Acton Select Board presents Article 6 asking voters to authorize borrowing for multiple capital projects

Dean Charter, vice chair of the Acton Select Board, presented Article 6, “Authorized Borrowing for Town Capital Projects,” at the Town of Acton meeting and said the article requires a two-thirds vote to approve borrowing for several capital projects.

The article seeks specific borrowing for individual projects: a $3.75 million replacement of the Town Hall heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system; $1.9 million for a Complete Streets program; $1.5 million to replace a 2005 fire truck; $750,000 to continue a public-safety radio replacement program; and $1.5 million for an equalization tank at the Adams Street wastewater treatment plant. Charter said the presentation included an additional item for continuing stormwater management work on culverts and bridges but he did not specify a dollar amount for that item.

Charter said the Town Hall project would replace piping and 48 fan-coil units throughout the building and would also replace the emergency generator. He told the meeting the Select Board has determined to “electrify the entire building” by installing air-source heat pumps to provide both heating and cooling rather than replacing the natural-gas boiler. Charter said the major costs are interior piping and the fan-coil unit replacements and that those costs would be similar regardless of whether the heat source remained a gas boiler or converted to heat pumps. He said the Town Hall borrowing would be paid back from the general fund and from funds accumulated in the town’s energy-efficiency fund.

On the Complete Streets item, Charter said engineering and public-works staff will use the funding to upgrade pedestrian access, intersections and bicycle lanes on a prioritized list of streets. He named Main Street, portions of Great Road, Parker Street, High Street and streets in South Acton as examples that have been discussed.

Charter described the fire-truck request as replacement of a 2005 pumper that is mechanically compromised and has more than 25,000 miles. He said the vehicle is costly to replace and noted a lead time of about two years between ordering and delivery; Charter said the new truck would enter reserve service after the existing units are cycled through.

The public-safety radio program, at $750,000, would continue a multi-year replacement of base station radios and mobile radios for police, fire and public-works fleets and move equipment from analog to digital, Charter said.

Charter said the equalization tank project is for the wastewater treatment plant on Adams Street, which he said handles about 10% of the town’s wastewater; he said the tank will allow the plant to better store and process influent and effluent at an appropriate rate. Charter said the equalization-tank borrowing would be repaid from the Sewer Enterprise Fund and that the project was being advanced because it had been mandated by DEP (Department of Environmental Protection).

Charter framed the stormwater item as a continuation of a previously discussed multi-year stormwater program to replace culverts and bridges and to address increasingly intense, short-duration downpours; he did not give a borrowing amount for the stormwater work during the presentation.

The presentation included project rationales (aging Town Hall systems and generator failure, stormwater infrastructure stressed by heavy rainfall, multi-year radio upgrades, and DEP requirements for wastewater treatment) and schedule considerations (the two-year lead time for a fire truck). No formal vote or motion on Article 6 is recorded in the transcript provided; Charter presented the scope, costs where specified, and the funding sources for certain items.

If approved by the required two-thirds voter threshold, the borrowing would allow the Town of Acton to pursue the listed capital upgrades; Charter did not provide a timeline for construction or bidding beyond the noted two-year procurement lead time for the fire apparatus.