East Granby Board of Finance Reviews Capital Requests

The East Granby Board of Finance spent much of its meeting considering drafts of capital requests from both the town and the school system for the current fiscal year and beyond at its meeting Tuesday night.

On the town side, a total of $386,200 for ten different projects was present on the draft of the general government capital plan for the fiscal year 2012-2013. The East Granby public school system had six different projects on its facilities capital need project inventory for a total of $88,521 for the current fiscal year.

While the two boards may make changes to their capital requests and the selectmen’s proposal explicitly notes that the board is still working on its final draft, the two plans provide a look at what needs to be done in town and at the schools to keep both running smoothly.

The single most expensive item on the town list is a replacement tanker truck for East Granby’s fire department, valued at $135,200, with an additional $264,800 proposed for fiscal year 2013-2014, for a total of $400,000.  The current tanker is 40 years old and the town is looking at purchasing a used vehicle to save money on that expense.

The second-highest town item, road maintenance, came in at $65,000 but doesn’t include the $40,000 needed to shim Kripes Road, a road that town residents know is not in good shape.

“I need to do something about Kripes Road,” First Selectman Jim Hayden said. “We can barely plow it this year.”

The narrative attached to the selectmen’s capital plan draft noted that, in general, the town “needs to consider more funding for road maintenance.”

Other capital items on the town side proposed for the fiscal year 2012-2013 include a property revaluation at $35,000, $25,000 for the village center plan and $20,000 to replace police department radios as equipment standards have changed and the current model used by the town is no longer manufactured.

Additionally the plan has a generator for the senior and community center at  $37,000, a new truck body for the public works department at $25,000, a used single core hydraulic tool for the fire department at $12,400, a repeater radio communicator, also for the fire department, at $22,500 and $9,100 in municipal inter-local risk management agency (MIRMA) obligations.

For the education side of the capital requests, the largest single amount asked for is $21,732 for upgrading East Granby High School’s technical education area. The upgrades will put the two rooms in accordance with the Common Core State Standards as well as the school system’s academic partnership with the local manufacturing community and Asnuntuck Community College.

Another important capital item requested was repair of roof drains and downspouts at Allgrove school for $15,000, which was marked as “an immediate priority to be addressed in fall 2012 to prevent any damage to new windows and renovated walls” by Superintendent Christine Mahoney.

The other projects are a locker room to classroom conversion at East Granby Middle School valued at $13,021, an electrical system upgrade at the high school at $10,000, carpet replacement, also at the high school, at $15,000, and MIRMA obligations at $13,768.