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02/16/2023 AC Minutes 1 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) February 16, 2023 Place and Time: Remote Participation: in accordance with An Act Relative to Extending Certain State of Emergency Accommodations, signed into law by Gov. Baker on July 16, 2022, communica- tion took place via a Zoom teleconferencing session that was open to the public; 7:30 p.m. Members Present: Glenn Parker, Chair; Sanjay Padaki, Vice-Chair; John Bartenstein; Alan Levine, Secretary; Eric Michelson; Lily Manhua Yan; Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex officio) Members Absent: Anil Ahuja; Sean Osborne Other Attendees: David Kanter, Capital Expenditures Committee; David Pinsonneault, Director of Public Works At 7:36 p.m. Mr. Parker called the meeting to order and confirmed attendance by roll call. Mr. Levine agreed to take minutes and recorded the meeting for the purpose of generating minutes. Announcements and Liaison Reports Mr. Levine reported that he had attended a School Building Committee meeting on Monday, Febru- ary 13, and most of a school Master Planning Advisory Committee (MPAC) on Wednesday, Febru- ary 15. At the former meeting school officials said that they had received a notice that they may want to attend the March 1 meeting of the MSBA Board when the Board could vote to invite Lex- ington into the Feasibility phase for the Lexington High School process. Mr. Levine said that the old Harrington School building, presently the Lexington Public Schools (LPS) Central Office, was the subject of extended discussion at the MPAC meeting. The building received an “F” grade in a recent analysis of the condition of town buildings by a consulting firm. The building also sits in the middle of a site that could be used for two large multiuse athletic fields during and after the con- struction of a new high school building. The construction of a new high school would necessitate taking many of the Center Recreation Complex fields out of recreational use for a number of years, both for the site of the new building and for the laydown area for the construction team. Mr. Parker announced that representatives from LPS and Minuteman Tech would join the AC meet- ing planned for March 2. Dr. Hackett and Mr. Coelho are willing to answer questions before that meeting. Since there are no guests scheduled to join the AC meeting on February 23, Mr. Parker would like to have the Committee start taking votes. He asked the other members to think about what they need to be ready to take votes. Department of Public Works Operating and Capital Budgets Mr. Pinsonneault led the discussion of the Public Works operating budget followed by a discussion of the capital budget. Mr. Pinsonneault noted that the current 5-year trash and recycling contract ends on June 30. The current contractor has set a price to extend the contract another 5 years that would be over $1M higher per year, i.e., over $3M compared to the present cost of just under $2M per year. The DPW has found another contractor that indicates they are willing to perform the same service for 5 years for about $2.6M per year (in the first year with escalation defined for the remaining years). There