The first draft of Newtown’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), the five-year roadmap for determining both timing and spending for major local projects, is much more colorful than in years past.

First Selectman Pat Llodra has color-coded a half-dozen projects and corresponding $27 million in potential future bonding, that are essentially in limbo until two appointed committees and, to a lesser extent, the Board of Education render recommendations on the future use of local school facilities, several other town-owned buildings, and a $15 million gift from the General Electric corporation.

On Monday, August 17, the Board of Selectmen saw the first CIP draft, and heard about the significant number of “unknowns” that prompted Mrs Llodra to request an added measure of patience from the community, on behalf of the volunteers working to determine how these high-profile public projects will develop over the next half decade.

“We just need to be a little patient — this will all get done,” she told The Bee following the meeting.

Earlier Monday evening, a consultant for the local Municipal Buildings Strategic Plan Advisory Committee (MBSPAC) said that by early September, her panel would likely be ready to fix priorities and costs to renovations required at the Sandy Hook Multipurpose Building and the current Hook & Ladder headquarters.

However, Geralyn Hoerauf of Diversified Project Management said the MBSPAC will require more time and analysis before they can make any recommendations on another pivotal facility that has several implications in the CIP: Town Hall South.

Without knowing whether the Newtown Police Department will be able to make the building its permanent home, and whether the town’s emergency communications center will continue to use it — or even be in existence in five years — has some bearing on CIP earmarks in years two through five in the plan.

The 2017-18 fiscal cycle has $500,000 earmarked to be bonded for a new police facility design, in the event the MBSPAC decides to abandon the building for that specific use. Another $10 million is split between CIP years three and four for the construction of a new municipal facility — being referred to as a placeholder if a new police headquarters is in the offing.

There is another $1,775,000 in year five of the CIP allocated to a emergency dispatch radio system upgrade and console. But the selectmen surmised that by that time, Newtown’s emergency communications will likely be mandated into a regional facility, freeing up that allocation for another purpose.

The good news is, it appears the selectmen will receive a recommendation about the Multipurpose Building, which has implications in next year’s (year one) CIP when $500,000 is slated for a new senior center design. That facility is the current home of Newtown’s Senior Center, as well as the Children’s Adventure Center preschool.

The CIP also contains two conspicuous blanks in year five corresponding to potential Hook & Ladder and Multipurpose Building renovations. These blanks could be filled in once the MBSPAC finalizes its recommendations.

A $10 million request from the Parks and Recreation Department in year one of the CIP, and another $5 million in year two for community center construction will be contingent on the recommendations being made by the Community Center Commission, charged with determining how the town should spend a $15 million GE gift that was given to the community after the 12/14 tragedy.

Ten million of that is to develop a new community facility, and the balance is allocated to that facility’s operational costs for at least the first five years after it opens.

Mrs Llodra said the CIP also contains two new requests — $600,000 for a commercial vehicle washing station, and $650,000 for improvements to the Public Works salt storage shed.

Public Works Director Fred Hurley has already introduced the idea of developing what could be a multitown vehicle washing facility. Mrs Llodra said the station and its operating expenses could be shared by neighboring communities, and would contribute to preserving expensive commercial vehicles that suffer expensive premature deterioration after intense exposure to winter ice melting chemicals.

Most of the other recurring requests in the CIP are familiar — annual allocations for capital road projects, bridge replacements, open space acquisitions, local sidewalks, and streetscape installations.

Question Of Use

During the earlier discussion with Ms Hoerauf, another concern developed that the selectmen determined would require additional research — whether the Town Hall South facility and property would revert back to residential use if an eventual decision was made to abandon the building for municipal or public use.

Selectman James Gaston, who is also the Borough of Newtown warden, said that future public use might not mean municipal use, and suggested that a church or school operation in the building might be sustainable under the current zoning.

Mrs Llodra replied that as the town gets closer to a decision on the future of Town Hall South, conversations would need to be initiated with the borough regarding the facility’s disposition.

Asked about the future status of the current Hook & Ladder facility if that building is abandoned or demolished, Planning & Land Use Director George Benson said only municipal or public services could be established there, otherwise the parcel would revert to either residential land or added parking for Edmond Town Hall.

Mrs Llodra said during the discussion that issues tied to consolidating school facilities “is not going away,” especially if enrollment continues to decline as projected by district consultants. Mrs Llodra said that a one-year moratorium on closing a local elementary school initiated by the Board of Education earlier this year “increases the level of uncertainty” about possible future municipal building uses.

There has been some talk of possibly converting the Hawley School for use as a community center, a senior center, and even a new police station, if school officials eventually decide to close that building. Mrs Llodra noted that School Superintendent Joseph V. Erardi, Jr, has discussed the moratorium on an elementary school closing and its creating an opportunity to possibly shift focus on whether or not to close the middle school instead.

Prior to the selectmen’s meeting, a Town Meeting approved three capital expenditures:

*$5 million for remediation and/or demolition of buildings at Fairfield Hills that would include Canaan House, the private white homes along the western end of the campus, a dilapidated greenhouse, and a duplex that will become the future home of the nonprofit Newtown Parent Connection.

*$1.5 million to assist in the completion of the new Hook & Ladder headquarters on Church Hill Road.

*$975,000 for the purchase of new town-owned fire apparatus, with $400,000 of that allocation coming from the capital nonrecurring fund, and the balance being bonded.