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Select Board sees first pass of 10-year capital requests built in ClearGov; 95 requests total about $386 million
Summary
CFO and finance staff presented an initial, unvetted 10-year capital plan in ClearGov showing 95 town requests totaling about $386 million; staff emphasized these are department requests that must be vetted for funding sources, business case and prioritization before the board's Dec. 16 review.
The Select Board on Nov. 4 received its first look at a townwide 10-year capital requests dashboard compiled in ClearGov, the financial transparency platform the town is using to centralize capital and operating data.
CFO Anthony Ansaldi and Senior Financial Analyst Zach LaMurel said departments submitted 95 requests totaling approximately $386,000,000 for town-only capital needs; school requests will be added after finance meets with school officials. "This is the starting point of what everybody put," LaMurel said, and staff stressed the figures are unvetted requests rather than board-adopted plans.
The presentation broke the requests down by department and by proposed funding source: borrowing, capital outlay, Chapter 90 for roads and various enterprise funds. Staff highlighted that near-term asks for 2026 total roughly $32,000,000 while the town's policy-based general-fund capacity is much smaller — "a little over $3,000,000" for tier 1 and $4—$5 million for tier 2 borrowing, Ansaldi said.
Board members repeatedly urged that each request include a clearer business case: compliance or safety need, expected savings, consequence of not investing and prioritization criteria. Ansaldi said departments had been asked to provide vendor quotes and narrative justification and that finance would push back on requests that lack supporting documentation.
The town expects to present a tightened package at its Dec. 16 meeting and an initial general-fund-focused summary on Nov. 18. Finance staff said the ClearGov tool will eventually be published for public drill-down access to improve transparency.
