Charles Town committee reviews stormwater emergency, parks mural costs and splash-pad procurement

Staff informed the Charles Town Finance Committee that an emergency stormwater repair on Samuel Street will require a budget adjustment, with preliminary engineering and repair costs discussed in the meeting and a likely pull from contingency or reserves.

"We need to make it a budget adjustment to allocate some funds to that project that came up unexpectedly," staff said, describing flooding that affected one or two houses on Samuel Street. Committee members discussed pulling the money from contingency and agreed to include the item in next week's budget work.

The committee also reviewed parks and recreation capital items: the downtown mural is essentially complete but a few invoices for paint supplies and incidentals remain. Members asked staff to provide an end-of-project accounting of total outlays, including benches and picnic tables that remain to be purchased.

On the splash pad and pool project, staff said the original contractor did not provide a viable bid; a new company returned a price roughly half the budgeted amount, and staff plan to reissue the bid package and push for an award with the hope of starting earthwork in late spring, pending bids and approvals.

No formal budget transfers were approved during the meeting; committee members asked staff to return with updated encumbrance and contingency tallies and with the receipts and invoices that detail final project costs.