2023-02-09-AC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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02/09/2023 AC Minutes 4 Why is exempt debt service for schools increasing? Ms. Kosnoff stated that this was an error in the White Book. Due to the recently completed bond sale for the Police Station Headquarters, municipal debt service will increase by about $1.5 million. School debt service will decrease by about $1.6 million as two older projects roll off. The Brown Book will use the revised numbers. Which “top three” Program Improvement Requests (PIRs) would have been recommended if the budget could support them? The senior management team ranks all PIRs to create a prioritized list. The top four PIRs that were not funded were: • Benefits Administrator in the Human Resources Department – A single staffer currently handles benefits processing for 375 municipal and 1200–1500 school employees. The state Group Insurance Commission (GIC) revised all its plans this year, meaning that every em- ployee plan will need to be updated. • Streetscape Maintenance Program – Put off for a year because the brickwork is still under warranty. • Additional Fire Inspector – Requested by the Fire Department. • Assistant Superintendent of Public Grounds – Would act as an assistant tree warden. Senior management is looking for recurring revenue sources to fund these in FY2025. Discuss the future of LexPress. The Select Board has formed an Ad Hoc Transportation Committee to consider ways to improve LexPress, which currently operates at a significant loss to the Town. The proposed FY2024 budget provides level-funding rather than level-service. The Human Services Department had requested a $140,000 increase. Mr. Malloy will recommend appropriating additional funds from the Transporta- tion Demand Management (TDM) Stabilization Fund. Ridership in LexPress has declined from 90,000/year to under 20,000/year over the past several years. LexPress has three routes, and each route makes 12 runs per day. One of the routes (#3) has, on average, less than one passenger per run. The RFP for LexPress includes two alternatives, a 2-route service, and a 3-route service. The 2- route service could cover all the area of the current 3-route service while making fewer runs per day. Mr. Bartenstein asked whether LexPress ridership was expected to rebound. Mr. Malloy stated that ridership had fallen “dramatically” even before the pandemic, and then collapsed to very low levels during the pandemic. Ridership improved during 2022 but did not recover to the already low pre- pandemic levels. So far, ridership in 2023 is comparable to 2022. Mr. Bartenstein asked about the previously robust ridership of students that needed transportation following after-school activities. Mr. Malloy stated that these riders had also decreased, and that this was visible in an age-based breakdown of riders for 2000–2022. Mr. Malloy stated that the annual expense budget for LexPress is about $650,000, out of a total transportation budget of $950,000. Annual revenue from LexPress is about $35,000. His suggestion to the Select Board is to charge more for the service, reduce the service, or make it free. Making it free might increase ridership while eliminating the administrative overhead of collecting bus fees.