BY TIMOTHY LAROCHE
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CLAREMONT — A document meant to prioritize city spending will advance to a City Council for a scheduled vote tonight following Planning Board adoption this week.
The Planning Board unanimously adopted on Monday the 2019 – 2024 Capital Improvements Program, a document developed annually that prioritizes strategic spending.
“This is a planning document,” City Planner Michael McCrory said. “It is not a budget document. It provides guidance.”
By adopting the document as a board prior to city council review, McCrory said, board members are “sending a message that they approve of the projects included in it, how they were evaluated and how that funding might be spread over time.”
Projects included in the CIP are evaluated by the board by their adherence to the vision set out in the recently adopted 2017 Masterplan. Projects are assigned a score between five and 15, reflecting their priority to department heads, contractual or legal obligations, public benefit, community service and master plan adherence. Higher scores mean that a project is assigned a greater importance to the city.
A single project, Pleasant Street Revitalization, received a score of 15, garnering the highest priority in all evaluation criteria. Estimated costs for the project come in at $5 million, with $500,000 identified in grants. The project would include streetscape and parking improvements, paving the way for greater economic development on Pleasant Street, the city’s mixed-use downtown center. According to master plan materials, Pleasant Street was once a regional “shopping center” as recently as the 1960s, before it became depressed after the closing of the monolithic Joy Manufacturing plant.
Other projects that received high scores in the CIP include: Opera House Square drainage improvements, emergency services dispatch radio replacements, Sugar River Drive slope improvements, Tyler Brook culvert replacement, Washington Street culvert replacements, roadwork and paving across nearly 120 miles of city roads and City Hall roof maintenance.
All of the aforementioned projects received scores of 13 or greater.
“There is no expectation that the city will fund the CIP,” McCrory said. “This is what we can envision for a capital program… the reality is, we cannot fully fund this. The reality is the city needs to pick and choose among these projects and choose, if you want to use some weird phrasing, which child they love more, effectively.”
Overall, the CIP is a leaner documents than past iterations, including fewer recurring city expenses.
“While cycling through vehicles or equipment are important, these are something that can be done through a separate process,” McCrory said.
All projects included on the CIP have been evaluated by the CIP Steering Committee, who consulted with department heads on city needs and opportunities.
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