While it may seem a little early to already be thinking about next year’s budget, one town committee is well underway. The Capital Improvement Program (CIP) Committee started working on fiscal year 2017-’18 back in June, working to organize the town’s capital needs and build on the program’s inaugural year.

The program is designed to create one comprehensive planning document for all of the town and public school’s capital needs for the next five years and evaluate possible funding options. The CIP, which began last year, replaced LOCAP, the previous long-range capital planning system, and is designed to minimize the use of special appropriations.

CIP Chair Jean Fitzgerald said this year is already off to a good start.

“Everything seems to be moving along at a better pace this year,” she said, noting that town employees and officials are getting on board. “I think people understand the process more, so when we ask questions, they know what they have to do.”

Since last year was the first year of the CIP, Fitzgerald said there were some timeline challenges—challenges they were able to avoid this year.

“Basically we felt like we just didn’t have enough time to review everything. It was rushed,” she said of the first year. “The departments needed more time to get their five-year plan together. Last year we had to wait for the elections and then [to find out] who was appointed onto the committee from each board.”

Now Fitzgerald said departments are better prepared to present to the CIP committee. All departments were supposed to have requests in to the Finance Department by July 15. From there, the requests will be organized and sent to the first selectman for review before coming before the CIP in late summer.

“The finance director did offer to do workshops for any of the departments in looking at the forms and filling them out and getting the right information to everybody,” she said.

The current challenge for the CIP is assessing the progress of this fiscal year’s projects. Projects include ambulance replacement, communication systems upgrade, and improvements to Tuxis Walkway, among others. CIP member Selectman Joan Walker said the evaluation process on those projects will begin soon.

“The next meeting is going to review where the projects for this fiscal year stand,” she said. “Granted we are only a couple of months into the year, but we will have a good idea of where things stand and what projects are going to happen.”

As the year goes on, the committee will continue to look at program funding as well. The CIP is funded through a variety of sources including the Capital Projects Fund, grants, donations, and general obligation bonds. This year the CIP was funded at $3,206,306, which was a part of the approved budget referendum in May.

“As of right now we are happy with the funding level,” Fitzgerald said. “What is going to be more telling as time goes on is if the estimations for the cost of the projects are accurate. We will have a good idea of how the first year went when we go to do the budget process for next year.”

The CIP Committee holds public meetings every other week on Wednesdays at 7:15 a.m. at Town Campus. Visit www.madisonct.org for details.