Trucks, School, Community House Seek Place in Kent Five-Year Plan

KENT — The Board of Finance opened the new year with a briskly paced meeting Tuesday night that included a discussion of the five-year capital plan.

"At this point we are listening so we are informed," said Chairman George Jacobsen in setting the stage for the conversation. "We want to know what everybody thinks they’d like to have and when they’d like to have it."Fire and Highway Trucks

The question of how to replace the highway department’s trucks in a timely and cost-efficient manner came up. Highway Foreman Rick Osborne said that rises in the cost of replacement trucks were unavoidable, with increasingly tough federal emissions mandates driving price increases. The highway department seeks to add one new vehicle in the next few years; all other purchases will replace current trucks.

Osborne also noted that, save one pickup truck, the town fleet is now all diesel.

The Volunteer Fire Department’s request for a $700,000 ladder truck, a piece of equipment recommended by consultant John Nickerson’s "needs assessment," has been pushed back, in a bit of budgetary legerdemain, to the 2013-14 budget, in order to concentrate on replacing existing apparatus.

The fire department is trying to get its equipment on a 20-year replacement cycle. Members of the board asked if that was a realistic approach, and fire Chief Eric Epstein replied in the affirmative.

(By contrast, the highway department’s replacement cycle is, ideally, 12 years — 10 for pickups.)

Jacobsen retrieved from his archives a memo from Epstein from last year with a detailed list of the department’s trucks, when they were purchased, and when they might need to be replaced, and asked for an updated version.

Tom Sides asked what the market for used fire trucks was like. Epstein said the market exists but is unlikely to produce significant revenue.

"We sold one to some farmers out West somewhere, where it’s 200 miles between fire departments."

Jacobsen, returning to highways, asked if it was safe to say the 10-year process of rebuilding the town’s roads was more or less complete, and Osborne gave a qualified yes, referring only to some work remaining on Kenico Road, Bull’s Bridge and Fuller Road.

"So we’re now in a position of maintenance, not construction," said Jacobsen.Building and Renovation

More specific projects found their way into the discussion: $50,000 for tennis courts; $75,000 for a pavilion and basketball court at Emery Park; $35,000 for the Swift House — a number Jacobsen dismissed as a "phantom," citing last year’s attention-getting assessment from one architect that the historic structure needed $1 million in repair work; $290,000 for repairs to the roof at the elementary school; $85,000 for work on the heating at same; $66,000 for a generator and building improvements at the town garage.Community House

Helen Conlon and Rufus DeRham from the Community House Commission were on hand as board members quizzed them on who uses the facility, how often, and for what. Jacobsen and other board members indicated they were not "sitting in judgment," as Chris Garrity put it, but simply looking for information.

That way, said Paul Abbott, "We can have an easier time justifying expenditures to the voters."

DeRham said the commission, after evaluating the condition of the building, decided the best course of action was to renovate the most-used areas: the main hall, the bathroom, and ventilation and electrical systems therein.

"We had two incidents recently of electrical problems during rental events," he said.

The commission’s early estimate for repair and renovation is $20,000.Kent Center School

In addition to a leaky roof, Kent Center School needs to replace two different sets of windows, in two stages, at a combined cost of something in the neighborhood of $220,000.

Rather than repair a roof over a largely unused outdoor walkway for approximately $15,000, the decision has been made to remove it, for $5,000. And the grounds need $20,000 worth of attention.

The board voted — unanimously — to provisionally approve the five-year capital plan. By state law, Jacobsen must now present the plan to the Planning and Zoning Commission — a routine procedure.

None of the projects and figures discussed Tuesday night are set in stone. The meeting was, as Jacobsen said, more for purposes of information than serious number-crunching.Other items of interest:

• Norman Vandervoort, representing the Board of Education, said a minute amount of radon gas, just barely exceeding Federal standards, was detected at KCS. "It’s not enough to be alarming," he said, "but it needs to be treated."

The procedure, he explained, is to drill holes in the concrete floor, and attach piping with exhaust fans to remove the trapped gas.

"Thereby distributing it to us all on an equal basis" quipped Jacobsen.

• Board members questioned an item on the agenda for tonight’s annual town meeting: a request from the Park and Recreation Commission for a separate $10,000 line to finance bus trips. The idea is not to have the department’s budget seriously dented by the purchase of several thousand dollars’ worth of bus and event tickets; however, board members asked what would happen if Park and Rec bought $10,000 in tickets and only sold $3,000, for example.

• The board voted to support, in a general sense, the idea of raising the prevailing wage threshold for public works projects. There are several proposals in committee in the state Legislature at the moment; Sen. Andrew Roraback (R-30) said he supports the legislation, noting that the last time the thresholds were adjusted was in 1989.

Current law states that new public works projects that cost $400,000 and up, or repair projects costing $100,000, must pay prevailing (i.e. union) wages. Critics have long charged this policy, while applicable to urban areas, is unfair to small towns, where budgets are tight. They also maintain the practice squeezes out local non-union contractors willing to do the work for a cheaper rate.

The bills now circulating mention new thresholds of $1 million and $500,000; Roraback added there was some sentiment to just go with a uniform $1 million.

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