By Betsy Levinson and Dakota Antelman — Dakota@concordbridge.org
Concord would spend nearly $400 million on capital projects — including almost $90 million for a new public works campus and police/fire complex — over the next decade per a department head wishlist unveiled last week.
Separately, projections reviewed at the joint meeting of the Select Board, School Committee, and Finance Committee included $18 million in capital requests over 10 years from Concord Public Schools.
Finance director Anthony Ansaldi said the town figures were “unvetted,” but the three government boards would iron out details before future Town Meetings consider any spending requests.
The 10-year figures on the town side start around $17.8 million, balloon to about $101.4 million in fiscal 2028, and settle back to around $10.6 million in fiscal 2035.
The fiscal 2028 figure includes $35 million related to a new public safety building, Ansaldi said. That same year, the plan proposes $54 million tied to a public works campus.
Concord would spend $3.5 million in design costs for the police/fire building in the 2027 fiscal year. Design for the public works campus would cost $5.4 million.
Fiscal 2028 is when the Alcott and Thoreau schools’ building loans will be paid off, he said. Until then, Select Board member Terri Ackerman said, there is “no room” to consider major projects like a new public works campus.
Ansaldi said the town must first find land to build a replacement for what Concord Public Works director Alan Cathcart has called a facility in “failure mode.”
Rainy day forecasting
Ansaldi called for creating a capital stabilization fund to “smooth out” the long-term borrowing process. “A lot of capital requests come in,” he said. “We need to plan now for a rainy day.”
He said interest rates on loans are currently favorable but will inevitably go down and that the town will want to protect its AAA bond rating.
FinCom member Peggy Briggs called for greater efficiency as town departments build budgets and approach the state-set 2.5 percent cap on spending increases. The FinCom plans to present the formal fiscal 2026 capital budget on December 16.
Back to bathrooms?
School finance director Bob Conry presented a fiscal 2026 capital plan totaling about $1.5 million for the Concord Public Schools. The list of big-ticket items includes just over $216,000 in roofing work at the Thoreau school.
At Concord-Carlisle High School, upcoming projects include a proposed amenities building for the stadium. There are a range of proposals, from a bare-bones restroom facility to one with a concession stand.
The School Committee previously proposed spending approximately $2.3 million to replace the portable toilets at Memorial Field with a permanent structure.
The committee later agreed to go back to the drawing board in the face of objections to the price tag.
