CIP Subcommittee Meeting Minutes

 October 21, 2004

ROLL CALL:  Lee Maloney, Planning Board Member – Present

                        Walter Kolodziej, Planning Board Member – Present

                        Suzanne Jortberg, Citizen Member – Present

                        Marcia Unger, Citizen Member – Excused

                        Bev Donovan, School Board – Present

                        John Hollinger, School Board – Excused

                        Roger Hohenberger, Selectmen – Present

                        Galen Stearns, Alternate Selectmen – Present

                        Jack Merchant, Citizen Member – Present

Ms. Maloney called the meeting to order at approx. 7:07 PM in the Planning and Development Room.

MINUTES: Motion by Mr. Merchant, seconded by Mr. Hohenberger, to approve minutes of the CIP meeting held on October 7, 2004.  Motion unanimously approved.

OLD BUSINESS: None

NEW BUSINESS: Ms. Donovan presented the School District’s requests to the CIP.  The septic request would remain the same as last year (final request) for the septic reserve fund.  Also, the school land and facilities request of $250,000 would also be made, similar to last year.  Next, Ms. Donovan mentioned that the School Board has been working with Team Design, an architectural design firm on the high school.  Mr. Hohenberger raised the question as to how they were selected if no requests for bids were sent out.  Ms. Donovan wasn’t sure, but said they had been working with this firm for a while since the Coop issue.  Ms. Maloney asked what the criteria for selecting Team Design had been.  Ms. Donovan said their bonding record, record of being on time and on budget for other projects, and review of their prior work relating to other school construction jobs were factors in hiring them.  She also said they are not currently being paid.  Their agreement is that they will be paid for all work if and when the school construction bond if approved and funding is available.  If the bond doesn’t pass, they don’t get paid.  Ms. Donovan stated that the School Board has been looking at specific parcels of land, but that no contracts to purchase have been signed yet.  She stated that the high school proposal would be to build a school core to accommodate a student body of 1,200.  A discussion of a high school bond followed.  Ms. Donovan suggested we use a $40 million bond (this being the maximum cost based on the high school research committees’ wish list).  She provided bond amortization schedules for both 20 and 30 year durations.  Mr. Hohenberger questioned the uneven allocation of principal throughout the bond schedules.  Ms. Donovan said she would ask the bank that provided the schedules.  There was discussion about which duration was preferable.  The consensus was for the 20 year bond, but Ms. Donovan would try to get more concert numbers for our next meeting before any final determination was made.  Mr. Merchant commented that the current cost of capital recovery paid to Salem High School was not reflected in the bond amount and should be.  Mr. Merchant also proposed that the high school bond should appear as a separate line item outside the CIP since it will never fit within the CIP due to its large annual cost.  All agreed that it should appear at the bottom of the CIP proposal to recognize its existence.

At 8:00 PM, the CIP subcommittee began the classification process whereby each member gives each CIP request a class coding in terms of prioritization.  The rankings are then averaged to arrive at an overall ranking.  Before the classification began, it was restated that this year’s tax valuation is $1,414,135,775, resulting in a CIP budget of $2,191,910 for this year.      

The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 PM (motion by Mr. Kolodziej, seconded by Mr. Hohenberger).

These minutes have not been approved by the CIP subcommittee.

Respectfully submitted, Suzanne Jortberg  10/25/04