HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-04-15-CEC-minCapital Expenditures Committee (CEC) Meeting, 4/15/09, 8:30am, Town Office Building, Room 111
Members Present: Bill Hurley, Ted Edson, David Kanter, Shirley Stolz, Charles Lamb (Chair)
Others: Bill Hadley (Director, Department of Public Worlcs [DPW]), Mary Ann McCall-Taylor
(Planning Director), Norm Cohen (Chair, Board of Selectmen), Carl Valente (Town Manager), John
Livsey (Town Engineer), Rob Addelson (Assistant Town Manager & Town Comptroller), Susan
Yanofsky (Town Economic Development Officer), George Burnell (Selectman)
Discussion of Hartwell Ave Traffic Mitigation Overlay District
Planning Board raised question of whether to pre-fund an account for potential Hartwell Ave area
infrastructure projects by authorizing Town funds up front. CV stated that the businesses involved
should not be expected to pay for all of the improvements because surrounding areas will benefit from
the improvements, so the Town will have to bear some of the cost. The Planning Board is
recommending bonding first and then later taking in Traffic Demand Management (TDM) funds from
the developers.
DK: Are there any State or Federal grants which might be applicable? The Transportation Improvement
Program (TIP) and Public Worlcs Economic Development (PWED) are two, but they take time.
One option is to get authorization from Town Meeting to do the Design and Engineering (D&E) first,
and then do construction later. D&E would take us to the bidding phase. TDM funds would be paid at
permit time probably, but it could also be occupancy time depending on how it's structured. The TDM
fee would be roughly $30K per parcel.
This can't be structured as an abatement because of the parameters.
Expected real-estate tax income increase is $2M to $3M.
The D&E component would probably have a pretty long life (i.e., wouldn't rot on the she/ f if there
were a delay before construction.
The 2007 Annual Town Meeting~ATM~, Article 31 ~f~, Storm Drain Mana ement Appropriation
($231,375) & the 2009 ATM, Article 15 ~, Storm Drain Mana ement Appropriation $160,000} will
not be bonded Yet in order to manage debt service.
• .v
Discussion of the roads to be paved in summer 2009 (Paving Year 2009)
Chapter 90 money is generally authorized for payment in April, and those FY2009 funds were just
authorized by the State on 4/1/09. The policy is to stockpile those funds for a year, so the latest round
will not be spent until next summer.
Woburn Street had asphalt escalation of $219K.
The previous Pavement Management Plan was based onpavement-condition-survey data from 6 years
ago. The DPW wanted to go through with the update this year and $84K is currently encumbered for
that work, but CV recommended that they don't so that survey is on hold.
DK: As an up-to-date quantitative basis for the selection of roadwork is not available and the CY2009
Roadway Program has a balanced budget including using that $84K for the survey, that hold should be
released so the pavement-condition data can be updated.
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Discussion of the Lincoln Field Methane Mitigation Project
The lowest bidder for the work was $372,760 and the contract was awarded to them. The next-lowest
bidder ($508,690) filed a protest and the Town recently attended a hearing. The outcome of the hearing
is not yet known.
The original appropriation under 2007 ATM, Article 31(a), was $550,000 and $483,653 remains in that
account.
The Town can't reject the low-bid if the protest is denied because the contract is already signed with the
low bidder. (That would leave $110,893 from the original appropriation available for contingencies.)
If the protest is upheld, then the Town may go back and re-bid the whole project or they may just sign
with the second bidder. If they do the latter, the expectation is that the shortfall in funding ($508,690 -
$483,653 = $25,037, plus an amount for contingencies), would be made up out of the Landfill Closure
account (2003 ATM, Article 8(i)), which has $222,471 remaining in it. (The Landfill Closure work was
already bonded so its balance would need to be re-appropriated.)
If the protest has been upheld or the decision is not known by the time the on-going 2009 Annual Town
Meeting is ready to close, CV anticipates asking for approximately $150K under Article 31
(Appropriate for Authorized Capital Improvements) of that on-going Town Meeting. (If it is learned
before Article 31 is presented that the protest has been denied, some amount smaller than $150K may
still be requested under Article 31.)
[Bill Hurley departs)
Motion: Approve 3/18/09, 3/25/09, 4/8/09 CEC minutes. [4:0]
Motion: Support $85K supplemental for Clarke Sprinklers under 2009 Special Town Meeting (5/6/09),
Article 4. [4:0]
Adjourn: 10:20am
These Minutes were approved by the CEC at its meeting on April 29, 2009.
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