St. John presents Middlebury Capital Plan

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Middlebury First Selectman Edward B. St. John answers questions following a Power Point presentation of Middlebury’s proposed $5.95 million capital plan. The plan will be on the Nov. 8 ballot. (Marjorie Needham photo)

By MARJORIE NEEDHAM

Middlebury First Selectman Edward B. St. John on Tuesday night gave the first of several planned public presentations of the proposed capital plan he and town department heads put together. There will be additional public presentations of the plan in July and August. The plan will then be on the ballot Nov. 8, and if it’s approved, the projects will begin in spring 2017.

The 30 or so residents who attended the presentation in the Larkin Room at the Middlebury Public Library saw slides showing peeling paint, broken and missing slate shingles, rotten wood, cracked pavement, masonry in need of repair, interior water damage and more. St. John said of the plan, “It’s a huge, big maintenance project.”

St. John said in an interview earlier in the day that the most important part of the project was road improvements. “Most people drive on the roads, and they notice those more than the buildings,” he said.

To get caught up on road maintenance, St. John said the town would need to spend $8.3 million, but only $3 million of the capital plan is allocated to road repairs. That’s because he had to come up with a plan that was affordable for residents. “It’s critical to match our ability to pay with what we do,” he said.

Financing is in two parts. Phase 1 is pay as you go. The other part is bonding.

St. John said Phase 1 will be completed over three to four years in $400,000 blocks. That money is in the budget under infrastructure.

The remaining $5.95 million will be bonded. St. John said the town has only seven years of old debt remaining. A financial analyst charted the costs from 2016 through 2042 and showed the town’s annual cost remains almost constant over the 26-year period, fluctuating between a low of $671,576 and a high of $703,794 a year and then dropping under $600,000 for the last three years. St. John said borrowing for the project will have no effect on the mil rate. “There will be no big spike in our mil rate as a result of this project,” he said.

The projects to be undertaken include almost every town building and some town parks. Some buildings will get needed mechanical/heating/cooling upgrades. One will get concrete repairs. Several brick buildings will have the brick siding cleaned and sealed. Forty-year-old garage doors will be replaced. Roofs, which are leaking, will be replaced at the Police Department, Town Hall and Shepardson Community Center.

Underground fuel storage tanks will be removed, as the state has mandated must be done by 2017, and a new central fueling depot for town vehicles will be installed at the Department of Public Works. The Middlebury Recreation Area tennis courts and the Ledgewood basketball court will have their cracked asphalt resurfaced. Fenn Farm projects also are part of the capital plan.

At the end of his presentation, St. John told attendees the plan as presented was based on a bond interest rate of 3 percent. He said if the town could get a lower interest rate, he might be able to increase the amount spent on road repairs by $1 million while keeping debt service the same. He asked if anyone would object to him doing that, and no one spoke against the idea.