Contacts

Information

Meeting Schedule: 2nd Monday of the month
Meeting Time: 7:00pm
Location: Room 14
Address: Town Hall, 52 Main Street, Milford

CIC Report for May 21st 2012 Annual Town Meeting

CIC Report for October 22nd 2012 Special Town Meeting

The Capital Improvement Committee's charter was originally adopted by Town Meeting on June 19, 1995 under Article 18 of the Town's General By-Laws.

At the next Annual Town Meeting (2013), the CIC plans to sponsor a warrant article to update the language of its governing by-law (i.e., Article 18, as mentioned above).  [Please note, at the advice of Town Counsel, the CIC requested that our previous amendments be passed-over at Special Town Meeting 2012; this was intended to facilitate further review of the proposed revisions with the Board of Selectmen and any other interested parties.]  In any event, since August 2011, the CIC has been conducting a review of the Town's capital planning processes.  And, although the structure and language of the CIC's governing by-law is intended to remain very much the same, the proposed changes will be a combination of some overdue housekeeping measures, in addition to revisions that more accurately reflect the roles of the CIC and capital planning in Milford.  Anyone interested in reviewing the proposed by-law revision, please click here; any comments or questions may be directed to the CIC or brought to Annual Town Meeting.

In accordance with the existing By-law, the committee is responsible for reviewing all Town requests in the following four areas:

1. any acquisition, disposition, lease or transfer of land;
2. any acquisition, disposition, lease or transfer of motor vehicles;
3. any acquisition or lease of any single item of equipment with a total cost of $20,000 or more and a substantial useful life as determined by the committee;
4. any construction, reconstruction, replacement, extension or other improvement of public buildings, highways, sidewalks, storm drains, sewerage installations, playgrounds, parks or substantially similar public works, or for a facility, structure or a utility appurtenant to any of the same, with a total cost of $26,000 or more.

No capital improvement, as stated in the by-law, shall be voted upon at any town meeting until it has been presented in written form to this committee for recommendation. It is the committee's charter to make recommendations to the finance committee on the scheduling of capital expenditures and assist the town meeting members with regard to the priorities of the projects and the impact of these projects on the operating budget. Every project submitted to the committee is entered into our capital planning spreadsheet. Meetings are scheduled with the item sponsor to discuss the merits of the project.

The committee reviews the merits of each individual project and then assigns the CIC Project Rating, based on the perceived priority for the Town.  The CIC Project Rating ranges from Critical to Not Urgent.  Then, all capital projects are ranked by applying the recommendations in the Department of Revenue's CIP manual (i.e., "Developing a Capital Improvements Program; A Manual for Massachusetts Communities" [March 1997]), and tie-breakers are based on the consistency with the most current edition of the Town's Comprehensive Plan (and then -- if necessary -- on the CIC's Project Ratings).  The evaluation criteria in Exhibit IV, Form E of the DOR’s CIP manual includes the following six (6) categories:  a department priority classification (e.g., Mandatory or Maintenance), the sponsor’s project priority, the expected useful lifespan, the overall effect on operating- & maintenance costs, the impact on Town revenues, and the availability of State/Federal grants (or other non-Town funds).