2007-03-22-AC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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March 22, 2007 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee March 22, 2007 Place and time: Room 111, Town Office Building, 8:00 PM Members present: Alan Levine (Chair), Deborah Brown (Vice-Chair), John Bartenstein (Secretary), Rod Cole, Rick Eurich, David Kanter, Mike Kennealy, Eric Michelson, Rob Addelson (ex officio, non-voting) The meeting was called to order at 8:20 PM. Others present: Rachel Dorr, Board Member and Clerk, Supportive Living, Inc. (“SLI”); Charles Lamb, Capital Expenditures Committee; Joel Adler, Community Preservation Committee; Dawn McKenna. Deborah Brown provided an update from the March 21 School Committee Meeting. The School Committee approved a budget of $69,756,487 for FY08, with $4,636,987 in at- risk items. Rob Addelson said that the Town’s “Fiscal Year 2008 Recommended Budget & Financing Plan” (the Brown Book) would be available on March 23; the first day that Town Meeting can discuss the school budget is therefore April 23, while the other financial articles could be discussed beginning on April 9. The Committee then discussed with Rachel Dorr the Douglas House project which is being proposed to receive $300K of Community Preservation Act funds in FY2008. Douglas House would be for survivors of brain injury; the project would produce 15 units, and brain injury would be a criterion for living there. The project is designed for low income residents who will pay a low amount of rent and continue to receive services through their existing insurance plan. There would be two staff members working at night and at least two at all times during the day plus a registered nurse and a program supervisor, all provided by New England Rehab Hospital. The staff would help tenants to get out to their activities/jobs, make sure that the personal care attendants and medicine are on site, and perform other duties. SLI is strictly the developer, landlord, operator, and manager of the project. Rents would be approximately $750 per unit per month for 11 units. Nine of the eleven units would be subsidized by HUD, while two would have no particular subsidy. In the case of those two units, SLI will create an “internal subsidy”. The remaining 4 units will be charged rent at a market rate; some tenants will have assets, from an insurance claim for example, where they typically get $300-400 per day from an insurance company and pay $100-150 per day for housing. All 15 units count as affordable housing under Chapter 40B and Lexington residents would be given preference for two of the units. SLI does not know who the tenants will be, but at least three Lexington residents are potentials tenants. - 1 -