Milton capital improvement plan aims to improve long-range planning

When Milton Town Council votes to approve the Fiscal Year 2026 budget, it will also put into action a new, data-based five-year capital improvement plan.

The plan was developed by Town Manager Kristy Rogers along with town department heads and financial consultant PFM Group Consulting. The idea is to create a short-term schedule of public improvement projects and plan to fund them. Rogers said the plan will be reviewed annually during the budget process to have a continuing five-year outlook.

For FY26, the town is planning to fund a $286,000 water main replacement at Hemlock and Boxwood streets, $74,000 each for two new vehicles, $16,000 for a new trailer for the water department and $9,000 for a new salt spreader. Additional smaller expenditures are planned for computer equipment and equipment for the police and parks departments.

Rogers said the plan was developed by soliciting input from department heads, who submitted a list of capital needs, along with the timeframe for when the project is needed. Capital assets are defined as assets with an initial cost of $5,000 or more and an estimated useful life of one year or more. 

The plan includes a formal process for determining priority, with the criteria including whether the project addresses an unsafe condition or noncompliance issue, the age of the item to be replaced, significance to town residents and the department, where funding will come from and the cost savings that would be realized by the project. Each proposed project is given a prioritization score up to 10, with 10 being the highest priority. 

For example, one of the projects scheduled for FY29 is new playground equipment in Memorial Park. That project received a score of 6, with safety and community impact being the main reasons for taking on the project, but the score gets knocked down since the current equipment is in good condition and the project is currently not slated to receive outside funding.

The new five-year plan covers FY26 through FY30 and includes 52 projects totaling a cost of $11.8 million over those years. For FY26, the town is planning to spend $498,000 on capital improvements. The largest planned spending is scheduled for FY28 – $5.4 million – which would include water main replacement projects on Route 16, Union Street, Federal Street and Yew Street along with planned construction of a new municipal building to house the police department and administrative functions. 

Town council is set to vote on the plan and the FY26 budget at its regular meeting, 6:30 p.m., Monday, Sept. 8, at Milton library.