2005-04-27-AC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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April 27, 2005 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee April 27, 2005 Place and time: Cary Memorial Hall, Estabrook Hall, 6:00 p.m. Members present: Al Levine, Deborah Brown, Rick Eurich, Rod Cole, David Kanter, Ron Pawliczek, Eric Michelson, John Bartenstein This meeting of the Appropriation Committee was held in conjunction with Budget Collaboration Group Meeting VII, which was convened primarily to discuss supplemental appropriations under Article 29 and school capital issues under Articles 30 and 31. Liberty Ride 1.. Board of Selectmen Chair Jeanne Krieger advised that a motion would be made at that evening’s Town Meeting to amend Article 37, Line 7300 (Economic Development) to eliminate reauthorization of the Liberty Ride Program Revolving Fund. Although the Liberty Ride has historically operated on a break-even basis by the end of the fiscal year, (residual deficits having been made up by contributions), it has not historically been able to operate on a pay-as-you-go basis throughout the year. As amended, the anticipated expenses of the Liberty Ride would be appropriated from the General Fund, to be offset by anticipated receipts. Additional Funding for Fiske Construction Project 2.. The first issue discussed under Article 29 was the need for a supplemental appropriation to fund cost overruns on the Fiske School construction project. School Facilities Manager Dana Ham reported that bids had been opened earlier in the day. The low bid was $14,245,000 (base bid) plus $655,000 (bid alternates) for a total of $14,900,000. The addition of FF&E, design and soft costs of $3,260,000, and a contingency of $750,000, would bring the total estimated project cost to $18,910,000. Although the final project cost was not as large as had been feared given recent severe inflationary trends in the construction industry, Dana reported that it still would exceed the $17,600,000 remaining under the Harrington/Fiske debt exclusion override by about $1,300,000, which is approximately 4% of the original $32,150,000 debt exclusion adopted in 2002. Therefore, the Schools would need authorization to borrow this additional amount in order to accept the bid. There ensued an extensive discussion about how best to handle the anticipated cost overrun. Options discussed included: (1) seeking authorization from the Department of Revenue to borrow the additional amount under the outstanding debt exclusion override (DOR policy permits a one-time addition of “a modest amount attributable to inflation, new regulatory requirements or minor project changes”); (2) putting out a new debt exclusion override to fund the additional costs; (3) funding the overrun with additional in-levy borrowing; or (4) cutting project costs. - 1 -