Council Mulls Options for Communications Infrastructure

The Londonderry Town Council will mull several options for replacing the
town’s aging communications infrastructure, with an eye toward recommending
a funding mechanism in this Monday’s budget hearing.
In the Jan. 9 meeting the Council heard from Finance Director Doug Smith on
several ways to pay for the upgrade. They also heard from Londonderry Fire
Battalion Chief Mike McQuillen and Lt. Jeremy Mague, who are heading up the
project for Fire, Police and Public Works.
While the original estimate for the project came in at a white-knuckling
$4.2 million, McQuillen and Fire Chief Darren O’Brien said they had pared
the cost down to $3.3 million.
Town Manager Kevin Smith said that McQuillen recommended purchasing the $2.8
million worth of infrastructure this year and deferring the “subscribers,”
the personal and vehicle radio equipment, to a later date.
Doug Smith presented four options, two for working with the Motorola Corp.
and two for working with First Niagara, the town’s current communications
provider.
The options are as follows, with each including a $1 million appropriation
from the Unassigned Fund Balance:
Option 2A, Motorola. $1 million bond issue at 2.5 percent for 10 years,
plus $824,730 capital lease for five, seven or 10 years. Average annual tax
impact, bond, 0.03 cents; lease, five years, 0.046 cents; seven years, 0.034
cents; 10 years, 0.025 cents.
Option 2B, Motorola. $824,730 bond issue at 2.5 percent for 10 years, plus
$1 million capital lease for five, seven or 10 years. Average annual tax
impact, bond, 0.025 cents, lease, five years, 0.056 cents, seven years,
0.041 cents, 10 years, 0.031 cents.
Option 2A, First Niagara, $1 million bond issue at 2.5 percent for 10
eyars, $824,730 capital lease for five years. Average annual tax impact,
bond, 0.03 cents; lease, five years only, 0.045 cents.
Option 2B, First Niagara, $824,730 bond issue at 2.5 percent for 10 years,
$1 million, capital lease for five years. Average annual tax impact, bond,
0.025 cents, lease, five years only, 0.055 cents.
Councilor Tom Dolan asked if there should be two ballot questions, one for
using the UFB and for the lease option, the other for the bonding.
“That would make it less complicated for the voters,” Doug Smith said,
noting that if all the funding is combined in one article, it would need a
supermajority to pass. But two warrant articles would also open the
possibility of one failing, he warned.
“They are related projects and we need both of them to pass,” he said.
Dolan suggested running the prospect through the Department of Revenue
Administration and seeing if it was allowed, to which Doug Smith responded,
“We did that. DRA said, ‘It’s up to you.'”
Councilor Joe Green observed that First Niagara gave better rates, and Doug
Smith said, “They have let us know that they are amenable to anything on the
list. But their leases are a five-year maximum.”
Dolan warned that with all the things voters have to look at this year, the
tax rate would be an issue. “That,” he said, “is what the voters ‘choke’
at.”
Green said, “I don’t want to get too used to using the Unassigned Fund
Balance. But this type of project is exactly what it’s suited for.”
Councilor Tom Freda asked the fire personnel about the life expectancy of
the equipment, and Mague said, “This is more robust than the equipment used
by civilians. We will get 10-plus years out of it.”
“There has been a paradigm shit in radio technology,” Steve D’Esposo, a
Londonderry resident and Motorola staff member, said. The current
analog-based radios have been discontinued, and there will be no tech
support after 2020, he told the board.
One of Dolan’s suggestions was to cut one officer and one employee from the
two new personnel requested by Police and Public Works. “I’d rather get one
at a time than zero,” he said. This and other changes to the working budget
could drop 9 cents on the tax rate, he pointed out.
The almost a dozen petitioned warrant articles “will have to live on their
own,” Dolan predicted. (See related story.) “We need to think hard about
priorities.”
The Council agreed by consensus to move forward with the project, and then
to figure out the “how” of it.
The second hearing on the budget is this Monday at 7 p.m. in the Moose Hill
council chambers, Town Office Building