Politics & Government

Project Priority List Sent to Town Committee

The Capital Projects Committee presented a prioritized list of 2011 Capital Projects to the Township Committee Thursday.

A list of potential Capital Improvements totaling $1.2 million will be before the Township Committee for determinations on which of the eight projects will be completed this year.

The projects, which are ranked by priority, came by recommendation from the Township’s Capital Planning Committee and were accepted by the Planning Board at its Thursday meeting.  Once in the hands of the Township Committee, the committee would determine which of the projects will be completed.

A state Department of Transportation grant will fund $200,000 of the $574,000 repaving on Hamilton Road, Frank Herbert and Leon Krals, members of the Capital Planning Committee said as they made their presentation.  During a prior interview, Assistant Township Engineer Tom Belanger said grant funds leftover from a 2010 project would be put toward the Hamilton Road project too.

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That project proposed to repave a one-and-a-half mile stretch of the road between Millstone River Road and the Conrail Railroad tracks.

“That one’s not passing up the state money,” Herbert said.  “That’s one of the reason we proposed that one to be number one.

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The second project, estimated $250,000, involves the Claremont sewer road overlay,

“The Claremont sewer project is a major project with the sewer and the digging up all the roads and whatnot,” Planning Board Secretary and Capital Projects Committee member Steve Sireci said.  “This amount of money needs to go in there because things were found there by engineering, problems with the sub grade of the road that need to be addressed.  It’s not an option.”

Police equipment and radio modifications, the third project on the list, would be about $80,000, and was recommended in response to a Federal Communications Commission mandate, Herbert said.  By the end of 2012, the department will need to use the new technology—and waiting could result in higher equipment prices.

“If we don’t do it this year, there’s a good chance, we could end up paying about $50,000 more than the amount we are proposing this year,” Herbert said.

Two defibrillators, valued at $4,600, and two radar units, at $5,700, both for police department, are also on the list as regular maintenance to police equipment.

One of the projects—a new ambulance for the Hillsborough Rescue Squad— had a slight revision from its approval as a $483,000 project for 2010.  Instead of replacing a single ambulance, the squad asked to replace the chassis on two existing ambulances, at a total of $573,000.  The $90,000 addition would allow the squad to replace core components in two vehicles.

“That was an option that was brought to us by the rescue squad,” Sireci said.  “And a re-chassis, that means the whole underside of the ambulance, including the engine, is removed and a new one put in.  Really, all you’re saving is the box on top, which is not the thing that is getting damaged over the years as you’re using the ambulance.  You can reuse the box on top.  The problem is the wear and tear on the chassis and on the engine over time.”

The police’s computer-aided dispatch and records system is recommended for replacement as well, at a $130,000 estimate.  The system allows the department to have clear, time-stamped records of calls coming into or going out of the department.

A new truck for the Department of Public Works is proposed as well.  The department has one truck of the proposed size and the truck can be used for both salt and for township trash days, Herbert noted.  With the township adding developments, the truck allows the Department of Public Works to have more trucks on the road during storms.  The Department of Public Works has ten trucks currently and one contracted truck with a public works plow on it.

“Those smaller trucks, in a storm like that (the post-Christmas blizzard), where you are plowing the whole width of the road, to the curb,” Public Works Director Buck Sixt said.  “They won’t do it.  They physically can’t do it.  So the larger trucks, which there’s only 11 of, have to do every road in the town.  Which the men physically can’t do because the men can’t work those continuous hours.”

“You can go back the next day and push it back or whatever,” he added.  “But, if you go back the next day, after everybody has shoveled, plowed, snow blowed, whatever they did to get out of their driveways, and you push three feet of snow back into their driveways from the curb while they’re at work, you don’t want to be in our office the next day.”

The truck was the only item questioned by any Planning Board members, after Steven Cohen, vice chairman, asked whether the truck cost could be justified.

“$286, 000 in this economy for another truck, I wouldn’t put it on that list right now,” Cohen said.

The truck remained on the list, which is only a ranking of the potential projects.  The decision on undertaking them goes to the Township Committee.

$75,000 is also proposed for sidewalk improvements and replacements.  The money for the sidewalk replacements comes from a separate account that is funded using fees from various improvement applications rather than taxpayer dollars, according to Sireci.

Township department heads proposed a total of 26 projects during the Capital Planning Committee’s first meeting and the list was narrowed down to the proposed projects during another meeting.

“We were up to 1.2 million dollars and, at that point, we just stopped,” Frank Herbert, of the Capital Planning Committee, said.  “None of the other items were public items, knowing the township was probably not willing to spend more than what we were proposing.”


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