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CAPITAL EXPENDITURES COMMITTEE REPORT TO 2016 ATM Executive Summary Beginning last October, the Capital Expenditures Committee ( "CEC ") vetted proposals from municipal departments, the school administration, and various citizens groups for capital projects to be included in Lexington's Fiscal Year 2017 ( "FY2017 ") budget. Those that are in the FY2017 Recommended Budget & Financing Plan ( "Brown Book ") presented to Town Meetings are addressed in this report, along with this Committee's recommendations thereon. A Summary of our Warrant - Article Recommendations is found in Appendix B and the individual Warrant - Article Recommendations begin on Page 34. As a result of the detailed review, collaboration, and resulting refinement of capital requests since the initial presentations, Town Meeting will observe that the CEC most often has joined a consensus among the boards and committees relative to the capital articles being presented. As has been stated repeatedly over the last several years, our budgetary focus has been, and continues to be, "capital, capital, capital ". The Town needs to invest in new and expanded capital assets to meet our changing demands, but we must also continue to invest in existing infrastructure to maintain our assets. This means we have two tracks of capital demands: expansion, and maintenance and renewal. The demands placed on our schools' capacity by the growth in our school enrollment have been well publicized and discussed. For our analysis of the proposal before the Special Town Meeting 2016 -3, see our report to that STM, released on March 14, 2016. While the projects proposed earlier this spring will address some of the needs at the elementary level and the projected needs at the middle - school level, there remains a need at the Pre -K level and there is also a significant need looming at the high school — elements of which this Committee wholeheartedly supports addressing in the near term (see Article 15(c & 1 –o)). While it may be just outside the five -year forecast on which this Committee reports, the eventual high- school project could dwarf the current cost estimates for all of the pre -K, elementary, and middle - school needs combined. The significant investment needs at the schools are not all that the Town faces. There are also demands in municipal areas. Most immediate among those are our aged public - safety facilities that were designed for equipment and technology of an earlier century. Other needs include enhancing our roads, sidewalks, and recreation facilities; major upgrades to our Central Business District Streetscape; changes to mitigate traffic issues; and continuing development and acquisition of affordable housing. The Town also faces a continuing and significant need to invest in our buildings and systems. With the creation of the Department of Public Facilities, the Town now has the capability, and has worked diligently, to reduce the backlog of deferred maintenance projects that had accumulated over many years. This investment needs to be ongoing as we continue to erase the backlog and invest in building and systems renewal. This Committee is pleased to see the continued commitment in our building and system maintenance evidenced throughout the capital requests presented in this year's budget. While this Committee lauds the significant contributions being made by the Town toward our capital needs, including through use of Community Preservation Funds, in order to accomplish the projects listed in our capital plan through FY2021 (not to mention those which we know fall just outside that timeline) will take the additional support of tax payers through approval of debt exclusions from the limits of Proposition 2'/2. 1