SWAMPSCOTT — Town Treasurer Patrick Luddy gave a presentation on the town’s capital needs for Fiscal Year 26 (FY26) during the joint meeting between the Select Board, School Committee and Finance Committee, where he talked about several important items the town has its eye on.
Before the presentation, Select Board Chair MaryEllen Fletcher commented on the complexities of balancing the budget with the town’s needs. “The budget and capital improvement, this is all a work in progress,” Fletcher said. “Once we get it through the Select Board, it will go off to the Finance Committee, as they try to wrestle with those numbers.”
Fletcher said that once the Finance Committee has had time to process the data, the committee will make its recommendation at Town Meeting.
She said it has been a tough budget season for the town. “Trying to figure out all the ups and downs and how we make things work. I want to be really clear that we are one community, and we all just have to work together, and it’s going to take a little time,” Fletcher said.
Luddy noted he met with Interim Town Administrator Gino Cresta and Director of Finance and Administration Amy Sarro to review the different requests that were submitted. “It’s a little bit out of sequence this year with the change in administration,” Luddy said. “We opted to bring the requests of the Capital Improvement Committee (CIC) to get the ball rolling and begin the review.”
According to Luddy, 35 new project requests were received, which saw a decrease compared to last year with 51 requests. “Some of the Master Plan goals that were identified by different department heads that the town would address are public facilities/services, followed by sustainability, transportation, open space, and historical and cultural resources,” Luddy said.
After meeting with Cresta and Sarro, Luddy explained they were required to prioritize projects based on the information they had been given up to that point.
“Ultimately, we’re recommending $5.6 million of General Funds in the coming fiscal year, and that’s about $4.3 million less than what was submitted,” Luddy said. He added that the town has competing needs and priorities.
He continued, “It was a tough year, given the asks and the financial capabilities that the town has to fund those projects.”
Some of the major drivers are the funding of $1.6 million for a solar canopy at the Elementary School, as well as another $1.6 million for a replacement ladder truck for the Fire Department. Luddy said the ladder truck the town has was from 2004, and the purchase of a new truck has been delayed each year the request was presented.
“We also received a request for two million dollars for the Middle School window replacement project, that’s been a big topic of discussion for the school and the needs that are there,” Luddy said. “Ultimately, with the requests this year, we had to delay that for budgetary purposes.”
Luddy said that there were also delays to the renovations of the high school and town hall.
He noted the town was able to secure $3.25 million in the Intended Use Plan (IUP) for sewer main rehabilitation.
Select Board member Doug Thomson gave his input during the meeting. “I’m all for the solar canopy, but it’s pretty hard to stomach doing nothing about the middle school windows.”
“What it came down to was that we couldn’t fund all because we don’t have the finances right now,” Cresta said. “So, it came down to whether we were going to support the canopies or the windows, and our return on investment was better with the canopy.”
“To Gino’s point, yes, I think there can be return on investment, but I don’t think we can underestimate the need for windows at the middle school,” Select Board member Danielle Leonard said. “Having worked there for 10 years, I can tell you that it’s in rough shape.”
Leonard continued, “I hate to see this can continually kicked down the road, and I feel like that’s what we’ve been doing for the past three years.”
Luddy noted one option that the town was considering was the use of $180,000 to design the plans for the window replacement project, which could help expedite the process if the town already has designs drawn up before moving forward by its expected date of completion.
