"This town is falling apart," Capital Planning and Investment Committee member Cindy Russo said last Thursday as the committee took on what another member, Debbie Ricci, characterized as "overwhelming" capital requests for the next five years.

The statements were prompted by requests made Tuesday by Public Works director Richard Nota and fire Chief Rick Sicard.

"We need to let people know there are some really significant capital needs coming up," Russo said.

Formed by a Town Meeting vote in 2009, the Capital Planning and Investment Committee's responsibility is, according to its mission statement, to "review capital expense items submitted for consideration by various town departments, boards or committees and determine if the proposed item represents a genuine need and if the proposed cost is reasonable."

As the town prepares its fiscal year 2013 budget proposal to be voted on by Town Meeting in April, the capital committee has asked town departments, boards, and committees to submit requests for capital spending (buildings and equipment) for the next five years. The most significant expense will be the renovations of Town Hall and Hildreth House.

The capital committee has received a total of a $4,828,075 in capital requests for the next fiscal year, and plans from town departments anticipate needing an additional $7.3 million over the following four years. A significant portion of that comes from the Department of Public Works, which is requesting $725,000 for 2013 and over $3.5 million in the next five years.

The largest portion of the public works capital request, both for this and upcoming years, is road repairs and replacement. Additions and upgrades to facilities will also require a significant amount of money.

Next year's budget includes a boom flail tractor at a cost of $165,000, for clearing trees and brush on the sides of the road. The boom flail tractor represents an upgrade from the 1995 tractor it will replace. It has 20 feet of reach and can cut around stone walls and behind guard rails.

Selectman and capital committee member Peter Warren spoke in favor of the tractor, calling it "long overdue."

Nota reported that the current maintenance bay, built in 1952, is too small to suit the public work department's needs. Flammable material is stored close to welding operations, making the area unsafe. According to Nota, when equipment breaks, it sometimes has to be stored for weeks at a time in the bay while a necessary part is ordered, making it impossible to service other pieces of equipment.

He requested $175,000 to expand the bay.

Because the DPW's capital plan includes electrical and mechanical upgrades to the maintenance bay in fiscal year 2014 and an addition to its office space in 2015, Russo suggested getting an architect to produce a schematic design that included all of the necessary upgrades, giving the town a better idea of the total cost before it votes at the 2013 Annual Town Meeting.

After some discussion in which Nota said that this might delay the work, he and the committee agreed to ask for money to fund architectural plans that included the expansion of the bay and offices as well as upgrading the lifts and electricity.

Ricci supported the decision.

"Our capital requests for the next five years are overwhelming, so therefore the more support we have behind anything that's there helps us," she said.

Responding to the committee's suggestion that sidewalk and compost programs might have to give way for more necessary work, Nota commented that there was "a real demand for sidewalks."

Russo said that sidewalks are "a great idea, but something's got to give."

Nota commented that the compost facility was another idea "that's been thrown around for years," and pointed out that it would save the town hundreds of thousands of dollars on topsoil when the recreation fields in town needed to be overhauled.

The fire chief, Rick Sicard, said he was waiting for an estimate for the two main items the Fire Department is requesting this year: moving the air horns from Town Hall to the Fire Station and upgrading the radio infrastructure of public safety.

The fire department will also be looking to upgrade facilities in upcoming years, Sicard said, refurbishing the Still River Fire Station in 2014 for an estimated $150,000 and Central Fire Station for an estimated $500,000 in 2015.