2023-05-22 SB Packet - Released - Laserfiche WebLink

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Civic—"Relating to a city or town, especially its administration; municipal." Civics—"The study of the rights and duties of citizenship". While either term is sufficient, I believe the study of the rights and duties of citizenship was more appropriate. Should the Board have any concerns or have a different thought about this change please let me know and we can discuss further. • At the last Board meeting, I mentioned an article from Yale University on "Why Putting Solar Canopies on Parking Lots Is a Smart Green Move". Please see the attached article. • I spoke with Elizabeth Mahoney, the Commissioner of DOER yesterday and she informed me they were submitting their regulations on the Fossil Fuel Free Building Construction Regulations Pilot Program to the legislature yesterday for comment and will be promulgating their final regulations by Summer. She also told me that they had reviewed our bylaw and that we are in line to be one of the first communities of the ten that will be part of this pilot program that is anticipated to be accepted into the program as a pilot community, which should be by the end of September. • We are working on several earmarks but also want to highlight concerns with some of them. o $200,000 for an affordable housing study—the contract has been signed and the consultant has initiated work. This earmark is available through 6/30/26. o $75,000 for a two-year pilot for a community-based unarmed mental health emergency response team, the contract has been signed. The Executive Office of Public Safety(EOPS) took a long time to get the contract documents to the Town, which were signed last week(in May). This earmark expires 6/30/23. This makes it difficult to implement a two-year pilot program in two months. I have expressed this to EOPS and informed our State Representative. I will keep the Board updated on this, but I believe it is likely these funds will revert to the State at the end of the fiscal year. o $75,000 to assist landscapers transition to electric powered landscaping equipment, the contract has been signed. Staff has met with landscapers and developed a plan and equipment has been ordered and expected to arrive in mid-June. This earmark expires on 6/30/23. o $200,000 to promote farmers markets, local festivals, parades, musical and theatrical performances and other governmental or nonprofit events sponsored or sanctioned by the municipal government. The contract has been signed. This earmark expires on 6/30/26. I have discussed with Sandhya Iyer and Suzie Barry that we would be splitting this with $100,000 for other events and $100,000 for the 250th Anniversary planning/events. o $275,000 for transportation improvements and updates in the Town of Lexington. We are still working on getting the contract for this earmark and due to this we do not have information whether this earmark will expire on 6/30/23 or 6/30/26 (it's in the same bill as the previous item, so it may be 2026). We do not have information on what exactly this was intended to be used for. o $350,000 to the School Department for the purchase of an electric school bus. The contract has been signed(by the School Department). I do not have the status on this, although from discussions, I am aware that the School Department has not ordered the bus. This earmark expires on 6/3 0/23. o We have two other earmarks which are part of the bond bill. This should be discussed by the Select Board at an upcoming meeting whether you wish to pursue both, which will require a request being submitted to the Governor's Office. These are $263,000 for a Blue Bike Share Program and $2,868,660 for transportation and safety improvements at the intersection of Hartwell and Maguire.