The Greenland Planning Board on June 4 reviewed a draft capital improvement plan spreadsheet designed to visualize equipment lifespans, recommended order years and annual savings needs for replacement costs.

Board members and staff said the tool is meant to help the town see 10–15 years ahead and to produce an “intelligent recommendation” for town decision makers rather than a binding budget. The discussion focused heavily on fire apparatus: ambulances, a 2009 tanker, and pumpers that the board identified as likely to require replacement in the next decade.

Staff demonstrated the spreadsheet’s functions: entering purchase year, anticipated life, lead time and estimated replacement cost generates a Gantt-style timeline and a calculated annual savings target. Members debated reasonable service lives and lead times used in the tool. For example, one ambulance purchased in 2013 was discussed with an assumed remaining life of roughly five years; newer purchases were being modeled with 12–15 year lifespans. Members noted that lead times for specialty equipment such as ambulances can be 1–2 years and that replacement-cost inflation could be sizable; the board discussed using a 4.1% inflation assumption, citing recent state guidance raising expected inflation assumptions.

Board members repeatedly stressed that the CIP tool is advisory: the planning board will collect department inputs and recommend a plan, and the town council or voters would make final budget decisions. Participants discussed the town’s current reserve for fire equipment, which was reported as about $502,003.94 as of Jan. 14, and acknowledged the likelihood of a multi-year period of elevated annual contributions to “catch up” on deferred replacements.

Next steps: staff will refine the spreadsheet, add departmental tabs and flagged columns for items funded by grants, then circulate the file to board members and department heads for input before the next meeting. The board said the CIP will be updated annually to improve accuracy and to align recommended annual savings with actual replacement costs as estimates are refined.