FREEPORT – The Freeport Town Council agreed on April 15 to the concept of a five-year capital budget, including $2,438,500 for 2015.

The proposal for 2015 represents a significant increase from last year, when the town spent $945,100 on capital improvements. It includes $800,000 as the town’s share for the paving of Wardtown Road, for which the state kicking in another $500,000.

Town Manager Peter Joseph said last week that the capital spending plan now becomes part of the municipal budget proposal. The town will unveil those figures to the pubic on Thursday, May 1, Joseph said, with copies of the budget available at the town office and on the town’s website. The Town Council will begin discussions on the spending plan at its meeting Tuesday, May 6, at 6:30 p.m., in the Town Council Chamber.

“The Town Council hasn’t yet appropriated the money,” Joseph said. “They still have to appropriate the dollars in June.”

Council budget workshops will take place throughout May, and a public hearing on the operating, capital and tax increment financing budgets is set for June 3. The council is scheduled to adopt all three 2014-2015 budgets on June 17.

The Wardtown Road/Route 125 project calls for reconstruction of the road, and will include 3-foot paved shoulders, which will replace the existing gravel shoulders. Though the town has a right of way to land beyond that 3-foot stretch, residents have lawns and landscaping on that right of way, Joseph said. During a public hearing on the capital budget, several expressed concern that shoulders wider than 3 feet would encroach on those lawns.

The shoulders, which are now gravel, will not be any wider along most stretches of the road, Joseph said.

“There are very few places that are going to be expanded,” Joseph said. “That’s important, because many people were worried about their front yards.”

Other elements of the new capital budget include:

• Pownal Road parking and stormwater. To comply with the town’s environmental permit, the town will invest $138,000 in stormwater and parking improvements at Pownal Road field.

• Train station parking lot. Workers will pave the lot, which will cost $45,000, and be paid out of the tax increment financing fund.

• Railroad fence. To increase safety around the railroad tracks downtown, the town will install an $11,000 fence at Memorial Park.

• Historic preservation. A total of $16,000 would support the Freeport Historical Society’s work to update its archive of properties in the Harraseeket Historic District.

For fiscal year 2016, which begins in the summer of 2015, the capital plan includes repairs along U.S. Route 1 South and South Freeport village, Litchfield Road reconstruction and closure of the town landfill.