#Middlebury #CapitalPlan
By MARJORIE NEEDHAM
Middlebury First Selectman Edward B. St. John, in conjunction with Department of Public Works Director Dan Norton, Assessor Chris Kelsey and many others, is hard at work preparing a public presentation to show residents the work that has been done or will be completed by the end of this year in Phase One of the Capital Plan. That plan was launched after voters approved funding in November 2016.
Kelsey is assisting with a Power Point presentation complete with maps, photos and possibly drone footage. St. John said his presentation will review what has been completed or is under way and then take a look at what remains to be done.
He expects to have the presentation ready during October. Although it’s not yet complete and he is still pulling details together, he sat down with us and gave us an update we could share with our readers.
“Our intent was to take care of areas that needed the most work done as quickly as we could get it done,” St. John said. These areas fell under two headings, buildings and road work.
As past visitors to Town Hall and Shepardson Community Center may have observed, water used to drip down in the town clerk’s office and the social services department when it rained. The 85-year-old tile roofs on these buildings had reached the end of their lives. So two of the first projects, undertaken last summer, were to remove and replace those roofs. Contractors also cleaned and sealed the brick siding on each building, installed new gutters, gutter heat,and LED lighting, and made some interior upgrades.
“The bigger, more expensive projects were done first,” St. John said. “The roof projects were massive.”
Over at fire headquarters on Tucker Hill Road, new insulated overhead doors were installed, the HVAC unit was replaced, the HVAC was converted to multizone, and needed painting and repairs were done or are under way.
The police headquarters also got a new HVAC unit and converted to multizone, and needed interior and exterior repairs and painting were done. The fire department bays attached to police headquarters got security system and radio upgrades, and the overhead doors were replaced with insulated doors.
Down at the Public Works Department, a new fuel depot was installed. This provides a central location for town vehicles to fuel up. Public Works also upgraded to LED lighting, closed in a space so building and grounds equipment could be moved out of the garage and replaced three salt shed doors.
The library needed repairs to the roof on the original part of the building, gutter heat cables are being installed, and the Larkin Room got a separate HVAC system so that room now can be heated or cooled separately depending on what is going in there.
Middlebury’s parks, the Middlebury Recreation Area and the Quassy ball fields got various upgrades and improvements. Those driving by the Memorial Garden Park at the corner of Regan Road and Middlebury Road can observe the improvements there. And those who visit Meadowview Park enjoy a newly paved walkway, a new walking bridge and an open, airy look following extensive brush and tree removal.
Speaking of trees, readers may recall a group of Middlebury DPW workers took professional tree removal training earlier this year. Norton reports they have removed approximately 400 hazardous dead or dying trees on town rights of way since March. He estimates 200 more need to be taken down.
A lot was accomplished with town roads, too. Norton reports DPW resurfaced 17.67 miles of town roads (more than 27 percent) and crack sealed an additional 4.55 miles. They also repaired or replaced 423 catch basins, and replaced nearly 9,000 linear feet of drainage pipe, along with repairing culvert end walls and a stone bridge. Road repairs are continuing, and more roads will be complete by the end of the year.
St. John said of the road repairs, “We had hoped to do more but couldn’t because of the condition of the roads.” He said roads need to be maintained regularly or they deteriorate. When that happens, repairs are costly.
Norton prepared a table showing road repair costs for a mile-long stretch of existing street with 26 homes on it. The cheapest repair, crack sealing, would cost $10,560. The most expensive – reclaiming the existing pavement, regrading and more – would cost just over $950,000 for the same mile of road.
“We probably should have covered more miles,” St. John said, “but we had to spend more than I had anticipated because the roads had gone so long (without repairs).”
St. John said he plans a series of public presentations similar to those he held when he first presented the Capital Plan to residents in 2016. With most of the major projects complete, many smaller projects remain, and St. John wants to share information on them with residents. “I want to keep us going forward and get our house in order,” he said.
Middlebury’s recent credit upgrade to Aa1 from Aa2 by Moody’s Investors Service will help the town obtain good interest rates. Only one rating, Aaa, is higher. St. John said the upgrade is great news. It may help hold the town’s debt spending at the originally projected $700,000 a year despite the rise in interest rates since 2016.
