Pound this - as an FYI:

According to the general by-laws of Templeton/ capital planning/improvement:

Article XLII - Capital Planning By-Law:

Section 2: Committe duties:
To facilitate the reasonable acquisition and replacement of capital items (defined as assets and projects with a useful life of five years and a cost of MORE than $10,000.00.)

So, if say the board of selectmen vote to allow highway to spend up to $10,000.00 for say a snow plow, does that need to go before capital planning? Now, if the amount spent on a snow plow ends up at say $8,500.00, was this by-law violated? I think not!

Interesting to read further on;

It is the intent of this by-law that all capital improvements requested by a town department or board should be considered in the committee's report before presentation to the Town for appropriation. That would be Town Meeting, so what if a purchase does not go before Town Meeting? Does that item still need to go before capital planning? Since the language is should rather than must or shall, it indicates that it is not a must requirement, more like a recommendation, in my opinion.



posted by Jeff bennett