Committee reviews capital plan: sidewalks, paving and a $4 million MassWorks award for Surfside

The Capital Program Committee received a broad capital improvement update from town staff covering sidewalks, cobblestones, multiuse paths, paving and the Surfside roads project — including a recently awarded state grant.

Drew Patnode, presenting the capital program, said the FY25 sidewalk appropriation has roughly $322,000 remaining and FY26 carries about $1.2 million; his FY27 planning shows priorities for downtown sidewalks, curbing and restoration. He warned unit prices for brick sidewalks and curbing have risen about 30% in two years and that the annual sidewalk budget will not stretch as far as it once did.

Surfside project and grants: staff reported $6.4 million was reappropriated from annual roadworks accounts to the Surfside contract; the town applied for a $5,000,000 MassWorks Infrastructure grant and received $4,000,000. Staff said the contract includes a $1,800,000 contingency and projected $4–4.5 million of the reappropriated funds could be re‑available for annual roadworks after Surfside is completed (expected FY28/FY29), enabling restoration of recurring capital commitments.

Multiuse paths and paving: staff said Environmental Partners mapped 35 miles of bike paths and prepared a bid package for island‑wide maintenance; available funding for multiuse-path work was presented at about $1,170,000. For repaving, staff reported about $2.2 million available now and gave a working figure of roughly $1 million to mill and overlay a typical mile of roadway (18 feet wide) as a planning benchmark.

Why it matters: construction and material costs have increased and the town has many competing capital requests in the near term; grant awards and reappropiations affect what recurring capital accounts can afford in future years. Committee members emphasized sequencing work to maximize contractor availability and discussed bidding strategies to allow off‑island contractors to mobilize efficiently.

Direct quotes from the presentation included: "We reappropriated $6,400,000 from annual roadworks accounts towards the Surfside project... we applied for $5,000,000, which is the maximum award, and they gave us $4, but I'll take it," said Drew Patnode. He also summarized sidewalk unit‑cost inflation: "the per square yard cost of replacing brick sidewalks and the linear footage of curbing has gone up 30% over the last 2 years."

Next steps: staff plans to put multiuse-path maintenance out to bid in late spring, target sidewalk and curb work for spring scheduling to fit contractor availability, and return with updated spend/carryforward figures; committee set its next meeting date and adjourned.

(Transcript does not specify the calendar date of this committee meeting.)