Westborough AFC recommends defeat of $799,675 community center pool repair article

The Advisory Finance Committee (AFC) on Oct. 6 voted to recommend town meeting defeat Article 7, a $799,675 request to repair the Town of Westborough community center pool and install a pool‑specific HVAC unit.

Assistant Town Manager Kim Foster told the committee the project was rebid on Oct. 2 and produced one responsive bidder, Weston & Sampson, with a pool‑repair bid of $529,000. Foster said the article also includes a $220,000 pool‑pack HVAC unit and $11,000 in sprinkler work, plus a 7.5% contingency, which the presentation rounded to roughly $799,000; the motion presented to the committee specified $799,675.

Foster described an operating model in which a contracted vendor would pay monthly fees for exclusive hours to run swim lessons and lifeguard training and would provide a certified pool operator (CPO) and lifeguards; the recreation department would use remaining hours for open swim, senior programming and other revenue‑generating classes. Foster said prior community engagement attracted more than 1,500 survey respondents who identified a pool among desired amenities.

Town Manager Christy Williams said the architect’s earlier estimate for initial repair work (not including the pool HVAC unit) had been "just over $400,000," and staff moved the pool HVAC unit into this article later, accounting for about $220,000 of the total. Williams also explained that free cash (or overlay surplus that converts to free cash) was the intended funding source but that state certification of free cash can occur very close to town meeting.

Committee members raised three recurring concerns: that only one responsive municipal bidder was available for the project, that the vendor‑partnership model leaves long‑term capital exposure with taxpayers, and that the AFC did not yet have conservative multi‑year maintenance and major‑repair cost projections. A member asked whether the $529,000 bid included the cost to fill the pool with water; staff said filling was not included and would require a separate one‑time cost likely to be a few thousand dollars.

A procedural motion that the AFC recommend town meeting vote in favor of the article (moved by a committee member acting for Gene McMahon; seconded by Lundberg) failed on a committee vote (committee recorded result: 2 yes, 6 no). The AFC then voted to recommend defeat of the article; the committee recorded that recommendation as passing 6–2 in favor of defeat.

The AFC recommendation is advisory; the final decision on Article 7 rests with town meeting. Committee members said they will provide a statement of reasons in the R&R (recommendation and reasons) packet and that remaining articles will be considered at the AFC’s next meeting before town meeting.