Sticker shock ensued.
Coming in at $16.1 million the plan is significantly more expensive than many expected, particularly for a Town Hall facility the Town won't even own and for a plan that doesn't even include rehabbing the old gym on the property which was the most intriguing part of considering the site.
Importantly, since the Town won't own the facilities getting funding outside of General Obligation bonds may be all but impossible. Finance Director Piet Swart didn't use the word impossible, but he did indicate finding a "dance partner" for a private loan would be very difficult and that it would likely be a shorter term loan making the payments higher.
So, if the Town wants to pursue a plan with public input and support, it needs a bond package that can actually pass voter scrutiny. To achieve that, the price tag has to come down...way down. In the opinion of aShortChronicle that would mean something no more than $10 million total.
How could that be done? Well it is going to require discipline, creativity, and putting a hold on instant gratification. It can be done, but requires hard choices.
Here is one possible approach based on the 20 year plan numbers from the presentation last Tuesday.
First of all start with the assumption of a plan that could pass voter muster with the goal being no more than $10 million of bond debt. That however doesn't necessarily mean only $10 million in total spending.
Second, split the bond into two separate votes. The first bond is for public safety facilities, the second is for a new Town Hall. The needed public safety facilities should not be lumped with the Town Hall and then used as leverage with voters to pass the bonds. One sure fire way to generate opposition to a bond package is to inappropriately use public safety needs this way.
Third, pay $2 million of the $3.87 million cost of the Public Safety facilities out of the Town's unassigned fund balance. The town has at least this much above a the target of 35% of annual general fund expenses. That means this bond would be at most $1.87 million leaving $8.13 million under a self imposed $10 million bond cap.
Fourth, take a hard look at the $3.65 million in "soft costs" that are a part of this estimate. Soft costs cover things like furniture, decorations, plants, etc as well as contingency for cost overruns. Instead of the 30% "standard" used by the construction engineer, cap these at $1 million out of the bonds. The construction engineering firm claimed a very strong track record avoiding cost overruns at the presentation on Tuesday. If that checks out, then don't put these in the bond package. Instead, plan on taking these out of fund balance if needed. This will require discipline on the part of the Town to not spend fund balance on other things until this project is completed. However, the whole point of fund balance is to cover unexpected events, so counting on it for unexpected cost overruns seems appropriate.
Steps 1-4 are the easy ones that can get the total down to $13,447,912. From here it gets harder.
Fifth, find 10% savings in the construction costs across the two projects for total of $1,182,691. This may require leaving some things for later, but cutting 10% should be feasible. This brings the public safety bond down to just at $1.5 million by lopping off $387k from that project and reduces the Town Hall side by $796k.
Sixth, get CMS who will be using roughly 10% of the space in the Town Hall project to cover 10% of costs after the 10% cost shaving exercise. CMS will still own the building, so they should be willing to pony up something. That would cut another $716,122
Applying all this math gets it down to these totals for bond votes.
Public Safety Facilities - $1.5 million
Town Hall Facilities - $8.05 million
Total Bonds - $9.55 million.
Fund Balance Allocated - $2 million
Total Cost to Town - $11.55 million
The above shows how the Board could get there for a Bond package that has a chance of passing. However, under no circumstances should showing how this could be structured be equated with support. This still has to be paid for somehow, and the Town has shown little in the way of fiscal restraint to get there without significant tax increases.
Examples of where the money can be found will have to wait for another time.
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