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DPW lays out fleet, water and sewer capital requests, cites aging assets and multi‑year plan
Summary
Westborough Department of Public Works presented a multi‑year capital plan seeking replacement vehicles and funding for water valves, meter upgrades, pump station rehabs and stormwater culvert design; officials emphasized long lead times, lifecycle targets and potential cost savings from right‑sizing fleet purchases.
Chris Pan of the Department of Public Works outlined the department's capital priorities and urged the committee to sustain a planned program of vehicle replacements and infrastructure rehabilitation. He said the DPW has reduced the town fleet and is targeting life cycles longer than industry minimums to achieve reliability and operating savings.
Pan asked for funding to replace end‑of‑life vehicles in the sewer division with two 1‑ton pickup trucks that will improve access to pump stations and add plow capacity in winter. He also described plans to replace a 2001 loader with a smaller machine to moderate costs and to continue phased purchases of skid‑steers and other equipment.
On utilities, Pan requested about $75,000 to support valve replacements across the water system, ongoing funds to advance water main replacements and continued funding for updated water meters. He described an active program of pump‑station "mini‑rehabs" that extend service life and reduce emergency call‑outs, and he asked for funding to proceed with a multimillion‑dollar full rehabilitation of a single pump station that was previously designed.
Pan said the town has three steel water tanks that will need a long‑term approach to painting and repair; a consultant estimate cited in the presentation placed a full inside‑and‑outside repaint package for two tanks at roughly $3,000,000, which led staff to request phased assessment and design rather than immediate full painting.
Committee members pressed for operational details: whether sharing trucks with neighboring towns was feasible (Pan: some low‑dollar equipment is shared but trucks are generally not, due to system differences), how SCADA currently monitors flows (Pan: all pump stations are monitored, giving daily visibility) and expected useful life after rehabilitation (Pan: roughly 30 years for station rehabs). Pan also emphasized long lead times for specialized equipment, often at least 12 months.
"We've reduced our fleet by 13 vehicles," Pan said during the presentation, describing that reduction as part of a strategy to keep the fleet younger and more efficient.
The department requested the committee consider the submitted funding requests in the context of multi‑year execution, construction season constraints and regulatory guidance.
