you do seem to have a gun put to

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