TOWN OF BELMONT
CAPITAL BUDGET COMMITTEE REPORT
JUNE 2003
During Fiscal 2003 a process continued among the Capital Budget Committee, the Board of Selectmen, the Warrant Committee, the Permanent Building Committee and other interested boards and officials in the ‘mega-group’ format to prepare a strategic plan for phasing and funding the Town’s large capital project backlog. As a result of the recently-completed facility audit of a number of non-school municipal buildings, the list of discrete projects with which the mega-group is working was expanded to twelve (alphabetical order):
--Belmont Center parking solution
--Fire station consolidation
--High School renovation
--Highway Department complex
--Main Library
--Police Station
--Senior Center
--Underwood Pool
--Viglirolo Skating Rink
--Water Department building
--Wellington School
--White Field House
During the Summer of 2002, a Selectmen-appointed Cluster Planning Task Force developed a proposal to combine several of those projects – a new Senior Center, a new Library, a replacement White Field House, and renovations to certain of the high school athletic fields and Viglirolo Skating Rink, along with improved parking and traffic control – in a “civic center” along Concord Avenue. The proposal failed to win the Selectmen’s support, and the work of the mega-group has resumed.
As part of that work, the mega-group is also reviewing future plans and funding mechanisms for three major ongoing projects:
--Pavement management
--Sewer and storm drain replacement
--Water main replacement
Meanwhile, the Capital Budget Committee conducted its annual process of reviewing capital requests for funding. Town departments and committees submitted a total of $6,504,953 in Fiscal 2004 capital requests for our consideration, excluding amounts to be requested pursuant to Annual Town Meeting Articles 13, 14 and 15. The Capital Budget Committee recommends a Fiscal 2004 appropriation of $4,566,309 pertaining to these requests.
Pursuant to Article 3 of the April 30, 2003 Special Town Meeting, the Capital Budget Committee recommended and Town Meeting has already appropriated a total of $242,900 in Fiscal 2004 capital expenditures, as follows:
Pursuant to Articles 8 and 11 of the Annual Town Meeting Warrant, the Capital Budget Committee recommends that Town Meeting appropriate $2,353,306 in Fiscal 2004 capital expenditures, as follows:
1 High School library security, printers & LCD projector; Middle School LCD projector; Butler and Winn Brook half computer labs; Burbank and Wellington computer replacement.
2 Laser inkjet computer for Town Treasurer and Town Accountant; computer and miscellaneous hardware replacement; five hand-held parking violation devices.
3 Anticipate replacing sections of roofs at Winn Brook School and Memorial Library and undertaking roof repairs at Wellington School gymnasium, White Field House and three fire stations.
4 Belmont Center: inoperable windows, watch desk enclosure, plaster damage, fire pole encasement; Harvard Lawn: window & door replacement. Waverley: Mothball building and install alarm.
Pursuant to Article 4 of the Annual Town Meeting Warrant, the Capital Budget Committee recommends that Town Meeting appropriate a further $1,970,103 in Fiscal 2004 capital expenditures, as follows:
Potential recommendations for further FY04 capital appropriations pursuant to Annual Town Meeting Articles 13, 14 and 15 will be developed prior to June 16, 2003.
Respectfully submitted,
Joseph P. Barrell
M. Patricia Brusch
Mark F. Clark
Frank E. French, Jr.
Anne Marie S. Mahoney
Michael J. Speidel, Chair
Scott D. Stratford
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