HVAC replacement, vehicles among expenditures
By Scott Bellile
The New London Capital Equipment and Projects Committee selected the majority of this year’s four- to six-figure expenditures.
New London will have a $455,000 budget to spend on equipment, projects and maintenance in 2019.
The committee on Jan. 24 recommended eight items to the New London City Council for approval as part of this year’s capital equipment and projects schedule.
The city council is scheduled to approve these items at a special meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 20:
• HVAC replacement at New London Police Department ($87,500): Parts within the 1991 HVAC system are reaching the end of their life spans. NLPD experienced an air conditioning malfunction last summer.
• Facility conditions assessment ($13,600): Dude Solutions, a North Carolina-based computer software company, would assess the city’s facilities and create a preventative maintenance schedule. City departments could then use software to efficiently organize work orders and maintenance schedules and document repairs.
• Bucket truck ($8,000): The city would buy this aerial truck from New London Utilities so public works crews could complete projects such as tree trimmings without enlisting utility workers.
• Ejector pit in restrooms ($7,000): An ejector pit and grinder pump would be installed to move waste because a sanitary sewer pipe keeps plugging in the staff restrooms at New London Public Library and Museum.
• Janitorial motorized floor cleaner ($5,100): Cleaning the locker rooms and showers at the New London Aquatic and Fitness Center is “a very labor-intensive” process, New London Public Services Director Chad Hoerth told the New London Board of Public Works last month. This floor cleaner would speed up the job.
• Roof assessments ($5,050): The aging roofs at the city hall, library, museum, aquatic and fitness center, police department and senior center would be assessed to determine the cost to replace them.
• Update radio controls and weather stripping on New London Fire Department garage doors ($5,000): The garage door controls at NLFD are experiencing problems, and the weather stripping at the bottom of the doors is wearing out.
In addition to these items, the committee on Nov. 15, 2018 previously recommended allocating funds for several other capital projects and purchases:
• Asphalt patching for streets and sidewalks ($50,000).
• New vehicles at New London Police Department ($77,430).
• Self-contained breathing apparatuses for New London Fire Department ($116,000): The city will buy the fire department’s breathing apparatuses using the $116,000 as well as an additional $112,500 that was set aside last year for the purchase. The breathing equipment firefighters use now is more than 15 years old and no longer meets national standards.
Future needs
Next, New London Finance Director Judy Radke will re-examine the city’s 2018 capital budget, check for any unspent dollars, and present final suggestions for 2019 projects or equipment purchases. The committee will consider those expenses on March 12.
Using whatever funds are still available, priorities identified by city department heads include:
• Front-end loader ($185,000): Money would be put toward replacing one of the city’s front-end loaders in a future year. The current front-end loader from 2003 has around 10,000 hours of use, and Hoerth said he does not want it to break during snow removal or a construction job.
• Extrication tools ($125,000): NLFD’s rescue equipment, used to free accident victims trapped inside vehicles or machinery, is 27 years old.
• Pickup truck ($25,000): This would replace a 17-year-old truck in the Parks and Recreation Department.
• Municipal codification service ($11,560): A company called General Code would search the city’s municipal code for outdated, redundant, inconsistent and unnecessary ordinances and suggest ways to modernize New London’s legislation. “It goes through our municipal code [to] make sure that we’re up to date [and] there isn’t any repeats,” City Administrator Kent Hager said. “I know we’ve been stumbling across mistakes.”
Radke also removed two $3,000 items for NLPD from the capital equipment list: body cameras replacements weather siren maintenance. Unused dollars from the city’s maintenance account might be able to fund those items at the end of this year, she said.
Omitted items
Several items that were originally proposed for the 2019 capital budget have not yet made the cut.
The committee still has not approved funding for repairing Hatten Park’s tennis courts ($143,500) or initiating repairs to the deteriorating stone wall around the park ($70,320).
Scott Bellile file photo
The $143,500 to repair and replace the asphalt tennis court surface is half of the estimated $287,000 cost. City officials are hoping the School District of New London will agree to pay for the other half because the high school tennis team uses the courts.
Another item that was not approved yet is an accessibility compliance and transition plan.
This plan would outline how the city would improve its services and facilities for people with disabilities.
According to Hoerth, examples of improvements could include providing Braille transcripts of city council agendas, closed captioning for cable access programming and accessible routes to park restrooms.
“It’s very important that we complete this plan in the near future,” Hoerth stated in a memo to the committee.