Before the Marion Capital Improvements Planning Committee can confidently sink its collective teeth into capital requests being made by the Old Rochester Regional School District, it has requested greater detail to facilitate its own process.

            In interviewing various municipal department heads, the CIPC takes in annual capital requests, each at least $10,000 in cost and with a minimum of five years of “useful life.” From there, the committee studies each proposal and prepares an evaluation, ultimately offering the Finance Committee and the Select Board a comprehensive ranking of department-submitted projects relative to Fiscal Year 2023 and on a 10-year outlook.

            Many factors are taken into the CIPC’s consideration for such a ranking, including alternative funding sources, the likelihood of bureaucratic obstacles, logistical constraints, the sustainability of the investment in a project, etc.

            On November 30, ORR Facilities Director Gene Jones met with the CIPC via Zoom to outline the school district’s capital requests. Dividing ORR’s capital requests into Sippican Elementary School and ORR Senior/Junior high schools, Jones presented several needs for the CIPC’s consumption.

            CIPC Chairman Paul Naiman noted that for purposes of the committee’s consumption, all of the school department’s requests are going to come out of general fund.

            Sippican Elementary School’s roof-top HVAC units have been servicing the building for 21 years, according to Jones, who said it’s time for units to be decommissioned and/or overhauled. He targeted the 2024-25 academic year, estimating it will cost $50,000 “to go through and refurbish them.”

            Jones categorized the roof-top units as a safety and air-quality measure, providing a safe environment that extends to Marion’s senior citizens who use the building. There are four units, so Jones recommended dealing with one per year, stating that the units will “go beyond 10 years.” The curbs, he said, “are all good” and the rooftop units “solid.” The building dates back to 1937, but the units are setting well, according to Jones. Now, he says, it’s time to refurbish the compressors and motors.

            Naiman asked Jones to go back to his application paperwork and fill in the information discussed, along with that which emanated from the questions posed by CIPC members.

            Other requests relating to Sippican Elementary included $25,000 for tile flooring to cover all first-grade rooms. Jones noted that because of COVID-19, there remains $50,000 funded from prior years. “It’s like painting the bridge, we continue on and finish it,” he said.

            The nitrogen seals in eight of Sippican’s windows have failed and will need $20,000 to repair. According to Jones, this requires window replacement. The windows, located in the cafeteria and on the wing by the tennis courts, have been in place since the 2000-01 school year.

            Sippican’s furnishings have not been changed since 2001. “Some of the teachers have duct tape on their (chair’s) arms. This has come to a point where it’s that time,” said Jones, estimating $36,000 to repair. An inventory of what is deemed usable is estimated at $12,000. “We have to address this because no one does,” he said.

            Sippican is also looking to upgrade wifi extenders and switches. When the school building needs to function as an emergency shelter, people gather for heat but also charge their phones and get their devices online. MCAS testing is also a factor, Jones explained. So are worn devices that Sippican School’s access point senses, affecting bandwidth.

            Jones also classified this as a safety issue. “If we don’t have it, there’s no communications from the school to the first responders … other than phone. … It’s our whole backbone,” he said.

            ORR is also requesting flooring, asphalt repair and a new boiler.

            The $35,000 requested in asphalt repair would address approximately 300 feet of “crocodiling” between the junior and senior high school backside entrances. The work would be a continuation of what was done last year, although Jones said that there was no money allocated last year for the asphalt repair.

            Jones said nothing passed from the district, except the track rehab via its new capital-stabilization fund. ORR Superintendent of Schools Mike Nelson told the CIPC that ORR always shares its 10-year capital plan with the Marion Planning Board.

            CIPC members Casimiro Barros and David Janik helped clarify the request with their questions.

            Jones told the CIPC that ORR’s Hawk Boiler “was already obsolete” in 2000 due to its combustion controls. “I want to go to Johnson controls (fully automated),” he said, noting that Sippican is under the new Johnson control system. The committee asked Jones to buttress the request by including an estimate of savings.

            It still has flooring from 1961; it was not replaced in the school building’s major renovation. Jones estimates that depending on the sub-floor conditions, a $25,000 expense could upgrade five rooms and a hallway. He said ORR’s hallways are much wider than the elementary school’s.

            Jones told Naiman that the high school has been tested for asbestos and there is none in the building.

            Barros suggested Jones use the requested revisions to buttress his presentations to the towns of Mattapoisett and Rochester.

            Sippican School’s 10-year capital plan extends the requests made relative to FY23 and adds some significant ones, such as $300,000 for Sippican’s phased-roof-section replacement, to be spread over five years ($60,000 annually) from FY28 to FY32.

            That project will begin with the completion of a $200,000 request to refurbish rooftop units ($50,000 per year from FY24 to FY27.)

            Installing Glycol (anti-freeze) into Sippican’s HVAC system is a one-shot deal for $120,000 slated for FY25.

            A 20-year update targeting FY33 will be needed on equipment to upgrade the front-side playground at $115,000.

            Sippican’s flooring replacement will cost $100,000 on a 10-year basis, split four times over a seven-year period beginning in FY24.

            Furniture at $84,000 would be split at $36,000, $36,000 and $12,000 over the next three fiscal years. The repair of the cupola is slated for FY25 at $68,000. CIPC members are interested to see if Marion can address the cupola internally or with assistance from Upper Cape Tech.

            Other items include: $60,000 in tech upgrades to be spread at $20,000 annually over the next three fiscal years, $35,000 for the refurbishing of Sippican’s chiller compressors in FY25, $25,000 for public address and clock-system replacement in FY26 and $20,000 for the eight window seals in FY24.

            Marion’s portion of ORR’s 10-year capital plan calls for $250,000 for floor-tile replacement, spread annually at $25,000 for the next 10 years and the building’s furniture replacement will be similarly spread ($96,000 over eight years from FY26 to FY33.)

            An irrigation system for athletic fields at $114,000 will be spread over FY25 ($38,000) and FY26 ($58,000.) Road and parking-lot repair (asphalt) is proposed at $70,000 even divided over the next two fiscal years.

            Other ORR requests include: $32,000 for the tech room (FY25), $32,000 for foodservice equipment replacement (to be divided evenly in FY27 and FY29), $26,000 for an update to the boiler-combustion control (FY24), $24,000 for ground maintenance equipment; $20,000 for tennis-court rehab and $15,000 for replacement of the district’s truck.

            The next public meeting of the Marion CIPC is a remote-access meeting scheduled for Thursday, December 8, at 7:00 pm, when the committee will hear capital requests from the Department of Public Works.

Marion Capital Improvements Planning Committee

By Mick Colageo

            The momentum felt earlier this year by the Town of Marion in its quest for a new harbormaster’s headquarters facility has been obscured by a dark cloud of doubt.

            In introducing initial budget projections for FY24, Harbormaster Isaac Perry told the Marine Resources Commission during its November 21 public meeting that he had yet to hear back from the state’s Seaport Economic Council, the agency that granted the town $1,000,000 on top of $300,000 for its design and construction of the new Marine Center at Island Wharf.

            Months ago, then-Town Administrator Jay McGrail began prefacing any comments on the final $1,000,000 grant applied for as being subject to change amidst concern for the potential dissolution of the SEC when Governor Baker leaves office.

            Without that final grant, the town would need to raise $1,000,000 via other means in order to build the harbormaster’s new headquarters as designed, revised and approved by a 2022 Town Meeting vote.

            “And they don’t have any meetings scheduled,” said Perry. “They haven’t kept to their timeline in the past, so this isn’t out of sorts for them, especially with this current administration on its way out. But we’re still waiting to hear yay or nay on that before we take the next steps toward securing another grant. As you all know, we still need $1,000,000 to get this project up and running.”

            Perry’s opening remark only introduced his discussion on the FY24 budget he will need to submit by the end of December.

            He told the MRC that he and Deputy Harbormaster and Shellfish Officer Adam Murphy had been away for two weeks prior to the meeting to engage in police-reform training.

            Per Marion’s town-employee policy, Perry said staff (including Perry, Murphy and Assistant Harbormaster Dave Wilson) will see a 2% wage increase for FY24.

            Perry said the town made an error in placing Murphy into the town’s employee policy for FY23, and the result was a $12,800 expenditure in overtime. Perry said the $12,000 estimation would see a $1,000 bump in the FY24 budget.

            Longevity increases estimated to be worth approximately $200 in annual salary will not affect FY24, but in FY25 Perry said he will go over the 20-year mark and Murphy over the 10-year mark.

            Perry explained that the FY24 budget will become subject to recommendation from the Finance Committee and the Select Board and be voted upon at the Annual Town Meeting to be held most likely in May 2023.

            The most drastic operational increase in the Harbormaster Department for FY24 is boat maintenance. Perry reminded the commission that he had bumped that figure up to $10,000 for the current fiscal year but has already exceeded that mark, so he plans to bump it again for FY24 to $15,000.

            Beyond that, most of the department’s operational costs will remain the same for FY24.

            “I don’t see any changes at this point. The police reform is the elephant in the room,” said Perry, indicating that full-time wages could be impacted but not through his department’s budget, rather the Police Department’s budget.

            Overall, he projects a 3.6% increase in the FY24 operating budget.

            Capital projects such as the hydraulic trailer are at least for now not feasible, given the town has no maintenance facility.

            “What’s going on with the Maritime Center, are we going to take over the old DPW? Again, those things are probably going to take a few years to shake out here,” said Perry. “We kind of backed off on a lot of the stuff that we were working towards.”

            Asked if he projects revenues, Perry said no, the department relies on the recent past because revenues tend not to vary beyond $10,000 annually. Off the top of his head, Perry estimated $468,000 in annual revenue for FY22.

            MRC Chairman Vin Malkoski suggested the indicators are somewhat in place, but Perry said he has been told the “indirects” (revenue sources not directly controlled by the department) are going to be rolled back for FY23.

            MRC member Scott Cowell asked about the progress with the new Department of Public Works facility and how that might positively impact the timeline for getting the harbormaster’s boats under shelter at the old facility on Route 6.

            Perry said stress cracks are typical, but the cabin in the patrol boat is beginning to separate from the hull. “That gets exponentially worse for a foam-core boat when you leave it outside for the winter, but we just don’t have an option at this point,” he said.

            Cowell said he would like to see the line item for shellfish increase for FY24. Perry said office space is always a challenge, but the space for storage of shellfish cages has become “incredibly problematic.”

            “We find ourselves getting rid of more and more stuff that we typically would have held onto just because of space,” said Perry. “We’re kind of homeless when it comes to the maintenance side of things for the next couple of years, I would guess.”

            Radio equipment, he said, will be funded through the Police Department, which is looking to switch over to digital technology.

            Wilson provided the Harbor Management update, telling the commission members that the season equipment including floats, channel markers, moorings and the patrol and pump-out boats, was removed from the water on November 1 and put through prescribed maintenance routines. The barge was due to be removed the day after the meeting.

            The pump-out boat is up to 1,700 hours and is running well, but Perry said the unavailability of parts is preventing an upgrade that has been fully funded.

            Perry publicly thanked Andrew Miller for his time helping the Harbormaster Department. Miller took a job opportunity out of the area.

            The Marion Marine Resources Commission set its next meeting for Monday, January 23, at 7:00 pm, at the Music Hall.

Marion Marine Resources Commission

By Mick Colageo