Selectmen’s Capital Plan Includes Fire Trucks, Open Space, Revaluation

By John Voket

The Board of Selectmen voted to send the town’s capital improvement plan to the Board of Finance Tuesday after putting finishing touches on some budgeted items and reranking some community spending priorities over the next five years. The annual listing represents the most significant, planned commitments of municipal dollars besides those tendered by the Board of Education, which filed its own CIP in August.

The most significant adjustments made to the town CIP should please advocates of open space preservation. Selectman William Brimmer, Jr, recommended funding for open space acquisitions be elevated to top priority positions in all of the next five years’ budgets.

His motions to move open space funding to the highest ranked positions after capital road improvement projects and the planned property revaluation through the 2006-2007 fiscal year, and to the second highest ranking after road improvements in the years 2007–2010 were unanimously approved by fellow Selectman Joseph Bojnowski and First Selectman Herb Rosenthal.

“We’ve got to start moving on this,” Mr Brimmer commented at one point early on in the ranking process. During earlier meetings and in previous interviews Mr Rosenthal said he would like to see allocations up to $10 million dollars, in $2 million increments over the next five years, for open space.

Another modest adjustment in the CIP, to the taxpayers’ advantage, came through the town’s Community Development office. Community Development Director Elizabeth Stocker proposed lengthening the timeline to budget for the Sandy Hook Streetscape initiative and cutting certain budget expenditures for a proposed Fairfield Hills Technology Park.

Mr Rosenthal said that Ms Stocker, on the recommendation of the Economic Development Commission, suggested the $5.4 million original expenditure approved in the 2003-2004 Capital Improvement Plan be adjusted to $3.5 million going forward.

“After reviewing the overall anticipated costs for the Technology Park development, she found we could cut the costs for road construction and utility infrastructure by one-half,” Mr Rosenthal said. “In addition, Liz will be seeking a half-million dollar grant from the state OPM [Office of Policy and Management] to cover the cost of an architectural engineering study as part of a small town economic development program.”

Mr Rosenthal said the timeline adjustment in the overall $1.25 million proposed expenditure for the Sandy Hook improvements was extended after determining a possible $600,000 in additional federal T-21 grant money may be forthcoming if the town was able to sustain the project through 2007.

“We’ve already got the first two years of the project funded by existing grants,” he said. “So phase one of the project will be going out to bid shortly, and we’ll wait to begin phase two until after the fed comes through with the additional funds [in the 2007-2008 federal budget cycle].”

A particular bone of contention among the selectmen was allocating funds or upgrading the ranking for two large-scale projects related to community recreation facilities. Following a lengthy question and answer session with Deputy Parks and Recreation Director Carl Samuelson about future plans for the Dickinson and Treadwell Park pools, the selectmen agreed they needed more information before recommending the proposed expenditure of more than $2 million to engineer and reconfigure a new filtered pool at Dickinson Park.

The selectmen eventually did recommend $720,000 for proposed improvements to the Dickinson pool, providing they were eventually satisfied that the expenditure was justified. According to Mr Samuelson, that wading pool was paved over from a muddy bottom more than 30 years ago, and that a combination of environmental and safety concerns have created an imminent need for action at the facility.

Mr Brimmer requested a breakout of revenues that might be forthcoming from pool passes, for those who use the Dickinson pool. He expected that figure to show waning interest on the part of town residents who use that facility versus the more conventional Treadwell pool facility.

“This item requires more investigation,” Mr Brimmer commented during the discussion. “Two million dollars can buy a new pool. I’m not sure we want to put money into improving a pool that is only open four or five months a year…and you can’t even swim in it.”

Mr Rosenthal agreed.

“We were told that the need for $750,000 was urgent last year. Now you’re saying it will be $200,000 for architect and engineering fees and another $1.8 million [to build a new pool]. And we can’t even be sure of that until the proposal goes out to bid,” Mr Rosenthal said.

Mr Samuelson also answered questions about a proposed acrylic dome that would be fitted to the Treadwell Park pool. He proposed that project would enable the expansion of swimming programs to year-round.

“We have already estimated losing revenue from 75 to 80 pool passes because people are getting pushed out of the [indoor] high school pool,” Mr Samuelson explained. He said a similar enclosure in South Windsor created enough revenue to pay for itself by its third year of operation.

“We got a significant amount of information from South Windsor,” he said. “They gave the project three years to become self-sufficient, but they actually netted a $120,000 profit in their second year of [enclosed]operation.”

In other business, the selectmen agreed to budget uniform $400,000 expenditures for pumper trucks for the Newtown Hook and Ladder Company and the Dodgingtown Volunteer Fire Department, even though the Hook and Ladder proposal came in at $440,000.

“We’ll put in $400,000 for each truck and let the departments come back and justify any cost increases as they develop,” Mr Rosenthal commented.

Following the unanimous approvals of adjustment to the CIP budgets, the board set out to provide prioritized rankings for expenditures in each of the next five budget cycles, in accordance with requests to do so by the Board of Finance.

Besides the aforementioned road improvements and underwriting of the next round of property revaluations and open space acquisitions, the selectmen ranked the Sandy Hook Streetscape, the Technology Park, and the Dickinson pool repair as top priorities for the 2005-2006 fiscal year.

Except for the Hook and Ladder pumper replacing the pool project in the sixth place ranking for the 2006-2007 period, the other priorities remained the same.

By 2007-2008, open space acquisitions moved up to second place preceded by road projects and revaluation expenses, and with Technology Park expenditures, the Dodgingtown pumper, a proposed Parks and Recreation Center, and the Currituck intersection ranked third to sixth respectively.

The 2008-2009 rankings incorporated a new grader for the highway department, an expenditure that was formerly scheduled for 2005-2006, but moved out in the timeline by department managers. The 2009-2010 rankings incorporate the Treadwell Park pool dome in the fifth priority position.

The municipal and education CIPs are expected to face stringent review by the Board of Finance during their upcoming meeting, Mr Rosenthal said.