The sale of the shopping center at the corner of Hope Street and Gooding Avenue in January yielded a tidy $2.8 million profit for Bristol. It was a deal several years in the making, and the plan has long been to put the proceeds into a restricted fund where it will serve as an endowment, accrue interest, and be allocated toward approved, shovel-ready capital projects.

All that was left was for the Council to iron out the specifics, which they did at their last meeting on July 28.

“The proposal here is to put some parameters around the use of the fund,” said Treasurer Julie Goucher, who presented a memo that outlined how this fund would act as a revolving fund, ensuring taxpayers benefit from the sale of the Gooding property now and in the future.

“As public funds, the proceeds may not be invested in the stock market, but the town will … authorize investments, as outlined in the town’s investment policy statement.”

“Proposed projects would be presented to the town council for approval,” she continued. “And we would give priority to projects such as those that have been identified previously on the town’s five-year Capital Improvement Plan.”

Council Chairman Nathan Calouro noted that while he has often compared this fund to the Colt Fund in recent discussions, one key difference exists: the Colt Fund was began with private funds, while the money in the Gooding fund belongs to the taxpayers. It’s a difference that impacts how conservatively the fund will be invested.

“The investments are going to be very little return at this point in time, because we have to be extremely conservative, but that’s okay. Because it costs us nothing to borrow our own money,” he said. “The goal is to lessen the burden to the taxpayers … so if we’re able to take advantage of these funds to finish a project, this is appropriate, and when the opportunity presents itself, we have it.”

“I like how the money is getting linked to the town’s five-year Capital Improvement Plan, because we can definitely keep track of it, and we know exactly where the money is going and and it benefits taxpayers,” agreed Councilor Tim Sweeney.

The council voted unanimously to establish the fund with the parameters laid out in Treasurer Goucher’s memo.

Spending on Walley Beach

The fund got its first taste of action with the very next item on the council’s agenda. Town Administrator Steven Contente requested an allocation of $164,066 from the fund to be used to complete the full length of the Walley Beach seawall restoration project, for which there’s currently $104,622 authorized; an amount that fell well short of the lowest bid.

“So this would be a test of what we just said. This is on our five-year capital plan, it’s shovel ready,” said Mr. Calouro.

It’s an expenditure that the council was happy to move forward with, and Councilor Mary Parella quickly made a motion, seconded by Councilor Tony Teixeira, to allocate the $164,066 from the Gooding property sale fund. It passed unanimously and the Council agreed that they would decide on the term of repayment during the next budget cycle.