Waterbury aldermen approve $5.5M state transfer; $5M bond authorized to expand 2026 paving program

Waterbury’s Board of Aldermen voted to appropriate an unexpected $5.5 million state municipal grant and earlier authorized a $5 million bond to expand the city’s 2026 milling and repaving program.

City finance officials told the board the state Legislature added $5.5 million to Waterbury’s Municipal Grant and Aid (MGIA) allocation for fiscal 2026, raising the city’s MGIA total to about $9.9 million. Sarah Gary, manager of budget development and oversight, said the board was being asked to approve using the additional $5.5 million for pavement work, which, combined with the $5 million bond in the capital plan, would create roughly $10.5 million for the upcoming paving season.

The proposal drew sharp questions from aldermen who said they had received the preliminary street list on short notice and wanted clearer, written selection criteria. “Before approving the transfer of the $5.5 million… the board of aldermen should have a clear and transparent understanding of how these funds will be used,” Alderman Sanchez said, noting the list on members’ desks was labeled “subject to change.” City Engineer Roy Kavanaaugh explained the city uses multiple factors — pavement-condition inspections, Q-alert requests from residents and DPW, coordination with utility projects such as Eversource gas main replacement, and proximity/clustering to reduce contractor mobilization costs — and estimated the preliminary list would cover about 12–13 lane miles subject to change when RFP pricing returns.

Kavanaaugh told aldermen the top practical constraint is avoiding roads that utilities plan to dig up in the near term. “I don’t want to be doing any road that’s going to be dug up in the next five years,” he said, pointing to ongoing Eversource gas-main replacement through 2029 as a major scheduling factor. He added the city must budget for ADA curb ramps at intersections when a road is fully rehabilitated, and that sidewalks and full replacements carry additional costs.

After further debate about timing and transparency, the full board approved the $5.5 million transfer by roll call (10–5). The vote follows an earlier bond authorization approval that the board passed as part of the capital plan; finance staff said the bonding and MGIA funding were intended to be combined so the city could widen the spring–summer paving campaign and attract more competitive contractor bids by advancing the timetable.

The board and city staff said they will publish program details and expect a construction contract to return to the board after the RFP and pricing process, at which point the final street list and contract award will be explicit. Finance Director Michael Leblanc and the engineering team said upfront payments and bill credits from other state-program partnerships and utility coordination will be tracked through the city’s capital process.

The board’s action means the city plans to pursue an expanded paving program this year but aldermen who pressed for written selection criteria said they will continue to seek neighborhood-level transparency and an opportunity for residents to provide input as final lists are developed.