MONTAGUE — Reflecting the financial uncertainty of the COVID-19 crisis, a handful of town construction projects or capital improvements that would have been slated for the upcoming fiscal year are now being reconsidered.
Montague town officials explained the funding delays as a way of preserving financial flexibility through a period when cash flow will likely be tighter than usual. The delayed items will be reconsidered later this year for the fall Town Meeting warrant.
The town is also delaying financial commitments that it can postpone, mostly contributions to town and school stabilization funds.
In total, the delays are worth nearly $660,000, including about $216,000 in capital projects. This is out of a fiscal year 2021 budget that, two months ago, was projected to be worth roughly $26 million.
Montague’s essential operating budget — including salaries and funding for individual departments — was not impacted. School budget funding proposals from the Gill-Montague Regional School District and the Franklin County Technical School were also not delayed or reduced.
The town projects that were delayed were chosen jointly by the Selectboard, Finance Committee and Capital Improvements Committee, consulting with Gill-Montague School Business Director Joanne Blier and Montague Town Administrator Steve Ellis, who is also on the Capital Improvements Committee.
Most of the decisions were based on the Capital Improvements Committee’s recommendations on which projects absolutely could not be delayed, and which ones reasonably could be delayed. The committees also agreed not to delay or reduce projects where repairs would later get more expensive.
While the committees delayed a full replacement of the Gill-Montague Senior Center’s roof, worth about $40,000, they kept a repair of the building’s collapsing chimney, worth about $10,000.
At the schools, they delayed repairs to the Turners Falls High School tennis courts, worth about $55,600; a repair to a wall in Sheffield Elementary School’s library, worth about $20,000; and a repair to the facade of Hillcrest Elementary School, worth about $50,000. However, they kept a repair of Hillcrest Elementary’s leaking roof, worth about $10,000.
Other work considered necessary are repairs to the stairs in the Millers Falls park and the walking path on Seventh Street in Turners Falls, which are considered safety issues, together worth about $37,000. Capital work worth about $190,000 at the Water Pollution Control Facility, including maintenance on the sludge pump machine, was also considered necessary.
“We certainly don’t want to lose that and have raw sewage running through town,” said Sewer Superintendent Chelsey Little.
Delaying on financial commitments will also have the effect of shortening Annual Town Meeting, to be held in the Turners Falls High School gymnasium on June 13. Considering public concern over spreading the coronavirus, the Selectboard has pointed out that getting a quorum at Town Meeting might be more difficult this year than usual. Extra measures to make voters feel safe, such as keeping the meeting short, could pay off.
The monetary articles being postponed will remove at least nine of the planned 36 articles from the warrant.
For the same reason, the Selectboard also discussed delaying certain non-monetary articles until the fall Town Meeting.
For example, an article related to the current Public Works building, which the department is moving out of this summer to then move into a new building, will probably be taken off the warrant. Two articles on petitioning the state for more liquor licenses will also probably be pushed to the fall Town Meeting.
“I really doubt the Legislature is going to be focused on liquor license applications this summer,” Ellis said.
Reach Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.