Select Board reviews new CIP dashboard to smooth capital spending

Finance presenter walked the board through a new capital-improvement-plan dashboard that aggregates departments' capital intentions, models inflation and interest earnings, and compares predicted town contributions to projected capital spending. ‘‘We collected every department their capital intentions,’’ the finance presenter said, explaining assumptions including a 4.5% place rate and a 5% town-valuation growth estimate used to model future reserve balances.

Board members asked about the valuation-growth assumption and noted that rebound years can materially change projections. The presenter clarified the model excludes an earlier fire-engine discussion and stressed the CIP is information-only for now; the board will decide during warrant-setting which items to move into capital-reserve warrant articles.