Madison Capital Improvement Program Committee Meeting

Monday, January 5, 2009, 6pm

Madison Town Hall

Members Present:  Michael Brooks, Kevin O’Neil, Noreen Downs and Jay Buckley (via conference call)

Members Absent:   None

• Call to Order – Michael Brooks called the meeting to order at 6:10pm. 
• An overhead projector and laptop were set-up for the committee to view the CIP spreadsheets.
• The minutes of the December 14, 2008 meeting were approved as amended.
• Noreen Downs passed out updates of the input worksheet, the 2009 Selectmen Worksheet and the               2010-2015 CIP spreadsheet for review and discussion.
• Starting with the Selectmen’s 2009 worksheet, the committee went through each line item again for updates.  The following notes are additions and updates to the discussion from the previous meeting.

              a.  Town Office Renovation capital reserve – Michael Brooks stated he had reviewed this with    the Selectmen with no change.

        b.  The Historical Society – Noreen to contacted Becky Knowles and Mary Lucy.  Becky responded to say the capital reserve for 2009 would not be submitted, and asked to have the numbers previously supplied moved out by one year.  Becky said that $17,000 in donations had been raised to do some suggested upkeep items in order to keep the building from deteriorating, such as adding gutters to keep the water away from the building.  The 2009 planned amount was set to $0.

c.   Emergency Management Generator and Wiring – Michael Brooks will follow-up with the school board through John Arruda. No further change.

d.   Fire Department Rescue Truck – No change since the discussion from the last meeting.

e.   Fire Department Primary Attack Pumper – Michael pointed out that this quote is based on 2008 requirements to replace the pumper truck.  Since the current one has been extended in life, the purchase was pushed out to 2016 from 2014.  No changes in amount for 2009 from the last meeting.

f.   Fire Station Parking Pad Replacement – the committee discussed that this is not really a new request in that is was requested for 2008, but not submitted due to budgetary constraints.  However this may be the year to replace the parking pad with petroleum costs coming down.  Jay Buckley will follow-up by obtaining 3 quotes to get a better sense of the projected cost and to provide input for the warrant article for 2009.  It can be moved to a future year if it doesn’t pass the budget committee and the selectmen review for a 2009 warrant article.

g.   Police Department – Michael confirmed the SUV acquisition for 2009 with Chief Mullen.  The Chief is also going to compare the cost to the town of outright purchase vs. the lease purchase option.  Chief Mullen will not be pursuing the computer upgrades for 2009, but wants to move those requests to the year when new vehicles expenses and rotation are not occurring.  The committee moved the computer upgrades to 2010 and 2012 from 2009 and 2011.

h.   Highway Department roads repair and maintenance schedule – Noreen had a list from Billy chick which Michael reviewed.  However, he noted the Planning Board Roads Committee will not be ready to provide a 6 year capital plan until 2010.  Michael also noted that the Selectmen have incorporated the Meadows Drive repair into the Highway Operations budget as a line item because it had been delayed for some time.  No other changes were made at this time.  Michael stated that the state block grant does not actually come into the town until July or august, and so they really don’t know how much they will get for roads until then.  The average we receive is around $70,000.

i.    Michael Brooks stated that as for the Highway Dept. vehicles, that the 1 ton truck may come in a little less, but that was still being determined.  No changes were made.

j.    Highway Department Publics Works Garage Expansion – No changes made from last meeting.

k.   Parks and Recreation – A correction was made to the Burke field line item for 2009 to reflect that the project was for lighting and not irrigation. The lighting of Burke field was seen as an important item to pursue in 2009, as this can lead to fund raising efforts to offset the costs of the Ward Parcel Community Pavilion.  Michael will follow-up with Sue Stacy for discussion at the Recreation Department meeting.  

l.    Library Patch, & Seal parking area – complete in 2008 - no further discussion.

m.  Conservation Commission – Noreen Downs requested input from David Riss, who stated that the MCC would not be submitting a warrant article this year for $5,000 due to budget constraints.  However, he did request leaving the $5,000/year funding request for land conservation easement/purchase for the years 2010-2015. 

n.   School Board – Noreen Downs obtained the school bond numbers from Julia at SAU#13.  However, she did not get an explanation of the large drop for the Vocational School Bond between this year and last year.  (went from $24,066 to $2,960).  Michael Brooks will follow-up to be sure we have the correct figures.

o.   School Board projects – Michael Brooks to follow-up with the school board on the possible reduction of one bus route per what Noreen Downs thought she had heard at the budget committee meeting on Dec. 23rd.  Also, he will ask about the boilers replacement project and other warrants through John Arruda. No changes were made from the last meeting.

6.   The committee reviewed the worksheet summary for 2009, and given the information we have up to this point, noted that the total tax impact changed from $.64 per $1,000 assessed valuation to $.42 per $1,000.   

7.    The committee reviewed each of the remaining line items on the 2010-2015 not already discussed as part of the 2009 review.  The review of the tax impacts for each of the years was further leveled by revising one line item, the Town Office Renovation, for 2012 down to $30,000 (from $42,500), and adding the $12,500 onto year 2015.  The committee leveled the resulting tax impact for 2010-2015 at $.61, $.59, $59, $.55, $47, and $.37 respectively per assessed $1,000 valuation as the best they could do with the information at this time.  Noreen will verify the inflation impacted line items in the spreadsheet before final submission.

8.   Michael Brooks moved to approve the CIP proposal for 2010-2015 as amended at the table tonight with any follow-up items (such as School Board and Recreational Department)  

        and recommends this proposal to the planning Board on Jan. 7, 2009 for approval.  Kevin O’Neil seconded.  Under discussion, Michael will follow-up and provide Noreen Downs with any additional inputs prior to this being printed for the Planning Board. Once the Planning Board approves the report, it will be passed to the Selectmen for review and approval for the Annual Town Report.  The motion was voted on by roll call vote.  Noreen-Yes, Jay-Yes, Kevin-Yes and Michael-Yes.  The approval was unanimous.

9.  Prior to adjournment, Jay Buckley recognized the departments who delayed capital reserve requests and projects in light of the current budget constraints.

10.  Jay Buckley moved to adjourn at 7:40pm, seconded by Kevin O’Neil.  All were in favor.

Respectfully submitted by Noreen Downs

Approved 1/4/09