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CAPITAL EXPENDITURES COMMITTEE REPORT TO 2017 ATM&STM 2017-1 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 2018 ("FY2018") budget. Those that are in the FY2018 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 38. 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 at every level by the growth in our school enrollment have been well publicized and discussed. While we have made significant investments in our elementary- and middle–school buildings (see the Department of Public Facilities Funding History table on Page 29), enrollment projections indicate that under the School Committee's current policies, additional capacity will be needed in the near term. This Special Town Meeting presents an appropriation request (see STM Article 4) for a new facility for the Lexington Children's Place (our mandated pre-K program). There is also a significant need looming at the High School. The eventual High-School project is not yet defined and therefore is reflected as "TBD" in our table, but it is worth noting that the most recent neighboring project to be approved was in Somerville where a $257 million high school for 1,590 students was approved by voters in October 2016. Our High School may be very different, but our current enrollment is 2,185. The significant investment needs at the schools are not all 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. At the Special Town Meeting we will be asked for appropriations to begin the replacement of the Fire Headquarters—the first stage in the improvement of our public-safety facilities. Additional needs include 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. The creation of the Department of Public Facilities 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 reduce the backlog and invest in building and systems renewal. This Committee is pleased to see the continued commitment in our building-and-systems 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 financing through the use of Community Preservation Funds, in order to accomplish the projects listed in our capital plan through FY2022 (not to mention those which we know fall just outside that timeline), it will take the additional support of tax payers through approval of debt exclusions from the limits of Proposition 2'/2. This Committee remains mindful that while we deem the recommended capital investments as prudent and necessary, there is an impact on the changing demographics of Lexington. 1