More Money Needed For Madison Baseball Project

By Jack Kramer, Correspondent

MADISON, CT – The Board of Selectmen, by a 4-1 vote, approved recommending spending $23,000 to cover costs not covered in the budget for the Town Campus Baseball Field project.
Only Selectman Bob Hale voted against the appropriation, which now must be approved by the Board of Finance before it can be spent.

Before approving the money, the selectmen went over a detailed explanation of costs of the project with Town Engineer Mike Ott.

The project has gone over budget and has taken longer than originally planned to complete.
Ott stated that the current cost sheet has a total of roughly $169,000, stating the town only has a financial commitment for roughly $121,000 of this amount.

He said he has been authorized to spend funds up to roughly $154,000. The two items that have not been approved to spend money on are the dugout construction and sidewalks. The coverage, he said, is roughly $19,000.

He stated that he recommended adding a 10% contingency for costs that may be incurred when the topsoil is spread.

This puts the total additional needed at roughly $22,000. He added that certain items were earmarked for being completed in the fall but the numbers are known.

First Selectman Tom Banisch stated that this plan sounded like the best plan for going forward.

He added that his only concern was that the project had gone over budget and he cautioned that projects in the future needed to be tightly controlled to avoid going over budget and to Special Appropriation.

Originally posted by Brian McCready

(Editor's Note: This story first ran previously but here it is again in case you missed it.)