Back to Capital Outlay Committee Minutes
March 25, 2010, Meeting Minutes
Attending: Ray Eisenbies, Chairman, and Ron Kirven. Jonathan Asher and Andy Mooradian (both representing the Advisory Committee).
The meeting was called to order by Ray Eisenbies at 7:55 PM at the 3rd floor East Meeting Room of the Town Hall.
Recreation Department/SSCC Request
The purpose of the meeting was to consider a request by Mark Thorell, of the Recreation Department and Jay McGrail, of the South Shore Country Club, to purchase a lawn mower to care for the new Carlson Field near the DPW Complex.
Carlson Field is new and currently there is no program in place for care and maintenance of the field. The above gentlemen are proposing that the Country Club maintenance department maintain the field and bill the Recreation Department an annual maintenance fee. The fee is expected to be slightly less than $20K per year and would include such items as fertilizing, liming and irrigation. The Recreation Department will pay the fee by managing the fields and collecting user fees. In order to implement the above plan the South Shore Country Club would have to purchase a new mower. There are two mower options for consideration. One is a 60-inch mower costing approximately $30K and the other is a 120-inch mower costing approximately $50K. The mower expected life is approximately 10 years, at which time another capital request would be made to purchase a replacement mower.
It was stated that the DPW Building Committee has agreed to provide $8,000 towards the purchase of the mower. The COC recommended unanimously for the town to provide the remaining funds to purchase one of the two mowers with the preferred purchase being the purchase of the $50K mower. The constraint on the recommendation is that the funding cannot be from the tax levy.
The reasoning for the recommendation to purchase of one of the two mowers is that this plan is considerably cheaper to implement than a plan where the maintenance is performed either by the DPW or a subcontractor. The annual maintenance costs would be about 50% of the estimated costs charged by the DPW or subcontractors. The estimated payback time for the mowers would be 1.5 years for the $30k mower and 2.5 years for the $50K mower.
The reasoning for recommending the $50K mover vs. the $30K mover is that it is more cost-effective. The mow time of the $50K mower is one-half of the $30K mower. Even though the mower is being purchased to mow the Carlson Field, it will also be used for mowing at the Country Club.
The COC also unanimously voted to approve the revised 25 February 2010 Draft five-year Capital Plan provided by Ted Alexiades with revisions to the footnote regarding the 2012 funding for improvements to the Middle School.
The COC also voted to approve the meeting minutes of the 2/25/2010 meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:47 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Ron Kirven, Acting Secretary