Ayer Select Board Receives Update on FY2027 Capital Plan

(March 3, 2026) – The Select Board received an update on the town’s FY2027 Capital Plan at Tuesday’s meeting.

The Capital Planning Committee has met over the past few months to review requests and approve the final plan. We do not have a list of recommendations to share. Rather, the town management presented the Select Board with highlights and noted the committee did not approve a $1.2 million request to replace the Sandy Pond Beach House, as the project wasn’t ready. This had been the only potential debt exclusion going to Town Meeting.

We want to share three points from this presentation. You can also watch the Select Board meeting video, starting at about 1:17 min.

General Fund. During a year of budget caution, the Capital Planning Committee set out to limit General Fund capital spending to $1 million. This goal was met, as the FY2027 Capital Plan draws $646,161 from the General Fund.

Enterprise Budgets. Second, the committee worked to develop a capital plan that minimized rate increases out of the town’s five enterprise funds: ambulance, water, sewer, solid waste and stormwater.

Overall, Capital Spending Down 54 Percent. The FY2027 Capital Plan total came in at a 54 percent reduction over FY2026. The proposal is to spend $3.469 million in FY2027 compared to $7.55 million in FY2026.

Here are a few meetings where the Capital Plan or aspects of the plan may come up again:

Here is a link to the town’s FY2027 budget page.