Board of Trustees

Report of the Ad Hoc Capital Committee

Background
This committee was charged with looking at the potential capital expenditures facing Granby over the next ten years. We were asked to accomplish this by using, where possible, past studies of the buildings in Town, updated for current conditions, and informal cost estimates. The purpose of this study is to give the Town a broad perspective on all the major capital expenditures the Town could resonably expect to be facing within in the next decade.

We expect that there will be a relatively limited amount of funds tha taxpayers will make available for capital expenditures during this time. This will not allow Granby to create ideal solutions to the Town's problems.

Furthermore, the sheer monetary cost of potential projects make it clear that the Town will have to find some solutions that in many instances are far from the ideal choices for the problems the Town faces.

Granby Public Library

The Granby Public Library is the municipal facility most in need. The minimum recommended size for a Public Library for a Town with Granby’s population is 10,500 square feet. The current library building has 2,500 square feet. It was built through a Carnegie Grant in 1917 for a population of fewer than 1000 people, with a projected capacity of 5,000 volumes. The Library building has remained fundamentally the same since 1917. Today, ninety-three years later, Granby’s population is over 6000, and the same building with the same square footage serves as its Public Library, with a collection of approximately 27,000 volumes. This insufficient space has had a definite impact on Library services.

The State of Massachusetts has agreed to support Granby in building a new Library with a grant of almost $1 million if Granby were able to include the Library in the secondary school building complex. That particular plan has recently been rejected by the committee looking at the problems of the School buildings.

However, this indicates to us that the State is aware of the current situation, and that the Board of Library Commissioners has funds to support library construction. Our estimate is that they would provide approximately a 50% reimbursement for a free-standing library building. So a $2.0 million investment by the Town could build a library worth almost $4 million.

The Library’s current location at the end of the common does not lend itself to expansion. The Town does not own enough land there to accommodate a larger building of the required size and provide the required parking. Informal discussions with an architect have told us that it is very difficult to try to add to a Carnegie Library and have the addition blend into the original architectural design. Additionally, the land itself, because of ledge, would not be easy to build on. Those four problems, at least, would have to be overcome before an addition could be considered. There would certainly be additional costs.

Another possibility has recently arisen. With the purchase of a building for the Council on Aging, the Aldrich property will soon be available. If the buildings currently on that property were razed, there could be enough room to locate an appropriately sized Library building and accommodate the necessary parking.

We would recommend that the Town explore locating a new Library building on the Aldrich property. This could be a near-ideal solution for one of Granby’s larger capital problems.

The full text document of the Report of the Ad Hoc Capital Committee can be found down the page under "Trustee Meeting Minutes."

Virginia Snopek - Trustee Chair Person

Dianne Barry

Carol Battersby

Leah Condon

Nancy Evren

Amy Kimball

Gwen Morrissey

Bridget Roy

Renee Still

Trustee Meetings

Held in the lower level of the library.

The next meeting is set for Monday, September 13th. The group will be meeting promptly at 6:30 p.m.

Meeting Minutes

Report of the Ad Hoc Capital Committee
Posted on Apr 09 2010
Board of Trustees >>

REPORT OF THE

AD HOC CAPITAL COMMITTEE

John J. Libera, Jr. Chair

Albert H. Bail

Stanley J. Kapinos

Virginia P. Snopek

March 24, 2010

REPORT OF THE

AD HOC CAPITAL COMMITTEE

Background

This committee was charged with looking at the potential capital expenditures facing Granby over the next ten years. We were asked to accomplish this by using, where possible, past studies of the buildings in Town, updated for current conditions, and informal cost estimates. The purpose of this study is to give the Town a broad perspective on all the major capital expenditures the Town could reasonably expect to be facing within the next decade.

We expect that there will be a relatively limited amount of funds that taxpayers will make available for capital expenditures during this time. This will not allow Granby to create ideal solutions to the Town’s problems.

Furthermore, the sheer monetary cost of potential projects makes it clear that the Town will have to find some solutions that in many instances are far from the ideal choices for the problems the Town faces.

How We Looked at Granby’s Capital Needs

We sorted potential major capital needs into a number of categories. The first category is for capital needs for which the Town is exclusively responsible. Included in this category are:

· the Town Hall

· the Council on Aging building

· the Highway Department Building

· the Public Safety Complex

· vehicles and major equipment for the Highway Department

· vehicles and major equipment for the Fire Department

· vehicles for the Ambulance Department

The second category is for capital needs for which major support is expected from both the Town and from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Included in this category are:

· School buildings

· the Library building

· major road reconstruction

The third category is for capital needs for which major support is likely to come from individual home and property owners. Likely to be included in the category is:

· construction and upgrading of sewer systems

Excluded from this Report

There are three groups of capital needs that we excluded from any extensive study: those needs that have been recently addressed, those needs which are currently being extensively studied elsewhere in Town, and those needs that fall beyond our time horizon.

Capital Needs Recently Addressed

Granby has been fortunate in that the Landfill receipts have allowed the Town to address, and resolve, a number of the Town’s capital needs. These are: the construction of a new garage for the Highway Department; the construction of a Safety Complex for the Fire/Ambulance Department and for the Police Department; and the purchase of an existing building for the Council on Aging.

We note that these seem to be near ideal solutions for the Highway Department and for the Fire/Ambulance Department. With the exception of a still-needed sally port, this also seems to be a near ideal solution for the Police Department.

The design previously requested for a new Council on Aging building included more space than exists in the recently purchased building, plus a self-contained facility for serving meals to larger numbers of people. Nevertheless, the building is a very good resolution to the Council’s most pressing problems. If, at a later time, Granby should have the financial resources to create a more ideal solution, Granby could sell this building and recoup the Town’s investment.

We also note that these capital needs were able to be addressed without increasing the property taxes of Granby’s residents.

Capital Needs Currently Being Studied Elsewhere

Major school construction and renovation is a shared responsibility with the State carrying the major portion – at least 60% of it. This subject is a more complex problem and not the charge of our committee. We mention it for two reasons: first, the Select Board and the Town Administrator obviously need to consider it; and second, the override or overrides needed to finance it may well be the only significant overrides the Town will approve in the next 10 years.

Capital Needs Beyond our Time Horizon

The Committee in Town studying sewer systems has told us that except for the possible New Ludlow Road system, any sewer projects in Granby will be beyond 10 years. A New Ludlow Road sewer system would most likely be financed by the local residents, and is therefore not included in this report.

Capital Needs in Granby within the Next Decade

The remainder of this report will detail our findings about the Town’s probable capital needs, and their expected costs, within the next decade.

Granby Public Library

We would recommend that the Town explore locating a new Library building on the Aldrich property. This could be a near-ideal solution for one of Granby’s larger capital problems.

The Town Hall

The Town Hall is in need of significant improvement. There is no doubt that the building is structurally unsound.

We have discussed Town Hall extensively, and have considered renovation of the current building, renovation of the building with an addition to it, and moving the Town Hall to a newly constructed building or to a different, existing building.

Granby does not presently have an “available space” problem for Town offices. Granby has rented space in the former telephone company building, and that has allowed the Town to significantly improve the physical facilities of the Town Hall occupants. Important Town offices are now split between two buildings. This certainly is not an ideal solution, but it is a very significant improvement.

Additionally, the present Police Headquarters will soon be vacated, allowing the possibility of housing additional Town offices in that building.

It is our belief that the Townspeople would not permit the present Town Hall building being destroyed or being abandoned; therefore, we did not choose to commit much time to studying the options for moving the location of Town Hall. We did enough study to conclude that building a new building would be somewhat less expensive than renovating and adding on to the present building.

We are recommending a complete renovation of Granby’s present Town Hall. The entire insides would need to be removed and rebuilt. Everything would need to be brought up to current code, including seismic strengthening. Some alterations to the building and an added elevator would be needed to provide accessibility for the handicapped.

This is not the ideal solution because it would leave the building at its current size instead of the expanded size recommended a few years ago. We are acutely aware that it is unlikely Granby will have enough capital to do everything the Town would like to do, and there are cost savings in just renovating the building without including an addition.

Another reason we are not recommending an addition to the building at this time is because of our concerns about the lot size of the property. However, we are recommending that if the building were to be renovated, it should be done in such a way that, if more space is needed in the future, an addition could be easily constructed to fit into the design.

We estimate the cost of the renovation to be $3.5m to $5m.

If the Town Hall is expected to be in continuous use for another four to five years before renovation is started, there is the additional risk that Granby will have to make the entrance and the first floor of the building handicapped accessible. If this happens, there could be an additional capital outlay of $100k to $250k. If the building were then renovated, this capital would be a lost outlay. It would be much less expensive to move the current Town offices into the vacated Police station until renovations were completed.

Major Road and Culvert Work

Roads

Perhaps the biggest surprise in our investigation is the realization that Granby will need to commit major capital for the repair and reconstruction of the Town’s roads.

Granby has over 55 miles of roads to maintain. These include all kinds of roads from heavily traveled thoroughfares to quiet neighborhood streets. On average, a road in Granby will need some kind of repair approximately every 10 years; to maintain the roads in Town, Granby needs to “reconstruct/repair” about 5.5 miles of roads per year.

Work has fallen to under 1.5 miles per year.

A considerable part of the problem has been the result of the State failing to allow the Chapter 90 Highway Funds to keep up with the cost of repairing roads. For example, in the latter half of the 1990’s Granby’s Highway Funds from the State were about $220,000; but they dropped to the $140,000 level a few times in the following years. By the end of this past decade, the funds were back up to the $210,000 level.

Repair costs, on the other hand, have risen steadily. It cost an average of about $50,000 to reconstruct/repair a road in 1995, and it will cost an average of about $150,000 in 2010. Granby reconstructed/repaired about 3-4 miles of road a year in the late 1990’s, but is reconstructing/repairing only about 1.4 miles of road during the current fiscal year.

There is a measurable cost to delay the needed repairs of roads. The US Department of Transportation has studied this problem and estimated that waiting until roads are in “very poor” condition before repairing them, instead of repairing them when they are in “fair” condition (a difference of an average of about four years), can quadruple the cost of repair.

Granby has an estimated backlog of $6 million of road repair costs. We have estimated that the Town should more than triple its current annual expenditure on road reconstruction/repair to prevent the road conditions from deteriorating further. This proposed expenditure is independent of the State aid Granby receives.

Road repair is not like building repair. A road can very rapidly reach a point where not only is it not drivable, it is dangerous. A systematic approach to road maintenance that would prevent Granby’s roads from deteriorating below a “good” condition would cost an estimated $800,000 per year. A similar maintenance program that would prevent the roads from deteriorating below a “fair” condition would cost an estimated $910,000 per year. We suggest that Granby consider raising its annual expenditures on road reconstruction/repair to institute a road maintenance program to keep the roads in at least a “good” condition to avoid much more serious problems down the road.

Culverts

In addition to the road construction, there are three major culverts in Town with known deficiencies that are expected to need replacement or repair. The cost will be approximately $130,000 within the next decade, and an additional $150,000 within five years after that.

Highway Department Vehicles and Equipment

The Town owns vehicles and equipment for the Highway Department that are worth a total (original cost) of approximately $1.7 million. These all have varying expectations of useful life. To get a meaningful figure for an average annual replacement cost for the vehicles and equipment that are expected to be replaced, we used a straight-line depreciation calculation to reach an annual figure of about $80,000 per year. If Granby put a similarly calculated depreciation amount into a Stabilization Fund each year, then the Fund would provide most of the capital to replace the vehicles and equipment as they reached the ends of their useful lives.

Within the next five years, Granby might expect to have to replace about $665,000 of vehicles and equipment. Within the following five years, the Town might have to replace an additional $389,000 worth.

Fire Department Vehicles and Equipment

Fire Departments tend to have a few pieces of very expensive vehicles/equipment, and the Granby Fire Department is no different in this regard. What is different is that the Fire Department has a well thought-out plan for an actual reduction in the number of expensive pieces needed. This plan will save Granby approximately $325,000 in replacement costs over the next ten years.

The Fire Department plan, previously approved by the Capital Improvement Committee and endorsed by this committee, is basically to combine the Reel Unit and the Tanker Unit into one consolidated unit. This requires the consolidated unit to be purchased in FY 2011, the expected time for a needed replacement of the Reel Unit.

The other major expected expense for the Fire Department is either the refurbishing of Engine 1 about mid-decade, or its replacement at the end of the decade. A cost benefit analysis will provide information to determine which is the better option.

The three other major capital items needed by the Fire Department in the next ten years are: a Suburban-type vehicle, Air Bottles, and Firefighter Clothing.

The capital costs (assuming refurbishment of Engine 1) are expected to be $300,000 for the Reel Truck/Tanker consolidation and $45,000 for a Suburban in FY 2011; $225,000 for Engine 1 and $45,000 for Air Bottles in mid-decade; and $75,000 for Firefighter Clothing at the end of the decade.

For the longer term, we recommend that Granby start a depreciation schedule for the major Fire Department vehicles similar to the schedule for the Highway Department equipment and vehicles. The major pieces are worth $750,000 and have a useful life of about 25 years. Putting $30,000 into a Stabilization Fund each year would provide most of the capital to replace the vehicles as they reached the ends of their useful lives.

Ambulance Department Vehicles and Equipment

The only major capital expenditure expected for the Ambulance Department is the replacement of the ambulance in FY 2017. This would cost about $266,000. Upwards of $100,000 may be available from the Ambulance Fund to help defray the cost.

Police Department Equipment

The Police Department has not usually required expensive capital equipment, with the exception of a new Police Cruiser each year. We expect that trend to continue.

The one major piece of equipment the Police Department might require is a sally port in the new Safety Complex. The complex has an area set aside for a sally port, and various options are being considered for its construction. The cost of this may be in the range of $50,000 to $200,000 depending on the available options.

Summary

We have considered the reasonable capital needs of Granby for the next decade, given the modest financial resources available to the Town. For this ten-year time span, the capital cost for projects, vehicles, equipment, and additions to Stabilization Funds amounts to $20.3m. Of this, $9.1m is for buildings, $8.1m is for repairing roads and culverts, $1.1m is for additions to Stabilization Funds, and $2.0m is for vehicles and equipment.

Reasonably expected offsets include: $2.1m highway funds, $2.0m Library grant, $.5m Capital Needs Equipment Stabilization Fund, $.1m Ambulance Fund, and some small surplus value of the replaced vehicles. The net effect is that Granby could well expect to have $15.6m in major capital expenditures over the next decade.

Respectfully submitted,

The Ad Hoc Capital Committee

John J. Libera, Jr. Chair

Albert H. Bail

Stanley J. Kapinos

Virginia P. Snopek

March 24, 2010

Appendix 1: Documents and Personnel Consulted

We examined the documents from previous studies of Town building needs, including documents from the “Municipal Complex Building Committee” from 2001, and the document “Town of Granby Municipal Buildings Study” from 2003. These documents served as our principal references to the Town Hall and the Council on Aging building. We also examined documents that were part of the Library’s grant proposal.

Our Committee or individual members met with the heads of the Highway, Fire, Ambulance, and Police Departments. The department heads were all very helpful, and provided the Committee with various cost figures, department histories, and capital strategies.

We also met with James Hanifan of Caolo & Bieniek Associates, Inc., who worked on the study of Town Buildings in 2002-2003. He provided a perspective on the conditions of buildings, and probable costs of updating or replacing them.

Finally, we should note that an additional member was originally appointed to our Committee. Due to unforeseen circumstances, Mr. John Hamel was unable to participate.

Appendix 2: Cost Estimates

There are a number of parameters that define our cost estimates. The replacement costs for most of the Highway Department vehicles and equipment are based on original costs. Items expected to be replaced in the near future have been updated to current costs. The replacement costs for vehicles and equipment in the Fire Department and the Ambulance Department are based on current costs.

Road repair costs are based on current costs. The estimate of State highway funds is based on current amounts.

Building costs for a Library and a sally port are based on current estimates. Renovation costs for Town Hall are based on the costs in the 2002-2003 study, updated for current conditions. Based on discussions with Mr. James Hanifan of Caolo & Bieniek Associates, Inc., the costs were increased by 50%.

There could be ancillary costs associated with major projects, such as financing costs or increased taxes. We did not try to estimate such costs.

Last changed: Apr 09 2010 at 1:43 PM
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