Editor’s note: One week prior to the Board of Finance meeting, First Selectman Toni Boucher‘s office issued a press release titled, “Wilton’s Successful Bond Sale.” That release follows at the end of this story.
Board of Finance members were recently surprised to learn that, though the Town Meeting just approved bonding $700,000 for road restoration and paving last month, there’s already more than $4 million in unspent bond money for road improvement currently sitting in wait.
On Tuesday, June 10, in an overview of existing funds and approved bonding projects, Wilton’s CFO Dawn Norton told the BOF that $4,161,373.36 in the category of “roads and the road improvement program” was among almost $18 million in unspent bonds.
“So we have $4 million sitting in the bank somewhere … So why are we bonding again if we have so many years of backlog?” BOF member Rudy Escalante said.
Of the $700,000 that was approved for bonding last month, $540,000 has already been bonded. With a deduction of $30,000 noted in Norton’s presentation as an unspecified expense, the total in that account is now at $4,671,120.86.
“Why are we asking for more?” Escalante said.
Norton couldn’t offer a specific answer, but said that this was the way DPW Director Frank Smeriglio handled his paving program.
“We typically go to the market every year and grow this pot of money so that he has it,” Norton said. “It’s not just roads, but all of his other paving projects that he has, should it be a parking lot or curbs, and I don’t want to speak for Frank, but it’s his whole road program.”
“I know he can blow through this pretty quickly and that’s why I think he keeps replenishing it,” she said, “but that is a good question for Frank on his road paving program.”
Of the $4.6 million in hand, Norton said there was close to a million that would be used by the end of 2025.
“I know they just awarded a contract, or they just went forward with a contract, so you should see that happening,” she said. “The delay in this is that road paving only happens at a certain time of the year, so about six months out of the year there’s no road paving … So you don’t see, like, a continual use.”
On Friday, June 13, Smeriglio said that the Board of Selectmen was presented with backup on the matter at its April 1 meeting when he first went forward with the request.
The backup materials that he presented at that time showed there was only a total of $1,950,000 available on March 26, 2025, for road restoration.
The request for $700,000 was made to nearly cover a total amount of $2,658,568 needed through Fiscal Year 2026, which would include $680,064 to complete three miles of road restoration for FY 2025, and then $1,586,816 for seven miles of paving in FY 2026.
With drainage and flagger allowances that totaled $150,000, the total number also included a 10% contingency of $241,688.
According to the material, the road restoration work is calculated at $266,688 per mile.
“In regards to the paving account, once we receive Finance’s updated reconcile reports, we will review,” Smeriglio said in response to questions from GOOD Morning Wilton.
Norton told the BOF that it was a good question of why there was so much in the account.
“That’s just the way that he set up his bonding project to work,” Norton said. “It is a good question. If we have this, maybe we don’t need to go to the market and bond for small portions of it. I guess it all depends on how quickly he runs through this amount of money.”
Norton told the BOF she would prefer the town didn’t go to market generally speaking, at least until it was known how much was really needed.
“My goal would be not to go the market until we know what the cost of the project is,” she said. “We have plenty of cash flow for those projects and then we reimburse ourselves.”
BOF Chair Matt Raimondi noted it still amounted to a large reserve.
“That’s several years of bonding,” he said.
After the meeting, Raimondi commented on the situation.
“During the meeting, several BOF members expressed surprise at the amount of previously bonded capital that remains unspent — particularly for road paving,” he said. “It’s something we are closely monitoring.”
Raimondi also added there are legal reasons to keep a close eye.
“The 18-month timeline for spending bonded capital is a critical threshold under Federal Arbitrage Rules — one we take seriously and will continue to monitor closely,” he said.
Raimondi said he did recall Smeriglio stating that the town typically plans to bond around $2 million annually for road restoration.
“Because there was a surplus from a previous bonding period, he recommended bonding less,” Raimondi said.
Smeriglio also has an addition bonded $2.1 million in hand for bridge replacement, which he said represents the town’s match of grant money. At least two projects, he said, will be bid on this fall, including bridge replacements on Cannon Rd. and Honey Hill Rd., with several more to follow. Several other bridge replacements are also in the design phase as well.
Raimondi said the BOF asked Norton to share updates on capital projects to give a sense of where funds are at this time.
There’s a lot of building projects we have to deal with over the next 10 or 20 years,” Raimondi told the BOF. “What I wanted this board to have a view of, is what are the different pockets of capital that currently exist, and how much money are in those pockets of capital, so we can have a holistic view of what we currently have.”
Other items in process that currently have unspent funds include $950,000 for a fire engine replacement. Norton said that while there were delays in that purchase, it is finally moving forward.
Norton’s latest numbers show $7.5 million unspent on the police headquarters project and $4 million unspent on the Cider Mill and Middlebrook Schools HVAC projects.
Norton said there were an additional 11 projects for which she had not included any detail, as they hadn’t been started, several of which were just approved at the Annual Town Meeting, but she said she would provide those details in the future.
“These projects here are projects that are in the works right now,” she said.
Town Officials’ Press Release Touts Town’s “Hugely Successful Bond Sale
The following is a press release from the office of First Selectman Toni Boucher, issued on June 4, 2025.
“On the heels of the excellent news Town Hall received about earning a Aaa rating from Moody’s Rating Agency, another stellar day of financial reporting reached us this week about our hugely successful bond sale. On Monday, May 28, Wilton took our list of capital projects, amounting to $9,175,000 in costs, to a bond auction and won one of Connecticut’s lowest interest rate bids of 3.4%. This will significantly reduce the price we pay for building and purchasing projects.
“For those not familiar with the process, Wilton issues bonds that pay for large capital projects like building the new police station. Those bonds are put up at a public auction where investors decide if they’d like to take on that debt to sell to the public. When a municipality’s bond is deemed to be a good debt to invest in, meaning the Town issuing the debt is guaranteed to pay the principal and the interest fees, these investors compete with each other to buy that debt by offering the Town the lowest interest rates they can. This is like any auction, but in this case, the winning bid is the lowest number offered. The less interest a Town is asked to pay on its original debt, the less they have to spend overall on infrastructure that must be built.
“The low interest offered to Wilton at the bond market reflects our Town’s strong financial condition and Aaa rating. Another town that also carries a AAA rating did not do as well, coming away with a final bid of 3.93%. Most towns, in fact, received interest bids of up to 4%, which is closer to what Wilton was told to expect for its bids. An interest rate of 3.4% is a significant difference. In addition, Wilton had more bidders than in previous years: 13 in total, when only nine had been expected.
“The following factors allowed for this outstanding result. According to our bond advisor and counsel, Town leadership’s ratings call with Moody’s was particularly strong this year. This call is, in fact, a lengthy and detailed interview with Moody’s analysts and is the final step in their determination process. ASML’s investment in our community, and [its] growing operation here, is a testament to Wilton’s desirability as a place to live, work and do business, and is often touted as a great landmark for Wilton. As a Town government, we have received excellent ratings for our fiscal discipline to plan, monitor and manage government funds, our healthy fund balance and budget process, our firm debt management, and our more than 100% investment in long-term liabilities. The public’s positive votes for the Annual Town Budget speaks to the community’s strong show of support for Wilton’s vision. And Wilton receives praise for its low unemployment rate and high real estate values.
“The market has spoken with a fiscal standing ovation for Wilton. This portends so many great things for our Town’s future. I could not be more pleased to celebrate this outstanding result with you.”