Capital spending requests that residents will vote at at Town Meeting on May 15 include funds for school furniture and equipment, a public safety radio system, and a new town well.
The Capital Planning Committee (CapCom) and the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) will host a joint Zoom presentation on their proposals on Wednesday, April 28 at 7:30 p.m. Click here for the agenda, which includes the Zoom link as well as brief descriptions of each item.
CapCom is proposing a total of $2,762,310 in two separate warrant articles that will be up for a vote on May 15. Article 7 seeks $937,695 for nine items. The single largest request is $410,557 for furniture and technology needs for the renovated Lincoln School that were cut earlier to stay within the construction budget. The only other six-figure item is $380,000 to refurbish the Fire Department’s ladder truck.
In a separate vote, CapCom will ask for $1,824,615 to replace the fire and police department’s public radio system. That item was originally considered for approval at the the 2020 Town Meeting but was deferred in favor of restoring some of the cuts to the school project.
The CPC is seeking approval to spend a total of $1,385,646 on 16 items costing $1,281,834 plus $103,812 from the housing reserve fund. Those items include $355,000 to repair the library’s parapet and $307,891 for debt service for the Town Office Building renovations as well as $161,200 for Lincoln School playground equipment and $200,000 for land acquisition.
Water Department funding
The Water Department is seeking capital spending totaling $907,600. That includes about $350,000 to complete a project to reduce total trihalomethanes (TTHM) in the drinking water, since they have been slightly over the state-mandated limit for some time. TTHMs are formed as the result of required chlorine disinfection on pond water with increasing levels of plant matter and algae.
Voters approved spending $330,000 in 2019 for the first phase of the project to install coagulation treatment to filter out more of the organic matter in the pre-treatment phase. The new expenditure will pay for equipment to handle the residuals from the treatment process so the chemicals can be safely released from the water plant without violating its discharge permit.
Water Commission chair Jim Hutchinson said the money needed for this second phase was not brought up last year as a future expense because the final cost was very uncertain at that time. Also, the commission’s Town Meeting presentation was limited to only items to be funded that year at the request of Town Moderator Sarah Cannon Holden in the interest of keeping the meeting short.
Also on the Water Commission’s wish list is $480,000 to replace the aging Tower Road well, which has been on their for several years. The group is hoping to pay for the well and the TTHM system by bonding $830,000. The other items on their capital improvements list will be paid for from Water Department retained earnings.
This is the third bonding request in two years for the Water Department. Voters approved almost $2 million (including the $330,000 for the first part of the TTHM project) in two separate measures in 2019, followed by $225,000 in borrowing voted at the 2020 Town Meeting.
“Much like the town as a whole, the Water Department has regular capital needs that are not properly handled in an operating budget, and need to be requested separately and funded with bonding or reserve funds. And that will continue to be the case going forward,” Hutchinson said. “It is true that the requests made in FY20-21 and that we are making for FY22 are larger than normal, due in part to the department previously falling behind on replacing aging infrastructure and in part due to the TTHM issue. Looking forward, we are striving to get back to a more ‘steady state’ level of requests for FY23, but there is always some amount of uncertainty and potential for surprises about capital needs.”
Water Department capital funding requests
| Category | Description | Amount | Funding Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regulatory compliance with high TTHM levels | Residuals handling & neutralization system upgrades at water treatment plant (WTP) to comply with the EPA’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System discharge permit | $350,000* | Bonding |
| Aging infrastructure | Replace Tower Road Well (current well cannot pump at desired rates despite aggressive cleanings due to clogged shutter-type screen) | $480,000 | Bonding |
| Aging infrastructure | Replace compressor #2 at WTP (two compressors in service since 1995; replace the one with more hours on it) | $25,000 | Retained earnings |
| Increase resiliency | Investigate cost and engineering needed to interconnect with Wayland. A backup water source is needed for our emergency response plan. | $13,600 | Retained earnings |
| Increase resiliency | Evaluate current condition of storage tank and reconsider previously proposed solutions to what is currently our sole storage tank. | $39,000 | Retained earnings |
| Required by Mass. Water Management Act permit | Conduct water audit to determine what happens to the water we produce. | $31,500** | Retained earnings |
| Total water capital projects: | $939,100 |
* Subject to adjustment up until ATM motion is finalized, as T&H work to better define scope of this project.
* The Water Commission voted to remove this item from the warrant pending feedback from the state DEP on the town’s previous numbers.