The following is a transcription of the Town Manager Matthew Sturgis' Monthly Report delivered at the March 11, 2024 Town Council meeting:

I will be brief this evening as I have a longer moment of speaking on the agenda later this evening.

I have a couple different things I would like to circle back on.  We were anticipating a presentation this month, but due to an illness from one of our presenters we will look to have him here next month.  This relates to an email received a couple of weeks ago regarding cell coverage in the northern part of town and the challenges of trying to make a call in that section of town.  We will have a gentleman from Tilson, as well as representatives from Verizon to talk about a project that they would like to present to the town that could improve cell coverage in that area of Cape Elizabeth.  So, you can anticipate that for April.

Secondly, to a point made by John Voltz, [During public comments in which he said that the town needs a long-term capital plan that shows “where we’ve been and where we are going.”] I think it’s a great point.  We have been working on that for quite a while now and as you noticed this year in our CIP segment of the budget, it grew significantly because we have had work done evaluating all the municipal facilities, created a priority list with a timeline as to those repairs that need to take place with those buildings, and how to plan those from the Public Works side -- which is one of our other larger capital-intense departments.  

We have tried to integrate all that and pull together an evaluation of information from the schools, who recently also had a facilities study.  Including, the large ticket item there, which Councilor Thompson and Councilor Jordan and I have been spending our Thursdays on fairly regularly with the School Building Advisory Committee – and that is part of the equation.  We are looking to have all the information pulled together as well as items for fiscal policies that we have already established, but want to pull together into one document for the council to have.  It is still a work in progress, but we do agree with Mr. Voltz as we try to move this forward and deliver a package to the council that they will find useful.