Letter to the MBC
Members of the Capital Planning and Investment Committee signed a letter requesting that the Municipal Building Committee charge the architects LLB to produce "quantitative cost data" for converting the second floor of Town Hall from a performance space to meeting and program space for town uses (see story page 1).
The letter formally reiterates the request members Cindy Russo and Debbie Ricci made to the Municipal Building Committee in a meeting two weeks earlier with the architect Drayton Fair of LLB. In the letter, CPIC told the building committee that it considers this data to be "critical to the decision process regarding which scheme is the best fit and investment value for this building," adding that it did not believe that providing this information would "place a financial burden on the design budget or delay the design schedule."
Fire department requests
The meeting focused on requests from the Harvard Fire Department and the Department of Public Works.
One of the fire department's two capital requests is $23,195 to purchase a new electronic air horn to be installed on the center fire station in lieu of the air horns currently located in Town Hall.
The second, which may be funded with grant money, is $28,079 to upgrade and unify the radio communications systems. Fire Chief Rick Sicard explained that the radios need to be mounted onto the trucks because, currently, firefighters have to remember to take their portable radios with them to a fire.
The fire department has significant capital requests in the next four years: $150,000 to refurbish Still River Station in fiscal 2014; $500,000 to refurbish the fire station, building and systems, in fiscal 2014; a new tanker truck for $350,000 in fiscal 2016; and a used ladder truck for $200,000 in fiscal 2017.
Ricci said she was concerned about the safety issue caused by clogged fire ponds; the fire department is planning to ask for $50,000 in fiscal 2014 to commission an engineering report on the ponds that would identify problems.
Public Works requests
Public Works Director Richard Nota presented two options for a boom flail mower to clear brush along the side of the roadway and around ponds. The machine, which has a snow blower attachment as well as the boom flail attachment, costs $147,310. Nota had not yet received a price on the single application mower. If the town wants to buy an attachment to grind road, that costs $28,000, Nota said.
Nota told the committee that renting a road-grinding machine was $10,000 a month and that patching bad roads cost two thirds of what it costs to lay down new asphalt.
In fiscal years 2015, 2016, and 2018, the Department of Public Works plans to ask for a total of $450,000 for facilities, $525,000 for equipment, and $750,000 for road repair.
Rating sheet
Capital committee members discussed the rating sheet that will be used to decide among requests that are not deemed absolutely necessary in making the final cut.
The committee is considering using a weighted scale developed and used by Ricci last year. For example, in the category of "justification for the project," if a project would pay for itself in cost savings in three years or less, it would earn five points; if it would pay for itself in three to five years, it would earn three points; and if it would pay for itself in cost savings after five years or more, it would earn one point.
The categories the committee considered were: risk the project goes over budget, the project's "expected useful life," whether it can be deferred, and its impact on the ongoing budget.
Committee members differed over whether to include "reasonableness" or "value to the town" as criteria. There will be further discussion of the ratings sheet at the next meeting.
Free cash amount
Town Administrator Tim Bragan reported that there was a surplus of $436,000 from fiscal 2011, known as "free cash." This money will likely be available to fund future capital expenses.
—Heather Morton