Our Annual Town Meeting is still a ways off – this year scheduled for Wednesday, April 24, but some of the special issues that voters will be asked to decide are taking shape. The operating budgets are close to being finalized, with most requests being straightforward. Many of the capital requests are also typical. However, there are a handful of special items about which voters will want to become educated to make informed decisions. A brief introduction here to these items will set the stage for more detailed information in the weeks leading up to the Annual Town Meeting, including public forums dedicated to each topic.
The private entity that has been operating a launch service for mooring holders in the harbor has decided not to continue the service and has offered to sell the launch boats at a discount to the Town to operate the service.
The Harbormaster feels that it is important to continue the operations, and, with the help of Finance Committee member Peter Twining and Select Board member Cathy Bilotta, he has crafted a new business plan for the Town to assume responsibility for the service. The plan calls for the operations to be self-supporting through the subscription fees that users of the system will pay. If the service goes forward, the Harbormaster Department will initiate a registration process later this spring. Anyone who signs up will be refunded the annual fee if the launch service does not go forward.
After many different attempts to secure a senior center for the community, a plan is coming together whereby the Town could acquire a portion of the existing Mason’s Building. The Masons would continue to own a portion with some shared space. The proposal calls for adding onto the building using funds raised privately. This new facility will provide space for seniors and an array of programming for them, including the option for daily lunches out of the commercial kitchen that the space includes. The priority for use of the spaces, which will be under the management of the Council on Aging, will be for seniors, but when not used for these purposes, it will also provide much-needed meeting space for town committees. The initial acquisition cost will be $1,000,000, with another $2,000,000 in donated funds needed for the expansion/renovations.
Voters will also be asked to approve new bonds to pay for several water and sewer projects. Figures are being finalized regarding how much to borrow and how much cash on hand to use.
About $9,250,0000 is needed for various important projects.
Among them are:
Utility fees will be used to help pay the debt service on these new bonds, along with general fund revenues. We are also hoping to reduce our costs through grant funds – we just received word of a $950,000 federal award through US Representative Seth Moulton’s Office. It has been a while since we have relied on borrowed funds for capital projects. Given the needs we are facing, we are entering a new period of needing to borrow for capital projects.
The School District has been invited into the state’s school construction assistance program for the Essex Elementary School, the third and last major building project for the District. The process starts with a feasibility study to explore the various options (renovate, build new on or off-site, or consolidate.)
Similar to how the feasibility study for Memorial was paid for, the district would pay a third, and then of the remaining 2/3rds, Manchester would pay 66% -- likely in the $650,000 range.
The District is in the process of determining how much a new feasibility study will cost and will have numbers ready for the Annual Town Meeting. It takes a few years to go through the entire process, from feasibility to final construction. In this case, stretching out the
time until the first debt payments are due can be helpful as by the early 2030s the high school debt will be fully retired as well as other liabilities.
More is to come in the weeks ahead on these and other articles that will be presented to voters at the Annual Town Meeting.
