Sunday, August 19, 2007

Referendum questions

As it stands, the proposed capital budget would include the following items (and their related amounts) going to referendum. Some items above the $350,000 (such as the CHS elevator) would not go to referendum as they include less than $350,000 in locally bonded property tax dollars (for example, CNR is not bonded)... although per the TM, the Council could aggregate items to a number in excess of $350,000 in order to send projects to referendum. And personally, I like the voter involvement... although other Council members clearly prefer to avoid sending projects to referendum.

1) Open space - $1,000,000
2) fire truck - $455,000
3) bridge/dam/culvert - $700,000 (some want to break this number down. the result would be the project gets done without going to referendum.)
4) Sewer facility plan - $150,000 (in addition to prior $350,000 appropriation)
5) Sewer expansion - $200,000 (in addition to prior $200,000 appropriation)
6) Sewer upgrade - $500,000
7) Humiston upgrade - $462,000 (in addition to prior $110,000 appropriation)

Tim White
Town Council, Budget Committee

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the voters should have a say on what projects move forward. I agree with one person who spoke about the elevator at CHS. They pointed out that the superintendent is saying that if the elevator does not go in, it could affect the school's accredidation. That's ridiculous to use the "fear factor" in order to get approval for an overly priced elevator!

Also, Tim, who exactly is it on the council who prefers to keep items from going to referendum? I think people might like to know.

Anonymous said...

Projects should not be broken down so that they don't have to go to referendum. Whenever it is feasible, all projects should go to referundum according to the town charter guidelines. The voters should be the final say on expensive projects!!!!

Tim White said...

"who exactly is it on the council who prefers to keep items from going to referendum?"

My feeling is that along with me, both Diane Visconti and Tom Ruocco appreciate voter involvement.

I'm not sure about the rest of the TC.

Anonymous said...

What happens with the project to tile the pool? The cost is very close to the referendum limit. Granted it was bid or projected below the referendum number for a reason. But what happens when there are costs overruns on it and the total cost goes above the referendum limit?

Anonymous said...

The sad part is not many in this town vote so the referendum questions could be passed or voted down by a few. These are large amounts of money and important to the town. Shame on the people who don't vote.

Anonymous said...

If they don't vote, then they shouldn't complain.

Anonymous said...

All should try to get them to vote. It's our duty as citizens of this country.

Anonymous said...

Is the sewer expansion for W/S, Bowman, Calgani developments?

Are they going to get the remaining capacity?

Anonymous said...

" But what happens when there are costs overruns "

Name a project that didn't go over.

West Main hasn't even been started and they need another $500,000. What a waste to our state dollars.

We need a new West Main chairman or scrap the entire thing.

Anonymous said...

Dodd addition, South end fire station ...

Anonymous said...

How can we upgrade the sewer system when the I&I problem is still unresolved? If we lack capacity, how and why would we add more sewage?

Tim White said...

"upgrade" may be a poor choice of words.

Let me define "upgrade" in two ways:

1) capacity increase
2) replacement of aged equipment

This "upgrade" refers only to replacement of aged equipment. In other words, it's similar to putting new tires on your car... it doesn't mean your car will drive faster... you just need to do it.

Perhaps the word "maintenance" would be better. I was using the wording from the capital budget itself "wastewater treatment plant upgrade."