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03/22/2017 08:00 AMThe Board of Finance (BOF) adopted the town and Board of Education (BOE) capital bonding requests on March 21. The combined bonding request is about $7 million and now moves to the Annual Town Meeting with the combined operating and debt service budget on Tuesday, April 4.
Capital bonding is held separate from the operating budget. Capital bonding is generally used for expenses that are expected to last more than a year and is directed toward larger projects. The operating budget, while it can include capital projects, tends to focus more on annual expenses such as salaries.
The bond requests appear on the ballot at the budget referendum as five separate questions for the voters. The town has three bonding questions and the BOE has two.
“The voters have the chance to vote independently on each of these as opposed to one big number,” said BOF Chair Matt Hoey. “It allows them to make the decision on the value to the community.”
All bonding costs include cost of issuance and capitalized interest. The town put forward three requests including $288,000 for costs related to improvements for various town facilities including improvements to systems at Town Hall and resurfacing of the courts at Bittner Park, $1,047,000 for inland road reconstruction, and $1,450,000 for costs related to emergency services equipment.
The BOE capital bonding request totals close to $4 million separated into two questions. The majority of the request is focused around Abraham Baldwin Middle School, which is currently undergoing a major window replacement project and is in need of electrical and HVAC (heating and cooling) upgrades.
While the bonding requests would be approved this year, the money would have no impact on this year’s budget increase. Hoey previously said payments for these projects would be a few years out. However, BOF member Ken Mackenzie said he was concerned about spending.
“To me, given where we are with the budget, we are incurring another $400,000-plus per year with this bond if we approve all of these,” he said. “I realize that some of these things are perhaps essential…but I just don’t really see us stepping on the brakes.”
Hoey said the community has historically been supportive of bonding requests.
“The community has been very supportive of these types of projects and I think it has long been viewed that people believe that protecting the investment, in terms of things like resurfacing and maintaining things, is a valuable way to go,” he said.
The bonding request and the overall town budget are presented at the Annual Town Meeting on Tuesday, April 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the Community Center, 32 Church Street.