The town is likely to ask voters to temporarily raise property taxes to fund 10 projects and initiatives totaling more than $64 million at the 2022 Town Meeting.
The list of projects and their cost are “sobering” Town Manager Libby Gibson told the Select Board last week. The projects include the school’s $16 million campus-wide improvement plan, along with a series of housing initiatives and real estate acquisitions.
“I think it’s fair to say most of them that are listed here, if not all of them, are likely to be recommended by the Capital Program Committee and they also most likely will all require debt exclusions (overrides) because we don’t have available funds for everything that is put forward and likely to be recommended,” Gibson said. “It’s a bit sobering to see them all together in a list.”
If they are all approved, the average tax bill for property owners without the residential exemption would increase by as much as $200, although that would be a “worst case scenario” Gibson said, as they likely wouldn’t happen at the same time.
The projects include:
- Our Island Home design: $8.5M
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Harbormaster building (supplemental funding): $2M
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Pleasant St. repaving & sidewalk repairs: $2M
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LORAN barracks repairs: $4.5M
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School campus-wide master plan projects: $16.4M
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Central municipal facility design: $6M
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Seasonal employee housing construction: $8.5M
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PFAS soil investigation: $2M
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10-12 Washington St. (NRTA hub) acquisition: $4.75M
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Housing real estate acquisition/affordable housing projects: $10M