GREENFIELD — Town Council has cut the mayor’s proposed $11.8 million capital budget by more than half but has kept money in next year’s spending plan for a public safety complex design.
The 5½-hour meeting began with a full house, and some attendees were diverted to an overflow room in the Greenfield Community Television studios where the meeting was being live-streamed. Many residents came to speak in support of funding $5.25 million for the senior center, which was eventually cut.
By the end of the night, the proposed major projects spending plan for the coming budget year had been cut by $6.9 million. Some of the one-time capital projects were to be funded from savings and much of it would have come from borrowing. Some councilors sought to dial back the mayor’s plan, thinking it too ambitious for the town’s current fiscal situation.
The council saved $440,000 by choosing not to fund new town vehicles until a study can determine what is and isn’t needed, as there were questions as to how much longer the lives of certain vehicles could be extended.
“I like the idea of making sure we have a consistent plan for vehicles in general through the DPW,” Precinct 8 Councilor Ashli Stempel said.
The senior center funding — which was first amended downward to $4.75 million by Council Vice President Isaac Mass as a way to compromise — did not receive the two-thirds vote it needed to pass, with councilors nearly evenly split on the question.
The council voted to borrow $50,000 for a public safety complex design.
The town is looking to build a new library on the site of the current fire station, which would have to be demolished.
“This is not just about public safety, it’s about the library,” At-Large Councilor Mark Maloni said prior to the vote. “I think it’s hugely important that this pass.”
Butch Hawkins, chairman of the Public Safety Commission, said the money would be used to help determine if it would be feasible for the town to lease the public safety complex building from a private developer and whether the soil on the site would support the weight of the building, among other uses.
“The purpose is to be used for a lot of different small things to get us to the next step and sort of help the library folks out to quicken the process for them,” he said. “I do feel good about where we are. We’ve come a long ways.”
The council also voted to reduce a request to borrow $2 million for repairs to the Maple Brook Culvert to $600,000, which will cover nearly all the work expected to be done within the first year of that project, according to Mass.
Because of an error on the agenda, a combined $288,000 for projects on Wisdom Way and Shelburne Road will be revisited at next month’s meeting, and a vote to borrow $500,000 to replace a monitoring system at the wastewater treatment plant did not pass.
The town’s schools will be seeing upgrades in the near future, as the council voted to appropriate a total of $90,000 from the building maintenance stabilization account to replace exterior doors and repair bathrooms.
The council also approved borrowing $155,000 to replace the elementary schools’ PA systems.
A $1 million project to repair the Rocky Mountain water tank also passed.
You can reach Aviva Luttrell at: aluttrell@recorder.com
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