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APPROPRIATION COMMITTEE-2018 ATM Expenditures Committee to that special town meeting. The reasons to replace the facility are discussed at length in a report submitted to the Town by consultants Donham& Sweeney Architects in 20118. The total cost of the replacement of the building, not including the cost of swing space, has recently been estimated, based on 75% complete construction documents, to be $19,947,000. This total includes $1,812,000 for contingencies. Under Article 2 of Special Town Meeting 2017-1 held in March 2017, $450,000 was appropriated for design work on the new station through the schematic design and design development stages. In October 2017, at Special Town Meeting 2017-2, $676,300 was appropriated to continue work on the design through the completion of construction documents. These previously appro- priated amounts and the amount requested under this article are included in the estimated total cost. The Bedford St. site is not sufficiently large to allow construction of a new building while the Fire De- partment continues to operate out of the current facility. The current facility must be demolished before construction commences on the new facility. Therefore, the Headquarters operations need to move to an off-site facility before demolition of the current structure commences. Late in 2016, the Town purchased the Liberty Mutual land and building at 173 Bedford St. to serve as swing space during demolition of the old building and construction of the new building. The new Fire Headquarters station would likely be available for occupancy in early 2020. The overall cost of the project must take the costs of the swing space into account. These cover the cost of acquiring the land and building at 173 Bedford St. ($4,300,000 for acquisition plus $130,000 for mis- cellaneous expenses), the costs of designing modifications to that site and building ($50,000), of modify- ing the site and building, of acquiring and installing a temporary structure to house the fire trucks and other equipment, of installing a temporary traffic signal and traffic signal controls ($2,140,000), and of moving the Headquarters to the temporary site and, later, into the new facility after it is completed. The percent allocation of the cost of acquisition of the 173 Bedford St. property to the replacement project is debatable,because after the replacement is complete, the land and building will become available for an- other use or uses. Nevertheless, the acquisition costs should be noted. Amounts to cover the projected costs of the swing space have been appropriated at previous town meetings. Funding for this project will be obtained by borrowing. The exclusion of debt service for the project was approved at a referendum on December 3, 2017. In addition to the expenses that will be covered by this article, the debt exclusion authority covers the previous appropriations for design work, as well as the ex- penses for the swing space exclusive of the amounts expended for the property acquisition. The total es- timate of borrowing is approximately $22,000,000. Assuming the debt will be repaid over 30 years and carry an effective interest rate of 4%, the principal payment is expected to be around $730,000 per year and the annually-due interest will be $880,000 in the first year then gradually decline to $30,000 over the course of the loan. The sum of principal and interest payments in the first full year of debt service thus represents just under 1%of the non-exempt property tax revenue that will likely be raised in that year. This Committee agrees that it is important for the town to proceed with this project in order to allow the personnel of the Fire Department to have a facility that allows them to efficiently carry out their responsi- bilities and to provide residents and businesses with high quality fire preventive and suppression services. The Committee recommends approval of this request(9-0). "Lexington Fire Station Schematic Design Study Report",dated 2/15/2011,Donham&Sweeney Architects. This report is available on the Town website at: http://records.lexingtonma.gov/weblink/O/doc/142658/Pagel.aspx . 37