05/27/10
(updated 06/01/10)
Advisory commission submits list of capital needs for Fort Williams Park
The Fort Williams Advisory Commission has submitted a list of capital improvement needs for Fort Williams Park, weeks before voters will be asked in a non-binding referendum whether they favor a pay/display system of collecting parking fees at the park.
The memo, dated May 21, 2010, was requested by the Town Council earlier this year as part of a council goal to work toward making the park financially self-sustaining.
"This report is an effort to catalog and capture what the FWAC believes to be the long term costs for maintaining and improving Fort Williams Park," the spreadsheet says. "We encourage you to view this document as a work in progress," the memo to the council says. Many of the projects are conceptual and list no associated cost. Most have annual cost estimates. Some are identified as having alternate funding sources, such as private funds or grants, but most need to be paid for by the Town.
The council is slated to formally accept the report at their June 14 meeting, but Town Manager Michael McGovern called attention to the memo on May 25, two weeks before voters are slated to weigh in on whether they agree with the council's February decision to begin charging parking fees at Fort Williams Park.
"It would be wrong for the voters not to know in advance what the capital needs are," McGovern said in a telephone interview.
The commission worked with consultants in developing preliminary cost estimates to address the structural conditions in the park. "The infrastructure in the park is really beginning to fall apart," McGovern said. "I'd be happy to walk through the park with anyone and show them what's deteriorating," he said.
The list does not include things that could beautify the park, such as replacing the boarded Public Works maintenance building windows with glass, McGovern said.
He said citizens can make the decision about how to care for Fort Williams, but the choices are clear: "They can charge fees, try to gain other revenues inside the park, they can pay more in taxes, or they can let the park continue to deteriorate - or a combination of those four things," he said.
He said the spreadsheet shows that the amount the Town is spending now on infrastructure is inadequate. In December 2009, the council accepted an Infrastructure Stewardship plan that called for increasing appropriations by $100,000 annually. Next fiscal year the capital improvement budget will increase by $66,000.
"No one wants to spend more money, but people don't want the park to fall apart either," McGovern said. "Citizens when they vote (June 8) ought to know the capital needs of the park."
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