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CAPITAL EXPENDITURES COMMITTEE REPORT TO 2011 ATM
<br /> • West Lexington Greenway. This is the proposed trail system west of I-95/Route 128 to connect the
<br /> Minuteman Bikeway and the Minuteman National Historic Park. No funds are being requested at
<br /> this Town Meeting.
<br /> • Traffic Mitigation. Minor funds are being requested at this Town Meeting.
<br /> Other Project Status and Needs
<br /> A year ago this report called attention to the Schools PK-12 Master Plan which recommended ultimately
<br /> replacing the Estabrook elementary school and replacing or renovating with an addition the Hastings
<br /> elementary school. In the past year, the presence of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) at Estabrook has
<br /> re-prioritized the replacing this building. Discussions with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
<br /> required Lexington to replace that school within four years, or remove all unauthorized PCB in the
<br /> building. To that end, Lexington submitted an Emergency Statement of Interest (SOI) to the
<br /> Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) to replace that school and last month, on the 9th, the
<br /> MSBA approved inviting Lexington to participate in a Feasibility Study. MSBA will likely offer a
<br /> funding arrangement with Lexington eligible to receive between 31% and 40% reimbursement for
<br /> approved program elements. Funding for the Feasibility Study is requested under Article 13(b). That
<br /> study includes design through schematics and full Design & Engineering (D&E) funding. Construction
<br /> documents, bidding, and construction are included in the funding agreement. D&E funding for the Bridge
<br /> and Bowman elementary schools renovation was appropriated at the 2010 Annual Town Meeting
<br /> (Article 16(c)). This year, additional D&E monies will be requested under Article 13(a) to expand the
<br /> scope of that project to accommodate renovating existing space resulting in four additional classrooms for
<br /> each school and enhanced building systems within those buildings.
<br /> The Community Preservation Act (CPA)
<br /> On March 6, 2006, Lexington voters approved adopting the CPA for our Town at the level of a
<br /> 3% surcharge on property taxes. (See Article 17 for a proposal to reduce the surcharge percentage to 1%,
<br /> effective for FY2013.) The proceeds under the CPA may be used for various capital projects within the
<br /> categories of Community Housing, Historic Resources, Open Space, and Recreational Use. (There are
<br /> limitations in the Act regarding which projects within those categories can be funded under the Act.)
<br /> According to the CPC [Communication, March 15, 2011], as of July 1, 2010, it had recommended, and
<br /> Town Meeting approved, $23,300,147. Of that, $4,737,641 (20.3%) was for Community Housing,
<br /> $5,922,678 (25.4%) for Historic Resources, $6,483,017 (27.8%) for Open Space, $1,837,811 (7.9%) for
<br /> Recreational Use, and $4,319,000 (18.5%) for pending purpose(s) (i.e., the full approval for the
<br /> Busa-Farm purchase and related expenses). Also, a yearly amount (now $150,000 and $430,000 to that
<br /> date) is for the Administrative Budget with unneeded funds returned,yearly.
<br /> At this time, if all of the CPC-recommended project & debt appropriations (See Article 8) (but excluding
<br /> the $150,000 Administrative Budget) which total $4,124,982 are approved by this Town Meeting, this
<br /> would add (with percentages of that projects & debt total) $844,800 (20.5%) for Community Housing,
<br /> $310,000 (7.5%) for Historic Resources, $1,300,604 (31.5%) for Open Space, $911,863 (22.1%) for
<br /> Recreational Use, and $757,715 (18.4%) for pending purpose(s) (i.e., the appropriation for the Busa-Farm
<br /> purchase's 2nd of 3 debt-service payments).
<br /> Our CPA-surcharge funding is eligible for State matching which is always based on each town's prior-
<br /> fiscal-year's property-tax surcharges although the matching level is not guaranteed. For those
<br /> communities that have adopted the maximum 3% surcharge as Lexington has done when there aren't
<br /> sufficient funds for a 100% match, the State does a 2nd-round, and potentially 3rd-round, calculation to
<br /> determine the final match.
<br /> As the matches are funded from the State's CPA Trust Funded which gets its revenue from surcharges
<br /> on the fees on property transactions at the Registry of Deeds, the full extent of the impact on those fees
<br /> because of the state of the recovery from the economic recession is unknown and, thus, there is
<br /> uncertainty about the level of future State-matching funds. A bill that made good progress in the last
<br /> session of the State Legislature, that along with addressing other changes to the CPA would set a
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