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APPROPRIATION COMMITTEE 3' REPORT, April 23, 2007, TO 2007 ATM vehicle storage and operations area would reduce the total capital and operating life -cycle costs to the Town as opposed to an outdoor vehicle storage by about $1 IM (net present value). We note that while many aspects of their analysis could be debated because the effects considered are difficult to quantify definitively, the conclusion so strongly favors the indoor, minimally heated, storage- and - operations alternative that it would not change even if some of the advantages were eliminated from the accounting. In early February, the Board of Selectmen asked this Committee and other stakeholders whether, based on the work of the review team, they would support the continuation of work by the design team through the 50% completion of construction drawings for the Annual Town Meeting. This Committee voted unanimously: (1) To endorse the "review & confirm" process as responsive to the direction given by the 2006 Fall STM2; (2) To support the adjusted design as reasonable to the Town's needs for the DPW for the foreseeable future (e.g., —50 years); and (3) To endorse continuing to develop the construction documents based on the adjusted programmatic design so that a more - detailed design, with more precise costing for both capital and operating, would be ready prior to the 2007 Annual Town Meeting —with the expectation that this Committee would provide its opinion on that further - defined project at that Town Meeting. This Committee noted that it was endorsing the overall programmatic plan, including, among all the other aspects of the plan, the general size of the building, the decision to move the DPW senior administration and the Engineering Department from the Town Offices Building and the Municipal Building Maintenance Department from Cary Memorial Building to 201 Bedford Street, the inclusion of space in the new facility for the Schools senior maintenance staff (which space would accommodate a joint municipal /schools facilities - maintenance department), and the decision to include a minimally heated, indoor, vehicle storage and operations area. The Board of Selectmen and other committees also endorsed the recommendations resulting from the review process. With those confirmations having been made, the Board of Selectmen gave the PBC the go -ahead to proceed with the design to the point of 50% completion of construction documents. The design process continued with attention to the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC), electrical, and plumbing systems; the projected costs of energy for those systems; and the plans for operations during the construction. Much progress was also made on the exterior appearance—including the important "public face" of the facility (the fapade seen from Bedford Street, from the Minuteman Bikeway, and from the other adjoining properties). Issues on those matters have been addressed to our satisfaction. Upon achieving 50% completion of the construction documents, the design team sent them to a firm that used them to develop a new cost estimate. The PBC and the design team presented the design and that cost estimate to the Board of Selectmen on April 18, 2007. The estimated cost of the somewhat smaller and slightly reconfigured facility is $27.47M —which is being rounded to $27.5M. (That includes the $2.32M already appropriated and used for the design process.) More detailed information on the design, project costs, projected energy costs, and key- design rationale may be found at http://ci.lexington.ma.us/dpw/New%20Facility/DPW%20facility.ht Conclusion As one considers the wisdom of spending $27.5M on a new facility, we reiterate the points made in the Preface of this review that every resident takes advantage of, and benefits from, services provided by the DPW. Furthermore, it is the Town's responsibility to provide decent working conditions for its employees. The condition of the present facilities has deteriorated to the point that it is incumbent upon us to do something about them.