HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-12-3Minutes for December 03, 2014, adopted Dec. 10
Town of Nantucket
Capital Program Committee
www.nantucket- ma.gov
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Members: Phil Stambaugh (Chair), Peter Morrison (Vice - chair), Richard flush (Secretary)
John Tiffany, Tobias Glidden, Nat Lowell, Peter McEachepi
MINUTES
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Wednesday, December 3, 2014 11� o n
4 Fairgrounds Road, Training Room — 8:00 am ® s�
Called to order at 8:00 a.m.
Staff. Libby Gibson, Town Manager; Brian Turbitt, Finance Director; Nkwtin -Wnguelov,
Assistant Finance Director; Terry Norton, Town Minutes Taker r �
Attending Members: Stambaugh, Morrison, Tiffany, Glidden, Hussey, McEachern
Absent Members: Lowell
Late arrival: None
Documents used: Copy of November 19, minutes; IT Proposed FY2015 Capital Project request form and
FY2017 -20125 Proposed Capital Requests spreadsheet; Town Administration
Recommendations for FY16 Capital Project /endorsed by BOS spreadsheet; FY2016 to
2025 Capital Project spreadsheet.
APPROVE 1.
1. November 19, 2014 — adopted by unanimous consent
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Presentation Linda Rhodes, Director IT — IT: Requesting $50,000 to replace obsolete PCs; IT rotates
computers so they won't exceed four or five years of use. They aren't worth reusing by that time
so the hard drive is scoured and they are taken to the Department of Public Works.
Reviewed the 10 -year plan to upgrade Town network infrastructure. The Town Building rack is
very old and needs to be replaced. Every year some servers are replaced; replacing 8 this year.
GIS: New images are to be uploaded to the website by the start of 2015. The cost is about
$300,000 for FY2018; that includes the flyover and data layers.
Discussion Tiffany — Asked about the upgrade to the increase quality of the GIS maps.
Rhodes — The quality will be much better. You will be able to zoom in more and details will be
clearer.
Morrison — Asked if IT looked into partnering of funding with an agency that has a stake in the
imagery.
Rhodes — The State does its own imagery but it's not as clear as what Nantucket is using.
Glidden — Asked about security of Town computers.
Rhodes — There are tools that monitor access to the network but the Town doesn't have that; it
would be nice to have. The computers do have virus protection and there are firewalls in all the
buildings. Also don't something which alerts when equipment goes down and informs IT; that
would also be nice to have in the future.
Discussion about security and the probability of Town computers being hacked.
Turbitt — Assured that no Social Security Numbers are stored on Town computers.
McEachern — Asked about the location of the Town servers.
Rhodes — The Town has 26 servers: many in the data center at 4 Fairground Road, one at Our
Island Home (OIH), one at the Department of Public Works, one at Council on Aging. Use
Barracuda for backup to the servers. Some work might be contracted out. All hardware and
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Minutes for December 03, 2014, adopted Dec. 10
software is her department's responsibility. The biggest "headache" is the Helpdesk due to the
volume and it takes precedent. Her department manages the Town Clerk's servers but those
were purchased, with Community Preservation Committee (CPC) funding, for the document
management system Laserfiche®; if she did not get CPC funding, those will have to be included
in the IT budget next year.
CAPCOM BUSINESS - Future Meeting Topics
1. Review of Town Administration Capital Projects.
Tiffany — If the Consue Springs stormwater improvement project is removed, the Town is in good shape
to handle everything except new school and Fire Department building.
Gibson — Reviewed the updated Town Administration's Capital Request. Consue Springs was stricken
but left the numbers in to allow seeing it both ways. Have had some issues with the vendor. This is a
good environmental thing to do and it is something that should be done. We want to do it right and a
clearer picture of what the $3.5M is paying for. Took out Prospect Street sidewalks to be put off until the
mid- island bike path is done. Sparks Avenue sidewalk would be a nice to have. The total of all items
including Consue is $64.9M; without school, fire and Consue, it is $64M.
Review of existing funds:
Proceeds from real estate sales increased some but those funds are restricted to how they are used: first
pay off debts incurred in regards to the property that was sold, then used for items which can be
borrowed for in accordance with Mass General Law for a period longer than 5 years. There is about $8M
in that account; it does not go into the General Fund.
Discussion about what happens to money from real estate sales and how it can be used.
As yet she has not assigned to what projects the $3M from sales would be applied.
Prior years' capital project appropriations equals $380,000. Free cash is about $1.7M. Hummock Pond
Road Bike Path Gift Account has $120,000. Capital form the operating budget is $780,000. Waterways is
$350,000.
Stambaugh — Asked if the procee3ds from real estate sales could be applied to the new fire station.
Gibson — That would be a little bit of an off -set for the new station. $15M is about $30 on the tax bill
per year. It makes more sense to use it to off -set bigger stuff. This will be reviewed first with the Board
of Selectmen (BOS). Free cash recommendations will be reviewed with the BOS. Suggesting that $2M or
$3M go to a capital stabilization fund, which has to be set up, or the regular stabilization fund; but not all
of it.
Tiffany — Asked if there was any movement on the capital stabilization fund.
Gibson — The BOS last year put it off, but there has been a shift in thinking. There is a difference
between the two types of funds. A little money could go into the capital stabilization fund every year to
help pay for 20 South Water, for example. It is hard to deal with the stabilization fund; they are very
restrictive. Need to do an overhaul of those policies.
The school is the only outstanding item. She and Mr. Turbitt met with the Superintendent of School, Mr
Michael Cozort, about the school budget and the new school project. The school committee sounds to
be aggressive toward $45M.
McEachern — At the last meeting, the $45M was brought to the School Committee's attention in regards
to how funding was sought. Now they realize there is a 6 -month delay in the project because of what was
not done. That drove the cost up just in the initial design fee.
Gibson — There is talk about incorporating the field work into this plan.
McEachern — That is not so; the school and fields are separate. The fields were shown as part of a
master plan and don't build where they think they might want to put fields later.
Gibson — There are some properties next to the proposed school site and one of the owners is vocal
about that site. Have been talking about traffic flow and revisiting idea of cut - through from Backus to
First Way. Have a meeting with Mr. Cozort and others to discuss that. Don't know if the $45M includes
resiting.
Stambaugh - $40M is a lot of money; but most people don't understand how much it costs to build a
school. Need to come up with a way to explain that.
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Minutes for December 03, 2014, adopted Dec. 10
Tiffany — Expressed concern about the proposed size of the new school. In the private sector, they built
three to five years out with the ability to expand; saved money by taking a shorter term look.
McEachern — Explained about doing work equal to or greater than 33% of the value of a building
triggers the requirement to upgrade and meet current code. The Middle School is attached to the High
School; that on the books is all one building.
Morrison — Asked about the guess for the affect payment for the fire station would have on the tax bill.
Gibson — For the fire station, about $30 (definitely under $100) a year would be added to a $1M tax bill
for the life of the debt; the school would be $122 per year added to a $1M tax bill.
Discussion about how to present the debt incurred by constructing two new buildings to the tax payers.
Hussey — Asked if Mr. Cozort realizes that $40M should be the number.
Gibson — His committee and staff are aggressive toward the $45M; he is trying to work it down to $40M.
Morrison — There is a lot of future contingency planning involved with a new municipal building; it's not
just putting up the building. Need forums in which a full venting of the project is explained to the public.
Gibson — OIH has some retained earnings which will go to operating or capital but the General Fund
subsidy might increase. Issues causing declines in 2015 revenue: Patient mix is shifting and Medicare
reimbursement has been slow. At the Board of Selectmen (BOS) will talk about operating override for
OIH to avoid digging into General Fund. Design for new facility will be some kind of split or all Town
or OIH; might have to increase General Fund budget to cover capital projects.
Discussion about how projects will ultimately affect the operational costs and creating a five -year forecast
for operating costs.
Gibson — Working with Cinder McNerney on an updated financial planning document for the 10 -year
plan. Explained the problem with sewers and why they are not on the 10 -year plan.
Turbitt — The plan is to take the FY2016 recommendation and model that for the tax rate. Sewer impact
is difficult to project because there are 9 areas the might or might not be done. He will not have that
cleared up by the December 18, the date of CapCom's presentation to Finance Committee.
Glidden — Said he asks himself, what the Town should be doing this year to reduce the need for new
sewers in support of the State Clean Water Act.
Discussion about alternatives to spending money on sewers that would support the Act.
Gibson -There are no state regulations that require installation of sewers. There are TMDL numbers
that the State would like to have met. Since Nantucket has done a number of things, we are ahead of
most other communities. The state has a low- interest loan program to help finance the sewer project,
which the Town is taking advantage of.
Stambaugh — Going back, asked if OIH would affect the override.
Gibson — Suggested adding OIH into the General Fund and borrow the $1M for the design. The debt
service would be paid either out of an override or the General Fund Operating Budget or OIH Operating
Budget. The borrowing wouldn't occur until well into FY2016.
Tiffany — There is $1M for design and $17M for construction; what affect will there be on timing of
construction.
Gibson — Construction of a new facility might be pushed into FY2018.
Turbitt — Even if it is constructed in FY2017, the smoothing technique being used for the school and
fire station will not kick in for a couple of years. The Town will use bond anticipation notes for short-
term; that won't have an impact on the tax rate. The actual impact on the tax rate won't occur for 2 or 3
years down the road.
Stambaugh — Asked for a motion on the Town Administration Recommendations for FYI Capital
Project /Endorsed by BOS now before them.
Motion to Approve the recommendation. (made by: Hussey) (seconded by: Glidden) Carried
unanimously
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Minutes for December 03, 2014, adopted Dec. 10
2. Topics for next meeting: updated recommendations; tax model; discuss Finance Committee presentation.
3. Solid waste mining and sewers equal $8.8M in modifications.
Glidden — Asked how that would be funded.
Gibson — The sewer items are all funded in the Sewer Enterprise Fund. Next, will have to do a rate
projection; that might increase at least a little, though there is a substantial amount of retained earnings.
Solid waste mining is already worked into the budget.
Glidden — The additional lined cell engineering and construction?
Gibson — That will come out of the Solid Waste Enterprise Fund.
Glidden — Wannacomet Water, will the new facility come out of water rates?
Gibson — She believes so.
Turbitt — They will have to borrow for that.
IV. DATE OF
Wednesday, December 10, 2014, 8:00 a.m. at 4 Fairgrounds Road, Training Room
Adjourned: 9:40 a.m.
Submitted by:
Terry L. Norton
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