Town Meeting will have to decide yeah or neah 20 million in capital spending

The Capital Budget Committee has voted to support nearly all of Kelley's $18.8 million in recommendations for fiscal 2012, while the Finance Committee prepared to vote next week.

Items include:

$8.5 million as a placeholder for a new McAuliffe branch library (which Town Meeting would consider this fall if the town receives a state grant);
$1.7 million for roadwork;
$1.02 million to replace doors and windows at Stapleton School (a project special Town Meeting voted last fall to support);
$975,000 to replace the Fire Department's Ladder 3;
$715,000 for town building improvements;
$500,000 for new school technology;
$250,000 to study a centralized public safety dispatch center.


The Capital Budget Committee is recommending Town Meeting buy only one of the trash trucks the DPW wants, at a cost of $241,000.

The committee supports the Police Department's $152,000 request to replace the fleet's 5-year-old laptop computers at a cost of $5,000 each, McCarthy said.

While they seem expensive, the computers are "made to take a beating," he said. They're so essential that if a laptop needs to be taken out of a police car for repair, that vehicle is taken out of commission.

"It's that critical to the day-to-day operations of the police," he said.

The School Department is asking for $500,000 for laptops for teachers, at $900 each, which the Capital Budget Committee hasn't voted on.

The Parks and Recreation Department seeks a little more than $300,000 for items that include tennis lighting at Butterworth Park and two Ford pickups.

Also on the list of recommendations: $75,000 for garage repairs and $95,000 for window work at the main library on Lexington Street.


(Keep in mind, Mr. McCarthey the chair of Capital Budget is related to a Framingham cop)