(Feb. 4, 2026) – Over the past two weeks, the Capital Planning Committee has met twice and considered the Sandy Pond Beach House replacement project as part of its agenda. This week, committee members said they support the project, but it is difficult to move ahead without having design plans and a budget.
“I’m just being very mindful of the taxpayer,” the committee chair said. “That’s why we have this committee.” But he added, “Again, it’s something that’s needed. I’ll fully go on the record as saying we need to do this.”
The Parks Commission requested $1.2 million through the Capital Planning process to replace the Sandy Pond Beach House. Last week, the Parks Director reported the town had just received bids from four architects. This week, the Capital Planning Committee was nearing the end of its process when it met on Wednesday. But the Parks Commission met an hour after the Capital Planning Committee to review the project proposals from the architects. So it’s hard to say: they could be back.
Learn About Sandy Pond Beach
First, we want to share this Sandy Pond Beach web page on the town’s website. One takeaway here: Ayer Town Meeting voted to create Sandy Pond Beach on about an acre of land in 1945. The Sandy Pond Beach House was built after this – about 80 years ago.
From the Capital Planning Committee Meeting
Second, we will share some of the points and comments from the Capital Planning Committee meeting. To give you a sense of the people involved and the meeting:
The meeting was held in the first-floor meeting room at Town Hall. There was the Town Manager, Finance Manager and three residents on the committee around the table. One committee member joined virtually.
The Parks Director joined the committee at the table for the discussion, along with two Parks Commission members. There were a few people on Zoom, including the DPW Director who spoke.
Rebuilding. In the past, the town commissioned a study of the Sandy Pond Beach House. This produced three recommendations: rehab, rebuild or modular. Rehabbing the building wasn’t going to address ADA compliance. Modular was expensive. So that leaves rebuild.
Design Plans Needed to Present at Town Meeting with a Budget. Last year, Annual Town Meeting approved $120,000 for the design of a new beach house. As we said, the town has recently received proposals from four architects. The Parks Commission was working with the director and other town employees to choose one this week. At the Capital Planning meeting, it was stated that the design process could take any where between 3-10 months depending on which architect is chosen. Without the design, the town doesn’t have a firm budget to present voters. The $1.2 million request was a placeholder the town management included in its 5-year capital planning process.
Ayer’s Capital Request Process. In Ayer, capital requests over $500,000 are presented to Town Meeting as a debt exclusion, per the town’s financial policies. A debt exclusion must be approved at Town Meeting and a town election with a two-thirds vote.
Committee members discussed a few potential scenarios:
-If they receive design plans by the end of March, they could vote to recommend a project for the Annual Town Meeting in April.
-They could hold off until Special Town Meeting in the Fall. This would give the town more time to plan.
-A town employee on the committee mentioned using the Community Preservation Committee process. They didn’t discuss this in detail.
But we will share our observation. If the Community Preservation Committee was asked to support a request that brought the Sandy Pond Beach House project under $500,000, there may not be a need for a debt exclusion and town election vote.
This was the case at the April 25, 2022 Annual Town Meeting. Voters approved $320,000 to fund the Pirone Park Playground Project as part of Article 13, Capital Budget Requests.
Later in the meeting, voters approved Article 26 to spend $400,000 from the Community Preservation Fund on the playground. The playground project received $720,000 overall at Annual Town Meeting without having to go through the debt exclusion process or to the ballot.