BOS Mulls Over Capital Projects for FY 2026, Considers New Infrastructure Fund

Having completed its budget proposal on Monday evening, Mar. 3, the Board of Selectmen began taking a closer look at more than $10 million in projects it could propose bonding for in the upcoming fiscal year.

Questions about Ambler Farm and the town’s responsibility to modify and beautify its two historic structures drew much discussion, as did interest in the creation of a specially-designated, jointly-controlled municipal infrastructure fund that would link the Boards of Education, Finance and Selectmen.

At this time the BOS is looking at 12 separate items totaling $10,300,460 to bond, most of which have been prioritized by Wilton’s Town and School Needs Assessment Priorities Committee (TSNAP).

These items are part of a $155,457,605 list it has in hand, stretching through 2035. It consists of a range of high-cost items for purchase, repair and renovations, including $97 million relating to school facilities, $31 million relating to municipal buildings, $23 million for road restoration through the Department of Public Works, and $4 million for fire engines.

Challenged with trying to keep its operating budget as low as possible, this month the BOS decided to also move the $330,000 cost of a new DPW dump truck, plow and sander into bondable capital requests.

“We have 13 plow routes,” DPW Director Frank Smeriglio explained, noting that two spare trucks are kept on standby and often called into play. These, however, he said are close to 20 years old and in questionable condition.

“There is an absolute need,” he said, with his department planning to — hoping to — purchase a new truck regularly each year going forward, with cost estimates increasing each year.

While the BOS members put this truck on the capital request list for FY 2026, for now they intend to return the annual purchase of these trucks back to the operating budget next year.

Sharing some background about the building and maintenance process, Smeriglio expressed trepidation about the establishment of a municipal infrastructure fund, noting especially his concerns about having to make appearances before multiple boards.

“The other big thing that concerns me, that really concerns me, and I don’t have an answer for this, but there’s the talk about the Board of Finance overseeing certain funds,” he said. “I worry, more personally that, does that mean I have to go to the Board of Finance meetings too?”

“That’s gonna be a big issue,” Smeriglio said. “That’s gonna slow down the process and … if I go the Board of Finance meeting and then come to the Board of Selectmen meeting, that would just slow down every small project.”

Selectwoman Kim Healy said she didn’t think it would work that way.

“We certainly don’t want to make it more onerous,” she said.

Smeriglio shared about how different projects result in different bottlenecks, depending on the area and work being done. 

“For instance, grant projects, the bottleneck is always easements and permits, not local permits, but state permits,” he said, while school projects require work to be done during summer months.

“There’s always like a different problem that happens, a different bottleneck,” he said.

Smeriglio said that some towns bond separately for design and construction, which he indicated could reduce some snags for him and his department.

The BOS expressed some confusion over exactly what the scope of its work was regarding the two Ambler Farm projects that are on the list for this year — the Raymond-Ambler House and the Ambler Farm Yellow House, each of which has a $1 million capital request.

“We never really had the scope during the TSNAP meetings or during the estimate,” Smeriglio said.

Since its inception, TSNAP has experienced some procedural strife, with disagreements or misunderstandings over the scope of their charge. Ultimately, as Smeriglio stated, the charge was narrowed to have the group only present a list of priorities for the next fiscal year.

As the BOS members didn’t agree on exactly what the town is required to do under the agreement with Ambler Farm, they decided to invite Friends of Ambler Farm representatives to speak to them at their next meeting. First Selectman Toni Boucher stated that the agreement was “pretty prescriptive” about requiring the town to be responsible for augmenting the program, but Healy said the town’s responsibility was merely to build a physical space that could accommodate whatever Ambler Farm officials hoped to do.

“We can differ on what programming space looks like, (but) the costs have gotten completely out of control in my opinion,” Healy said.

“I think it’s going to get immediately voted down [by residents at the Annual Town Meeting] if we are not focused on what the end product is,” she said.

“I’d like to hear from Ambler Farm on their vision,” Selectman Bas Nabulsi said.

At its next regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Mar. 18, the Board of Selectmen will discuss finalizing the list of bonded projects to bring to the Annual Town Meeting.