DALTON, Mass. — The members of the town's Capital Planning Committee have been selected. 

 

In December, the Attorney General's Office approved the Capital Planning Committee bylaw that was approved by voters at the annual town meeting last May, Town Manager Eric Anderson said last week. 

 

The bylaw creates the committee, outlines membership, appointment and term, and highlights the committee's duties, which is to prepare a Capital Improvement Plan financing plan with a five-year forecast of revenues and expenses.

 

The members of the committee are Karen Schmidt and Tom Irwin, representatives of the Finance Committee, and Dennis Croughwell, a representative of the Planning Board. Anderson accepted the Finance and Planning Board's selections for the committee. 

 

Also serving on the committee is Town Planner Janko Tomasic, and Lee Nunez, principal assessor. 

 

Temporarily serving until the town hires a new town accountant and finance director will be Sandra Albano, who retired in October but has stayed on in the role until a replacement can be found. 

 

Anderson appointed the at-large committee members as Daniel Esko, to ensure a Select Board member is involved, and the town's former town manager Kenneth Walto, because of his 19-year experience in the town manager position. 

 

All those listed are voting members. 

 

To jumpstart the initiative Anderson has already reached out to the police chief, public works director, and building and grounds superintendent, for draft information that will inform the capital planning process, such as an equipment matrix and other suggested details.

 

"Hopefully, within the next couple of weeks, we'll start to get information into the committee. I don't think it's going to be a fast process to come up with a full-blown five year plan for everything that we need," Anderson said.

 

He is anticipating a section for several areas including bridges, culverts, municipal separate storm sewer systems, roads, sidewalks, along with complete the streets plan, building and grounds, vehicles, equipment, and more. 

 

The town will also be asking for capital plans from the Central Berkshire Regional School District and Fire District because those also impact the town's overall budget, Anderson said.

 

"We need to know their multi-year capital plans also. So we can understand how that's going to affect us," he said.

 

The committee will not have enough time for a complete plan this budgeting season; however, it is reasonable to expect the plan being "well in hand" by next fall, Anderson said. 

 

His goal is to identify all of the capital needs of the town including equipment, buildings, infrastructure, and in general. Then from that information, figure out what the costs are for each item and have the committee start prioritizing. 

 

"Clearly we're going to have a lot more capital needs than we can ever potentially fund. And then once we've done that, that informs the budget process as well as what we go after for grant funding," Anderson said.