ROCHESTER — The Capital Planning Committee requested that an article be added on the Town Meeting Warrant to fund the Capital Improvement Fund, which make the fund useful by the fall Town Meeting. The Committee also requested another warrant article that would allocate $98,703 to fund four projects for the Fire Department, the Highway Department, Rochester Memorial School and Plumb Library. 

Chairman David Arancio and Capital Planning Committee member Barry Patraiko appeared before the March 4 Board of Selectmen meeting to present their work. 

The committee’s job was to review and provide recommendations for capital purchases based on requests from various town departments.

Department heads had a Nov. 1 deadline for their requests, and had to prioritize requests if they had multiple wishes.

The Capital Planning Committee, which was founded in 1998 but has not been used until now, then met to review the requests, study the documentation carefully and ask about alternative uses for equipment.

The projects that the Committee decided were most important included an approximately $28,000 upgrade to Fire and Emergency Medical Services equipment, a generator for the Highway Department that will cost about $35,000, a $30,773 sum that will buy Go Math Curriculum for Rochester Memorial School, and $4,280 to replace public computers at the library.

The Highway Department had the most requests, with seven different asks, however the Capital Planning Committee noted its importance for town safety operations.

The Go Math Curriculum sum will cover the cost for 3 years, saving the school from paying an extra $17,217 due to higher annual costs.  

The only question was from Bradford Morse, who simply wanted clarification on how the school budget payment system would work.

Besides that one clarification he was also in total support of the program. 

“Think it’s great, awesome. I’ve been doing this for a long time and it’s great that we have this,” Morse said.

Arancio hopes the committee will become more integrated into the town in time. 

“We hope that other departments see this as a vehicle that they can advocate to. And also see this as someone who can advocate for them impartially,” said Arancio.