2011-03-CEC-ATM-rpt - Laserfiche WebLink

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CAPITAL EXPENDITURES COMMITTEE REPORT TO 2011 ATM Library Under DPF management, with funding appropriated at last-year's Town Meeting ($25,000 under Article 12(q)), a contract was awarded to Adams & Smiths Architects on December 2, 2010. The effort, for the Cary Memorial Library, is to review the existing conditions regarding the handling of the bins of library materials that Circulation processes each day from the book drop and interlibrary loans and the Bibliographic Services, and to recommend solutions. The goal is more efficient patron service through electronic tagging and better ergonometrics for department employees. A meaningful progress report is expected around the end of this month. Based on it, DPF expects to bring to this Town Meeting information on the path contemplated provide solutions to the Library's problems. Funding is being requested to design the recommended solutions. (See Article 13(1)) Public Works The Department of Public Works (DPW) is the maintenance agent for all Town facilities with the exception of buildings, which are assigned, to the Department of Public Facilities (DPF), and is responsible for the execution (i.e., design, bidding, construction, and project management) of related DPW projects. To accomplish its mission, the DPW is organized around seven elements: Administration and Engineering, Highway Division, Public Grounds Division, Environmental Services Division, Transportation Services Office, Water Division, and Sewer Division. Major components of DPW's FY2012-FY2016 capital projects include: • Trucks and heavy equipment necessary to accomplish DPW missions, • Road and sidewalk construction, • Water-distribution and wastewater systems improvements, • Traffic control and mitigation, • Storm-water control and management, and • Public-grounds improvements Almost all construction projects for the wastewater(sanitary sewer) system and for the water-distribution system are funded from Enterprise Funds. Likewise, large trucks and heavy equipment used in support of the wastewater and water-distribution systems are funded by Enterprise Funds. The rest of DPW's capital needs, except CPA-funded projects, must be funded by the general tax levy and/or debt-exclusion votes.. Roads Lexington has a total of about 201 miles of roads, including State and unaccepted roads. That total consists of 138 miles of public roadway, 17 miles of unaccepted roadway and 46 State highway miles all numbers approximate. Lexington's DPW maintains about 126 miles of roadway; the remainder being maintained by the State or private owners. The estimated replacement cost of the 138 miles of public roadways is $85 million, in FY2011 dollars. Funding for roads is a combination of State Chapter 90 funds (typically expected at the about $700,000 level) and Town funds at least in the amount of the $500,000 set-aside established in the FY2001 operating override. (The $500,000 set-aside has been increased by 2.5% [i.e., the statutory growth in the tax levy] each year beginning with FY2008.) (See Article 10(j)) In April 2010, the Town retained Fay, Spofford & Thorndike (FST), a civil engineering consulting firm, to develop and implement a Pavement Management System (PMS) for its public roadways and its bike trail (approximately 5 miles). The study was completed in November 2010. This Committee is extremely pleased to see that study and that it provides a quantitative basis for the condition of the pavements that the DPW maintains. That information, along with recognition of pending associated impacts on our pavements (e.g., cuts for utilities work, construction for storm-water and wastewater system improvements, sidewalk-related projects, etc.) offers the promise of an even-more productive and 21