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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003-01-23-CEC-summit Town of Lexington Capital Expenditures Committee Draft Summit V Meeting Notes, including continuing Committee Meeting Notes January 23, 2003 Bowman School Gymnasium Committee members present: Bhatia, Burnell, Hornig, Rosenberg, Stolz Meetings: Wednesday, February 5, 7:30 p.m., Town Office Building, Room 111 At the Summit, convened at 7 p.m., Selectmen and School Committee agreed on an at-risk list comprising some $40,ooo more than required for the $4.957 million override amount. The total includes $216,000 of cash capital. Hornig projected a spreadsheet demonstrating committee priorities: landfill closure, Diamond gym floor, Cary Hall retrofit, and Harrington gym floor, for $790,.000 of short- term borrowing; cash of $327,000 for a replacement fire engine; and, at risk, Buckman Tavern roof, the DPW wkywalker equipment, and the fire department air-compressor unit, totaling $205,000. [See below for changes in these priorities.] Selectmen McKenna expressed an interest in jointly discussing which items to put at risk. Selectman Enrich asked about the amount of borrowing; Hornig said that it approximated the borrowing of last year, was below the Capital Budget Team recommendation (reflecting committee decisions to prioritize items within the Building Envelope and vehicle replacement requests; committee prioritization done before financing constraints were considered; and the sense that higher borrowig this year would reduce cash available still further for next year). [There was also discussion pertaining to the Ch. 90 and operating-overide road funds, and the debt-exclusion override road funds, both assumed in the committee working papers; and about the Hastings roof repair, which the committee thought could be deferred only a year, and which put the gym floor at risk.] Following the completion of the Summit, the committee remained in session to: •Discuss LHS acoustical retrofit with Spdt. Benton: the per-pupil cost of placements for severely hearing-impaired (cochlear implant) children averages about $35,000/year ($140,000 in current dollars per student through high school). Six qualifying children are in middle school now, and 17 total in the system. The school administration expects to learn 1/25 about SBA-reimbursement qualification for the LHS retrofit program; that decision will affect the committee’s recommendation on the capital expense involved. •Discuss with Fire Chief Torode the recent award to the department of a state grant to pay for the air compressor unit ($35,000), which can accordingly be removed from the cash capital needs list [might the committee want to make note of this and the prior state grant for the brush truck, even at the cost of a contribution from operating funds, and to comment the department for getting such grants, and to encourage such entrepreneurship elsewhere in the town?]; and the desirability of putting the replacement fire engine funding at risk in the override, since the override puts at risk the overtime/staffing for East Lexington, and effectively, the need for/ability to staff the replacement engine. Discussion focused on whether to put at risk or defer for a year; no decision reached, but a consensus— meriting more discussion—seemed to be to put the engine at risk along with the department operation funds already so exposed. •Report writing. Each committee member will examine her/his section of the report to write (DPW, Bhatia; Schools, Burnell; Library, Fire, Introduction, Stolz; Recreation, Hornig; etc. Rosenberg to focus on emerging DPW/Senior Center section, and to examine overall format, introduction, etc. All to examine 5-year projections, etc.) in preparation for meeting 2/5. Meeting adjourned 8:55 p.m. John S. Rosenberg Note that Hornig circulated an updated spreadsheet, reflecting the items above, prior to the circulation of these minutes.