Mayor Ruthanne Fuller presented at Newton’s City Council meeting on Monday, providing her and Jonathan Yeo’s Capital Improvement Plan for the next five years.
Fuller took the stage to review the capital infrastructure projects her administration has accomplished over the last seven years.
“Since January 2018, when I became mayor, our team … [has] invested more than $423 million in just the building and grounds projects throughout Newton,” Fuller said. “Josh Morse, who knows our buildings inside and out and the dates they were constructed, doesn’t think it’s purely speculative to suggest that we have invested and are investing more in infrastructure than any other seven-year period in the history of Newton.”
Completed projects include, but are not limited to, the two new and completed Gath Pool and the splash pad. Currently in the works are four school projects at Lincoln-Eliot, Horace Mann, Countryside and Franklin Elementary Schools, as well as the Cooper Center for Active Living.
“In addition to operating investments of $9.5 million annually in our roads and sidewalks, we directed an additional $17 million of American Rescue Plan Act funds to improve roads, calm traffic, repair sidewalks, and make bicycling safer,” Fuller said.
According to Fuller, these investments mark the final stages of their American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) investments.
“We directed close to $40 million of these funds into permanent improvements in our infrastructure,” said Fuller.
Much of the investment money went toward Newton schools, as well toward the improvement of the safety and accessibility of roads and sidewalks across the city, said Fuller.
Continuing, Fuller explained her plans for upcoming five years including a bridge on Christina Street, a community garden, improvement to the Oak Hill Park Memorial Playground, and a new fire ladder.
“Importantly, 30 percent of the projected capital spending in the CIP (Capital Improvement Plan) over the next five years is actually to improve water, sewer, and stormwater systems,” Fuller said.
According to Fuller, this capital spending will allow the city to finish water meter replacements, upgrade sewer pump stations, and tend to a critical covered water storage facility.
Yeo, Newton’s Chief Operating Officer, presented the breakdown of five new ARPA projects for the city.
These projects, which include the Cooper Center for Active Living, Countryside and Franklin Elementary School’s new schools, and the renovations for the Lincoln-Eliot and Horace Mann Elementary Schools, are all set to be completed within the next several years according to Yeo.
“[These are] the five biggest projects in the works right now, around $264 million in the next five years,” Yeo said.
The funding for these projects comes from city funding, state grants, Community Preservation Act funding, and other funding sources including ARPA and free cash, according to Yeo.
Fuller reminded residents of how these projects will likely require override funding, however, in order to maintain annual debt service payments.
“Debt exclusion overrides may also be needed in the future, especially for these larger projects,” said Fuller.
She urged Newtonians to remember how they’ve stepped up to override funding of projects in the past, which includes the building of several Newton elementary schools and the Fire Headquarters.
“Infrastructure is the skeleton upon which all our work is done,” said Fuller. “Reinvesting in technology lets us do our homework or city and school work more effectively and efficiently.”
Following Fuller’s address, the city council also discussed the revised Community Preservation Committee recommendation to appropriate $2 million in funding to the First Baptist Church in Newton for the restoration of its bell tower.
The amendments added to the revised document include a provision requiring any purchaser of the church within the next 30 years to allow the community to continue using the space, otherwise to pay part of that $2 million back.
According to Ward 3 Councilor Julia Malakie, she is comfortable with how the change addresses future use for the space.
“They have addressed the issue of continuing community use in the building if perhaps the building were to be sold,” Malakie said.
Ward 5 Councilor Bill Humphrey raised the question of separation of church and state and whether funding church reconstruction crosses said line.
“This is our third request for community preservation aid to a religious institution and it will be my third vote no,” said Humphrey
Humphrey explained that despite legal arguments or Supreme Court rulings, he feels the issue regarding the First Baptist Church restoration is a matter of principle.
“I’m intensely committed to public secularism, and I think that we’ve crossed that line, whether or not the lawyers have come up with arguments to say that we haven’t,” Humphrey said.
Regardless, the item—which needed 13 favored votes to pass—passed with 21 votes in favor, two opposed, and one abstention.
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