Communities face votes on tax hikes as others demur

Voters in Wayland will weigh in next month on a $70.8 million renovation and expansion for the town’s 50-year-old high school, and next week, Westborough officials will ask Town Meeting to approve a $30 million public safety complex.

Brookline’s Town Meeting is to vote next month on whether to spend $29.1 million for renovations and additions to John D. Runkle Elementary School, but officials have said they intend to fund the project without seeking a tax increase.

“I think, like a lot of communities, we’re concerned about the economy,’’ said Fred Turkington Jr., Wayland’s town administrator, “but for the past four to five years we’ve been focused on a whole financial plan for this capital expense.’’

In Carlisle, officials are preparing plans for a major school renovation effort to be presented to voters by next spring.

Still, many communities are seeing smaller capital requests, or none at all, this fall, with some officials pointing to faltering local and state revenues as a factor in delaying larger capital proposals.

In Ashland, discussions of a joint public safety complex have stalled, while in Milford smaller capital projects dominate the Town Meeting slate, as an official acknowledges that larger projects that would raise local property taxes will not be considered.

“If it can’t be funded through the town’s budget or some alternate funding source, it’s not going to happen,’’ said Selectman Brian Murray, chairman of Milford’s board.

The Massachusetts School Building Authority agreed last month to pay up to $25 million toward the project, Turkington said. If taxpayers agree to cover the balance, he said, the revamped high school would be scheduled to open in 2012 or 2013.

Although the timing is not ideal, given the economy, Wayland should move quickly to take advantage of the available state funding, Turkington said. Thanks to the immense amount of planning that has gone into this project, he said, “we’re positioned as well as anyone’’ to absorb the cost.

If Town Meeting in Westborough approves the proposed public safety complex on Monday, the town would place a debt-exclusion request on the local ballot Jan. 19, as part of the statewide special election for the US Senate.

But the economy looms over this project, Selectwoman Leigh Emery said; the chairwoman of Westborough’s board said she believes it has only a 50 percent chance of passing at Town Meeting.

“It’s been an uphill battle since the beginning,’’ Emery said. “It’s been a very bad year for the past three years, and the economy hasn’t turned around too much, although it’s starting to look a bit better.’’

Westborough has separate facilities for its police and fire operations, and both are in rough shape, officials said.

The Fire Department building, on Milk Street, is small and in poor condition, with a deteriorating exterior wall, loose bricks, and a concrete floor that was poured in the 1940s, Emery said.

“Today’s apparatus weighs much more than the apparatus in the 1940s,’’ Emery said. “We have some vehicles we have to leave outside because we can’t house them in the existing building.’’

“We’ve basically maxed out every inch we can use here,’’ Gordon said.

The town bought the property next to the fire station, at Milk and Phillips streets, for a 55,000-square-foot combined facility. If the property-tax increase to pay for it is approved by Town Meeting and voters townwide, the old fire station would be knocked down and the space turned into the parking lot for the new facility, which could open in two years, Gordon said.

Many people have told him they support the project, he said, “but we realize how bad the conditions are here.’’

However, “it’s probably never going to be the perfect time to go for it, but this is probably the best time if we’re trying to save some money,’’ Gordon said. “Contractors are looking for work, so prices might be lower, and we might be able to make savings for the town.’’

In some towns, officials have been wary to request higher taxes to pay off capital items.

Ashland’s Board of Selectmen commissioned a report on the space needs for its police and fire operations, and potential locations for a combined facility, but discussions have not moved forward since last summer, said chairman Paul Monaco, and there are few capital items on the Nov. 16 Town Meeting warrant.

Because of the economy, the public safety complex “has been put a little bit on the back burner,’’ Monaco said. “The board still feels passionate about the need, but with the economy, we’re somewhat concerned about coming forward with that.’’

In general, Ashland officials try to pay for smaller capital items without a tax increase, Monaco said. The one major capital item the board has been considering - replacing the David Mindess Elementary School’s roof - is not far enough along to bring before next month’s Town Meeting, but might be ready in the spring, he said.

“There’s nothing dramatic - no new school or fire station - but I do think we have some fairly significant capital projects we’re looking at,’’ he said. “They’re minor in funding, but certainly not minor in importance.’’

Among those requests are $200,000 for an emergency generator at Milford High School, which serves as the town’s emergency shelter; $220,000 for initial engineering and design plans for the Godfrey, O’Brien, and Hospital brooks project; and $2,500 to install a chain-link fence along Godfrey Brook, which has seen portions of its granite walls crumble close to people’s properties.

“We have done a segmented repair approach, but the more desirable thing is to repair the whole brook line,’’ Murray said. The town has a pending application with the state for $4 million worth of work.

The town will also ask for funding for lighting at the Fino Field baseball and football complex to supplement the $120,000 officials have already socked away for the project. “We hope we can get it and get this thing off the books,’’ Murray said.

Other towns, such as Carlisle, said they are not feeling the same economic strain. Although Carlisle’s fall Town Meeting on Oct. 5 did not consider any large capital items, officials plan to bring forward a major renovation of the town’s kindergarten-Grade 8 school complex next spring or sooner.

The Massachusetts School Building Authority has said it will pay for 40 percent of the approximately $20 million project, said Selectman Tim Hult. The town’s contribution will require the approval of a property-tax increase by residents, but Hult, the board’s chairman, said he doesn’t foresee the challenges some other communities are facing.

“We’ve actually gotten very good responses from our town,’’ Hult said. “We have a pretty good amount of trust from the townspeople. We vet things pretty carefully and have been managing very carefully.’’