Wilton’s Board of Selectmen (BOS) saw lots of dollar signs at last night’s (Jan. 23) BOS meeting, including the Wilton Library’s budget proposal for FY’2025 as well as some topline numbers from the recently completed Municipal Buildings Needs Assessment.
Combined with plenty of talk about the 2023 property revaluation (which GMW is covering in a separate story), the selectmen are now deep in discussions with significant financial implications for the Town.
Municipal Building Needs
First Selectman Toni Boucher tried to set the tone carefully for the “very important, much anticipated” Municipal Buildings Needs Assessment report.
“Before we dive into that, I do want to say upfront, we only just got this days ago,” Boucher began. “As a result, you’re not going to see costs associated with it, other than a general ‘guesstimate’ of what the overall number might be.”
“The rough estimate could be — could be, but may not necessarily be — in the neighborhood of $50 million,” she said.
“Some of the numbers seemed a little bit light, so we’re still delving into it,” Boucher continued.
“We need a deep dive,” she said, akin to the detailed review that has already been conducted for the School Buildings Needs Assessment. “We’ve only had a few days [but] there’s some urgency in the sense that it’s budget time. We want to see what really needs to be done immediately, within the next year.”
With that, Boucher gave the floor to Frank Smeriglio and Jeff Pardo of Wilton’s Department of Public Works.
Pardo discussed the scope of the municipal buildings needs assessment as similar in many ways to the schools assessment (exterior condition, age of equipment, ADA compliance, etc.).
Unlike the schools, however, the municipal assessment also included space needs. Overcrowding is a serious issue in many Town buildings, Pardo said.
“The rough estimate could be — could be, but may not necessarily be — in the neighborhood of $50 million.”
Boucher invited residents to review the documents posted on the Town website, which are replete with photos of the “antiquated” facilities.
The report on the Town Hall building, for example, shows everything from cardboard-covered windows to spalled brick, corroded door hinges, rotted cornices, defunct bathrooms, water intrusion in the basement, and much more.
Pardo indicated the department is currently in the process of reviewing all of the identified needs and prioritizing them into five groups, setting the most critical needs as ‘Priority 1’.
Smeriglio noted the costs were being “fine-tuned” before being broadly shared, with an emphasis on top-priority needs.
“There’s a timing issue because we’re going through the budget [process] right now,” Smeriglio said. “We’re going to focus on Priority 1 and fine-tuning the numbers for that, so we can get that in the budget.”
“We can no longer push this down the road,” Boucher said. “If you don’t take care of it over a period of time, then you have to have complete replacement costs, which are so much more expensive, for sure.”
Affording School AND Municipal Building Repairs
Boucher noted that the municipal and school buildings needs have to be considered together.
“Now it’s time to delve into the actual costs,” Boucher said. “But we do have to concentrate on Priority 1 [needs] for the schools and for the Town [buildings] together, because we want to bring those critical needs to the public, so they have an opportunity to learn about it and digest it and hopefully we can move this forward this year.”
While Boucher emphasized the municipal building costs are still new, there is some indication that the $50 million ballpark figure may be higher than officials were expecting.
Near the end of her term, former first selectman Lynne Vanderslice presented several ideas for funding the roughly $100 million in identified school building repairs. At the time, Vanderslice made the case that the cost would be manageable, but with a key assumption that the “Municipal Building Needs are $25 million or less and can be funded in 15 years or less”.
WLA FY25 Budget Proposal
Mike Boswood, treasurer of the Wilton Library Associaton (WLA) Board of Trustees, and Caroline Mandler, the library’s executive director, attended the Jan. 23 BOS meeting and presented key line items in their FY2025 budget proposal.
The Town of Wilton and the library have a public-private partnership agreement, in which the Town provides an annual grant. The town funds 75% of the library’s overall budget and the library is responsible for the remaining portion, generated through fundraising, book sales and other revenues.
For FY’25, the library is requesting $3,058,162 from the Town — an increase of $80,691, or 2.71%, over the current fiscal year.
Boswood emphasized that the library’s own fundraising will have an even larger increase, with an annual appeal and other fundraising efforts expected to yield $780,000 — an increase of 5.41%.
Boswood told the selectmen the proposed budget reflected three priorities:
- expanding library services to the Wilton community
- facilitating changes required to implement the Library’s strategic plan
- increasing efficiency while preserving service levels
Earlier this week, GMW reported on the library’s progress on many initiatives in more detail. The Library’s strategic plan was also discussed at the BOS’ Dec. 19 meeting, notably in terms of governance. Library officials have hinted they would like to reduce the number of trustees appointed by the BOS and shift the focus of BOS appointees to select committees. BOS members seemed wary of that idea, given the board’s obligation to provide oversight and play a role commensurate with the Town’s significant investment in the Library.
The selectmen did not discuss the WLA proposed budget further, but they expect to review the library grant numbers more closely as budgets from Town departments begin to come into view.
More BOS News
The board held a confidential executive session to discuss several matters, including:
- an interview with a candidate for possible appointment to the Economic Development Commission
- the municipal employee union (AFSCME) contract, which the selectmen approved, effective (retroactively from July 1, 2023) through June 30, 2026
- resolution of an ongoing case of residential blight, which Boucher called “a positive outcome,” noting that all penalties owed to the Town have been paid and with confidence that the remaining blight offenses would be resolved
The board approved the Wilton Police Department‘s expansion of its mutual assistance agreements by participating in the Fairfield County Mutual Police Assistance Compact, which aims for better coordination and less duplication in law enforcement efforts in the region.
The board approved an amendment to the HRRA household hazardous waste collection program agreement (at no cost increase).
The board approved contracts for commissioning services as well as special inspection and testing for the police station headquarters construction. Assistant DPW Director Jeff Pardo called the services a “vital part of the project” to ensure proper construction and mechanical system installation.
The selectmen agreed to review, consider and further discuss a draft policy proposed by Boucher for naming town-owned property after any individual, installing plaques or otherwise commemorating people.
The selectmen approved two accounting transfers to fund new online permitting.
The BOS set the date for the 2024 Annual Town Meeting on May 7, with the adjoined vote on May 11.
So now we’re up to $150M in building repairs, and 6% increases in other budgets just to tread water – maybe preserving Wilton’s “rural character” is less important than growing our grand list?