The Legislative Council at its February 4 meeting approved six projects from the Capital Improvement Plan to face voters at referendum on April 28.

The projects are artificial turf and lighting at Treadwell Park, $1,125,000; parking lots at C.H. Booth Library, $1 million; salt storage improvements for the Department of Public Works, $600,000; parking lot abatement at Newtown High School, $500,000; curbing at Head O’Meadow, $280,000; and open space preservation, $200,000.

This was added to two projects that have to go to referendum since they are over $1.5 million: an HVAC project on the F, C, and D wings at Newtown High School, $2,317,210; and money for the Capital Road Program, $3.2 million.

The high school HVAC project will include the F-wing chiller and the C-wing & D-wing winter rooftop unit (RTU) replacement. The school has applied for grant reimbursement for part of the project.

All projects will be bonded and are not part of this year’s budget, which will also be approved on April 28. The voters rejecting any of the projects will have no effect on the 2026-2027 town and school budgets. Bond payments for the projects will start in the 2027-28 budget.

Councilman Keith Alexander put forth some initial projects that he recommended, and said the concern was putting forth too many projects to referendum increases the chance overwhelmed voters will begin rejecting them.

“We want to give them [voters] a choice on things they would want to have a choice on, but not burden them with things that are not terribly important.”

Councilman Ben Ruben suggested an amendment to swap out the parking lot and add the air handler for the high school pool for $500,000, but it was not approved. Councilman Chris Eide suggested an amendment to make the dividing walls at the community center for $150,000 part of the referendum questions, but that was also rejected by the council at large as a “safety issue.”

One amendment that did make it through was the open space preservation item; Councilman Arnie Berman suggested it as an “interesting litmus test” to determine voter support for the item, which has been in the Capital Improvement Plan for the past several years as a recurring item. Councilman Chris Gardner voted “no” on the amendment as he didn’t want to risk losing $200,000 for “needed open space,” but seven councilmen ultimately supported the amendment: Berman, Alexander, Eide, Michelle Embree Ku, Steven Stolfi, and Eric Paradis.

Sending the projects to referendum removes them from needing to be special appropriations; only items that are left and not sent to referendum need to come from the special appropriations line item. The goal among council members was to leave approximately $1 million in that line item in case of an emergency need for funds; after the items were approved, $1,034,491 was left in the special appropriations line item.

The projects were approved to go to referendum unanimously.

Editor Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com.