2012-04-20-CPC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Addelson, Assistant Town Manager for Finance, was asked to present possible financing options for the potential $2.95M acquisition. He explained that the CPA would have approximately $1.87M in the CPF for FY 14, and described four funding scenarios for paying down the debt service. He said one approach would be to select a scenario which took advantage of the 10% that is required to be aside each year for open space purposes — roughly $440,000 in FY14. He showed bonding scenarios of 3-20 years, noting where the "break even" points were, (where the 10% open space set-aside could be used to satisfy the debt service.) Ms. Stolz of the Capital Expenditures Committee stated that her Committee had discussed 5 years as a preliminary bonding term, though they had not yet taken a vote on the matter. Mr. Cohen noted that the percentage rate at the time of bonding could be more favorable than the 4% that Mr. Addelson had used in his analysis. Mr. Bartenstein asked when final debt payments would be made for Busa and Cotton Farm; Mr. Addelson replied that final payments would be made on both projects in FY13. Mr. Burnell was asked about his minority opinion in the Selectmen's vote to acquire the Wright Farm for conservation purposes. He said his objection was due to his desire to see active agricultural use, "grazing or farming". He said he did not want to see the land lie fallow. Mr. Hamilton responded to this concern, stating that the Conservation Commission leases its land for agricultural use, both for pasture land and for farming. Ms. Manz asked if the Wright Farm was being considered for a community farm, to which Mr. Hamilton responded that it was not. Ms. Manz then directed the discussion to the application process and whether the CPC was prepared to vote on the application as submitted. Some members expressed concern with the process, stating that it felt "rushed" and ill-timed, giving them little opportunity to review the two new updated appraisals and the Draft Letter of Intent that had been submitted during the meeting. Mr. Adler expressed his concern with the process and stated that he would not vote on the application if given insufficient time to review the 16 pages of material that had been submitted. Ms. Weiss noted that the information session would not be held until April 24th, and suggested the CPC wait until after the hearing to vote. Ms. Shaw expressed her difficulty with the process, and said there had been too little time to review the important information before the Committee. Ms. Krieger stated that she was prepared to vote. Ms. Manz noted that it had been very difficult to get all members together for the present meeting, and questioned whether another meeting of the full Committee could be held before the CPC report needed to go to print. She polled members individually as to their preferences. With a majority stating that they were prepared to vote, Ms. Manz called for a motion to vote on the acquisition at the present meeting. This vote was (6-3) in favor of voting immediately rather than postponing the vote to another meeting. 0