In a loose and sometimes disjointed discussion on Wednesday, Feb. 18, the Wilton Capital Planning Committee confirmed its intent to bring its one-year bonding recommendations to the Board of Selectmen at the March 2 BOS meeting, but deferred doing additional work on the five- and 15-year plans until more financial information was available from the town, possibly in the summer.
“Why not do the five-year and 15-year plan after the budget is done and after the financial plan … the one-year plan will be sufficient …” BOF member Kari Roberts suggested. “It doesn’t seem like we have a shortage of things to do so why not move the five-year and 15-year plan out.”
BOF member Prasad Iyer agreed, indicating there was really no imminent work before the WCPC at this point.
“We already ranked it,” Iyer said regarding the 14 items that qualified for their consideration. “What is it we need to do, because we don’t know the capital status? I don’t know how much money we can afford. This needs to all be figured out.”
“All I’m saying is, I don’t think we have anything to do at this point,” he said, adding that the $46-million price tag for the 14 items being recommended already, in essence, amounted to a five-year plan for the town.
Neither Chair Jeff Rutishauser nor First Selectman Toni Boucher were opposed to the idea of letting the rest go for now.
Boucher said the Department of Public Works staff — particularly Assistant Director Jeff Pardo — already handles the creation and updating of the town’s 15-year capital plan, suggesting the committee did not need to take further action on it at this time.
DPW Director Frank Smeriglio agreed.
“We have the list,” he said. “The Board of Selectmen and finance will help dictate how far you can go down the list in Year One, and then WCPC 3.0 will work on years two through six.”
WCPC member Rich Santosky suggested that the town was going to be playing catch up for decades to come.
“Our kids will be sitting here saying the roof is falling in somewhere, some place doesn’t have heat, and we’re never going to get ahead of it,” Sandosky said. “I mean, this will never be resolved at this pace.”
Roberts disagreed, pointing out that Darien just did a $100-million bond issuance. “There are ways that, I think, we can thoughtfully speed it up.”
She noted that the composition of the town has changed in recent years and that there was, potentially, more motivation and more disposable income to help fund some of the projects deemed necessary.
At the same time, harkening back to comments she made at the last WCPC meeting on Feb. 4, Roberts said she was not in favor of investing $600,000 in architectural work for a new Town Hall building until some kind of master plan was created for the entire Town Hall campus, which would likely include the Fire and other departments and buildings.
“I wanted it on record that I was not in favor of the $600,000 for the architect,” she told Rutishauser at the beginning of the meeting, as it was omitted from the previous meeting’s minutes, along with other details that were discussed.
Asked about when she thought the BOS should hear the recommendations of the WCPC officially, Boucher said the selectmen needed to make their recommendations to the Board of Finance on April 6, so earlier was probably better.
Rutishauser said he would put something together that he would present, but invited other members to join him.
While it was omitted from recent discussion at the WCPC, Boucher made reference to the Yellow House at Ambler Farm, indicating she believed the BOS was going to recommend funding for its repairs.
She said the BOS “gave us some ideas of what the priorities were,” not going into details. She then described how, despite the BOF not being in favor of funding repairs to the White House at Ambler Farm, the Town Meeting still supported it at the Annual Town Meeting in 2025.
“I get a sense that that Yellow House will end up kind of similarly,” she said.
Recommendations from the WCPC to the BOS for FY 2027 Bonding
- Roof Replacement at Cider Mill School ($2,900,000)
- Exterior Envelope Renovation at Cider Mill School ($2,701,268)
- Sitework, Doors & Windows at Cider Mill School ($955,030)
- Continued School Improvements at Middlebrook School ($13,436,569)
- Sitework, Doors & Windows at Middlebrook School ($8,689,594)
- Replacement of HVAC/Elevator at Comstock Community Center ($500,000)
- Drainage/Sidewalk/Pavement Work at Wilton High School ($265,500)
- Renovation of Merwin Bathhouse ($480,000)
- Fire Dept. Headquarters Renovations ($1,606,880)
- DPW Highway Garage Renovations ($1,023,770)
- Full-Size Gym at Comstock Community Center ($2,750,000)
- DPW Highway Garage Addition for Offices ($5,031,290)
- Fire Dept. Headquarters Addition ($4,346,771)
- Gilbert & Bennett Building Roof Replacement ($729,800)
These projects total $46,016,472.