The members of the Marion Capital Improvements Planning Committee are like Santa’s elves, listening intently and seeking clarification to a long list of requests being made by the town’s department heads as they map out capital needs for the next fiscal year.
There are critical hurdles to getting this bulging sack of information onto Santa’s sleigh, and many items on the wish lists won’t find their way into a stocking hanging by a fireplace, much less wrapped and placed under a tree.
Through a series of public meetings that began in April, the committee has been interacting with department heads and educating them on the process by which the committee hears, absorbs, entertains, questions and scrutinizes capital requests.
Since October 11, those leaders have been making their pitches. The final requests for FY25 were delivered on Monday night by the Water Pollution Control Facility Manager Nathaniel Munafo as a second presentation involving the Department of Public Works to cap the CIPC’s interview season.
Munafo made separate Water Department and Sewer Department presentations, supported by DPW Director Becky Tilden and engineer Meghan Davis.
His top-priority, sewer-related item: the $3,213,000 Creek Road Pumping Station. The request is for $308,500 for Marion’s 10% match of a 90% FEMA HMGP Grant, the application for which was filed a year ago.
Munafo told the CIPC that roughly half the town’s sewer users rely on the Creek Road station, which has been identified as a station in need of repair and one especially vulnerable to potential flood events.
Marion applied for but was not awarded a BRICK grant, but Munafo reported that NEMA asked Marion to apply for a Hazard Mitigation Plan grant and increased the deal to a 90/10 match.
“NEMA is very supportive of our program,” said Munafo, noting that the town is slowly working through the process and that the grant has not been officially awarded. He said that if the town receives the grant, it has the matching funds set aside.
Munafo began his presentation with water projects, requesting as his top priority $1,200,000 from enterprise funds for purchase and installation of an emergency backup generator for the Wolf Island Road Well and East Well and the replacement of a generator for the Perry Hill and Main Pump stations.
While the grant would be received on July 1, the project has to go out to bid so final costs are a moving target.
“They (DPW) are constantly looking into a crystal ball to give you the best number they can,” said Town Administrator Geoff Gorman, who was in attendance Monday night.
Due to the nature of the projects, some water/sewer requests are asking for substantially more money in FY26 or FY27 than they are for FY25.
There is no doubt as to the top priority a year from now. Listed for FY26 is the $2,700,000 water-main replacement along Route 6 that will presumably service two planned residential developments near the Wareham town line.
Matt Zuker, whose The Cottages (48-unit, townhouse-style, market-rate development) project is before the Planning Board, is believed to have agreed to fund 40% of the $2,700,000 total.
On December 6, the DPW made a separate pitch, most notably for a $1,787,000 project that would repave, enhance (lighting) and otherwise improve the driveway and parking lot to the Cushing Community Center.
In order to qualify for the purposes of the committee’s consideration, a capital project costs at least $10,000 and has a useful life of at least five years.
Also presented by departments is a 10-year outlook on capital needs, some of which are recurring or based on expiring equipment. On Monday, Munafo readily admitted his annual request for $50,000 related to sludge removal from the wastewater lagoon might rather belong in his operations budget.
Questionable requests are somewhat common, given each department’s own set of complexities and internal challenges to define a project as purely operational or as capital.
Beyond its primary task, it is through the process of the ensuing dialogue that the CIPC acts as a sounding board for each department’s financial and planning considerations.
The committee, comprised of Chairman Dave Janik, Secretary Stephen Nojeim and members Casey Barros, Mandy Givens and Debra Watson, will henceforth analyze all town departments’ and by Tuesday (December 19), will have sent Nojeim their own comprehensive rankings of Marion’s capital projects.
Any factor, including funding source or timing, could be taken into consideration in arriving at a top-10 list of priorities.
If Janik and Nojeim determine on December 27 that there is consensus, the CIPC’s work will be considered finished upon its February 20, 2024, appearance before a joint meeting of the Finance Committee and Select Board for questions and answers. If not, Janik will schedule a CIPC “reconciliation” meeting for December 28.
The CIPC article that will appear on the warrant for the Annual Town Meeting in May will contain the committee’s top-10 capital requests, footnoting the recommendation (or not) of the Finance Committee and Select Board. Those bodies are regularly represented to the CIPC, the Finance Committee by Fred Mock and the Select Board by Randy Parker.
The next meeting of the Marion Capital Improvements Planning Committee is tentatively scheduled for December 28 at the Town House.
Marion Capital Improvements Planning Committee
By Mick Colageo