Newbury Capital Planning Committee cancels $30,000 IT software project for fiscal 2027

Capital Planning · Meeting of March 11, 2026

Newbury Capital Planning Committee cancels a $30,000 IT software project and begins scoring 72 pages of departmental capital requests. Meeting with all five members present on March 11, the committee heard from town IT representative Jonathan that vendor Softrite has offered an upgrade path for project IT 2027-1, an ERP systems replacement, making the current funding request unnecessary; the item was canceled without objection and may return in a revised form next fiscal year. ExOfficio member Tracy Blais led discussion of unresolved harbormaster requests — including a piling-size discrepancy and a potential switch to converted shipping-container office trailers — and flagged that the fire station's useful life is likely under five years.

Select Board member Leslie Matthews, attending as a visitor, asked for access to a long-standing building violations report for Town Hall at 25 High Road. The committee's next step is a joint session with the Finance Committee.

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• The complete report — 869 words

Source: the Capital Planning meeting of March 11, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.