ATHOL – The Selectboard got a look at this year’s capital spending plan from the town’s Capital Program Committee (CPC), which calls for $1.2 million in Free Cash for requests by the police, fire, and public works departments.

The current Free Cash account – made up of the town’s remaining, unrestricted funds from the previous year’s municipal budget – is approximately $2.1 million.

CPC member Jim Smith said the committee is recommending spending $50,500 for a new administrative vehicle and approximately $106,000 for the purchase of new tasers for the police department. He said the animal control facility, which he described as “basically half a building,” also came up during the committee’s discussions. He said the facility needs to be completely built out, and staff are quarantining animals in the bathrooms.

“We’re trying to get a handle on a figure,” he said at the April 4 meeting. “Unfortunately, with architect and design needed, nothing has come to light yet on it. So, Capital Planning appropriated $50,000 to prime the pump on that project.”

The original request for the shelter, Smith explained, was $250,000.

“But looking at it as a committee, we think that’s short,” he said. “I think we’re looking at quite a bit more – maybe $100,000 more.”

Moving on to the fire department, Smith said the CPC was recommending more than $100,000 for a new generator to replace one over 50 years old.

“It was a used piece of equipment when they got it, and it needs to be replaced…with the understanding that the old generator can be placed down at the animal control facility,” he said.

The committee is supporting the purchase of two new all-terrain vehicles for the fire department at a cost of just over $34,000, which has been requested the last five years. At the same time, the CPC said the two ATVs to be replaced should be given to the town’s Conservation Commission. Each of the two used vehicles, he said, could be used for projects at Newton Reservoir and the Bearsden Conservation Area.

The Department of Public Works (DPW) had asked the CPC to approve $225,000 for the purchase of a new bucket truck. The committee, he said, approved $150,000 out of the capital programs budget and $75,000 out of cemetery funds.

“They have many problem trees in that (Silver Lake) cemetery that need to be taken care of, and they felt it was the right thing to do, to use their trust fund for that,” said Smith.

Also approved for the DPW was a three-year lease of nearly $85,000 for a new loader and $133,000 for the two-year lease for a new dump truck. The DPW had requested a new dump truck this year, but in the capital plan’s five-year projection, it will need another dump truck two years from now and the committee didn’t want to overlap that lease with another.

“So, if we pay this lease off in two years, in the third year, when they come to us for another vehicle, we can just continued on, if needed,” Smith said.

The CPC approved $25,000 for Public Works for the purchase of miscellaneous used equipment as well as $200,000 for non-Chapter 90 road projects. It also recommended the use of $250,000 each to undertake various improvements in the water and sewer departments. Since each department is run as an enterprise fund, the monies will come from the revenues generated by the ratepayers. A little over $65,000 will be allocated for a new town administrative vehicle for use by the town manager.

“We’re going with a hybrid, seeing that we are a Green Community,” Smith said. “The town manager is really into getting grants for green funding. So, we felt we would be better off getting a hybrid vehicle.”

Approximately $113,000 in capital program monies went unspent and will be deposited to the town’s stabilization fund. Asked by Selectboard member Stephen Raymond how much cash is in stabilization, Smith said approximately $900,000. Stabilization monies are generally used to pay for unforeseen, emergency expenses.

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.

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