Several Westbrook city councilors were in a spending mood Monday evening as three separate requests from councilors added $250,000 to a $1.25 million capital improvement bond at the last minute.

Councilors voted, 5-2, to approve a $1.5 million municipal capital improvement bond with the newly added money earmarked to pay for improvements to playgrounds in the city, construction of a skateboard park and money to help the Westbrook Food Pantry find a permanent home. Council President Jim Violette and Councilor Gary Groves cast the two votes against the increased bond.

The bond got a first reading by the council at a meeting on Aug. 1. At that time, the bond totaled $1.1 million, with the money earmarked to pay for a new ladder truck, a new dump truck and snow blower for the Public Services Department, street paving at various areas of the city and an engineering study of the city’s public service facilities. That bond had been discussed by the council during the recent budget debates and approved at that time.

The city then asked the council to approve an additional $150,000 to cover the cost of replacing the HVAC system at the Walker Memorial Library. The city said the system was broken beyond repair and needed to be replaced before the winter heating season.

Replacing the system, however, isn’t expected to cost the city any money because of an agreement the city administration has reached with the library’s board of trustees to pay off the debt using interest generated by the library’s Fluett Trust Fund.

City Administrator Jerre Bryant said the board of trustees agreed to use the interest from the Fluett Fund as long as the principal balance of the fund remains above $600,000. He said if at any time the balance of the fund dips below that figure, the city would be responsible for paying off the debt.

Because of the changes, the council was required to re-approve the bond. Before the council could vote on the $1.25 million bond, three councilors added money to increase the total to $1.5 million.

First, Councilor Brendan Rielly proposed adding $50,000 for the Westbrook Food Pantry. Reilly described the money as an “insurance policy” to make sure the pantry remains open as it searches for a new home. Rielly, whose mother Jeanne Rielly is an active volunteer and advocate for the food pantry, said the pantry is currently operating out of a space in the Dana Warp Mill donated by mill owner Tim Flannery on a month-to-month basis. He said the pantry is looking to find a permanent home.

“We need to have a space now,” he said.

Rielly said the food pantry is still looking for a donated space, and if the organization is successful in finding a free space, the money included in the bond would not be spent. However, he said he included the money in the bond to make sure the food pantry would not have to close due to a lack of money to pay for a space. He said he believed if the food pantry were to close, it would cost the city’s general assistance fund well over $50,000 to provide the services that the food pantry currently does.

After Rielly added the money for the food pantry, Councilor John O’Hara moved to add $100,000 to improve the city’s playgrounds. He said the city started to look at improving the playgrounds a couple of years ago, and he felt it was time to take some action. “It’s time to get this community to stop talking about it and just go ahead and do it.” O’Hara said. “The children of this community deserve it.”

O’Hara said he wanted to use the money to help bring the playgrounds up to modern standards, and in fact even beyond those standards. “There are still some huge costs to bring those playgrounds up to the standards of 2008,” he said.

O’Hara proposed to use some of the money to begin construction of a skateboard park that the city has been considering building. “Let’s finally put to rest a playground for the teenagers of this community, and that is a skateboard park where they could get out there and show their stuff,” he said.

Groves then made a motion to add a separate $100,000 to be used exclusively for the skateboard park. “If we are going to be adding money tonight, then I think we should do the skateboard park separately,” he said.

After adding the money for the skateboard park, Groves said he was not going to vote in favor of the bond due to the money added for the food pantry. He said he thought if the city were going to use money to help out one organization, it would not be fair to the rest of the charitable organizations that serve the city’s residents.

“I think we should have other people in need have the (same) opportunity,” he said.

Violette said he could not support the bond because he did not agree with all of the additions made Monday night. Violette was part of the discussions regarding the additional money for the library and had previously agreed to add that to the bond.

If the additional money was limited to the food pantry money, Violette said he could have supported it, but he did not support the $200,000 added by Groves and O’Hara. “It just got out of control,” he said. “People saw an opportunity because of the momentum that was being built (to add money) and they just jumped on the bandwagon.”

With so much attention focused on tax relief, Violette said he thought it was wrong to add any money to the city’s budget that would endanger the 66-cent tax reduction passed on by the administration and the City Council during the debate over the current budget.

Bryant said the first payment on the bond would not come due until sometime next year, and this bond would have no effect on the current budget and tax rate. He said if the council passes the bond at second reading as it is currently written, it would add $40,000 plus interest to the 2006-2007 municipal budget.

The council still needs to approve a second reading of the capital improvement bond before it becomes final. The next regular meeting of the City Council will be Sept. 12 at 7 p.m. in room 114 of Westbrook High School.