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Hubbardston officials discuss financing options, vehicle choices and timing for public safety facility and equipment
Summary
At a Jan. 21 select board meeting held as a committee of the whole, town officials, department leaders and a financial advisor reviewed financing scenarios, equipment timing and sequencing for an estimated $8 million public safety project and related vehicle purchases.
Town officials, public-safety leaders and the town’s financial adviser spent the bulk of a Jan. 21 meeting hashing out how to time and pay for a planned public safety facility at 48 Gardner Road and a series of public works and fire department equipment purchases.
The discussion, convened as a committee of the whole, focused on priorities, phasing and how to minimize immediate tax impacts on homeowners while meeting operational needs. David Eisenthal, vice president of Unibank Fiscal Advisory Services (UFASI), presented options including long-term general obligation borrowing, lease financing for equipment, staged note issues and a potential U.S. Department of Agriculture rural development loan for the facility.
Why it matters: The town is weighing about $8 million in potential capital needs for public safety, plus additional equipment items such as a replacement fire apparatus, a dump truck and a brush mower. Officials said choices about financing and the useful life assigned to equipment will affect whether borrowing becomes a debt-exclusion question that voters…
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