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December 6, 2006 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee December 6, 2006 Place and time: National Heritage Museum, Farr Conference Room, 6:30 p.m. Members present: Al Levine (Chair), Deborah Brown (Vice-Chair), John Bartenstein (Secretary), Rod Cole, Rick Eurich, Pam Hoffman, David Kanter, Mike Kennealy, Rob Addelson (ex officio, non-voting) This meeting was held prior to the commencement of Special Town Meeting No. 2 to address any last-minute issues relating to the requested appropriation for the DPW facility replacement project, and to prepare for the special town meeting. 1. Committee Report on Article 2. After discussion of the latest developments on the DPW project, a vote was taken on the Selectmen’s proposed motion under Article 2 to appropriate $1,600,000 for the cost of engineering and architectural services necessary to complete the construction documents. The Committee voted 7-0 to support the motion. John Bartenstein abstained from voting immediately because he wanted to consider any further information that might be provided at the special town meeting on the reasonableness of the amount, and the anticipated use, of the funds to be appropriated. (John Bartenstein and Eric Michelson subsequently voted during the special town meeting to support the requested appropriation, bringing the Committee’s vote to a unanimous 9-0.) The Committee voted 8-0 to endorse, with minor modifications, the remarks that Al Levine had prepared on Article 2, with input from several other members. Rob Addelson advised that the debt service on the proposed borrowing of $1,600,000 that would have to be borne within the tax levy, should a debt exclusion referendum ultimately not pass, would be (assuming a five-year amortization period, 4.5% interest rate, and level principal payments) a little less than $400,000 the first year and declining thereafter. 2. Future Plans. There was a brief discussion of future plans. The Community Preservation Committee has scheduled a hearing on requests for FY2008 CPA funding for Thursday, December 14, the same date as this Committee’s next scheduled meeting. Because a number of members of this Committee are interested in attending the CPC hearing, and because the CPC approval process raises important new issues relating to the appropriate use of CPA funds, it was agreed to hold our next meeting in conjunction with the CPC hearing. Thereafter, the critical priorities will be participation in the final review process for the DPW facility replacement project, which is likely to be intense during the next two months, and development of the FY2008 budget. Further discussion of the recommendations of the Financial Policy Committee will probably have to await the completion of the Annual Town Meeting. 3. Miscellaneous. Al Levine will schedule weekly meetings on Thursday evenings from the beginning of January through the spring Town Meeting, and post the location of those meetings sometime after December 14. It is likely that the Committee - 1 -