Questions still surround a request for $375,000 to install an elevator at the Waltham Museum.
Originally, the city's Building Department applied for $275,000 from the city's Community Preservation Act fund to help pay for the elevator's design and installation at the building at 21-25 Lexington St.
However, in September, Mayor Jeannette McCarthy asked the City Council to approve a $375,000 loan order so the museum could more quickly comply with a state order from the Architectural Access Board to get the elevator built.
Ward 2 Councilor Ed Tarallo said he's still in favor of using Community Preservation Act money for the elevator. Whether the project is eligible for that funding is a question that's being studied by the city's Law Department.
Tarallo said he was concerned that if the city used the $375,000 in city money it couldn't go back and replace those funds with Community Preservation Act cash for the project.
The Architectural Access Board, which makes sure that buildings can be accessed by individuals with disabilities, has granted the city a waiver of its regulations until 2010 so the city could gather funds for the elevator and complete construction.
Councilor at large Thomas Stanley said he was uncomfortable considering the latest funding request for the elevator. He said the mayor has yet to submit a proper capital improvement budget to the council, because certain projects listed for fiscal 2009 weren't designated funding amounts.
Stanley said councilors would have a difficult time weighing the importance of the elevator when it was unclear how much other projects, that could be a higher priority, are going to cost.
"My concern is that it's a capital appropriation request that came in September and we're 11 months past the date required by the city charter to have a capital improvement plan," Stanley said yesterday.
In August, McCarthy submitted a 38-page capital improvement plan that included a number of projects that could require additional funding. In some cases, costs on projects had yet to be determined because bids had not been received or design work was still being done, McCarthy said at that time.
McCarthy has said she wants department heads to use existing capital improvement accounts.
She said yesterday the elevator was already an "existing capital improvement plan account."
McCarthy said that there are plans to move the city's Information Technology Department into the building, but that move couldn't happen until the elevator is installed. She said that the sole reason for the funding request is to comply with the state's order.
"This is a directive from the state to get it done," the mayor said.
Richard Conn can be contacted at 781-398-8004 or rconn@cnc.com.
