2024-01-04-AC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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1/4/2024 AC Minutes 2 Book, which documents the preliminary budget, is targeted for release on Friday, January 19. He release will be followed by a Budget Summit on January 25. Mr. Levine asked about how an additional $480,000 in state revenue for street maintenance from the Fair Share Amendment would be applied to the Town’s road budget. Ms. Kosnoff responded that the Town has not yet determined how it will allocate the additional funds, but staff are working with the Town Engineer to develop a plan that might include additional capital projects connected to roads and transportation around the Town. Ms. Kosnoff noted that the Fair Share Amendment will also impact Chapter 70 funding for schools, and the Town could see an increase of up to $100 per student instead of the initial assumption of $30 per student. There is some concern about how reliable this extra funding will be in coming years, but Ms. Kos- noff feels that the state is committed to a formula-based system that will provide consistent funding going forward. Review of Draft Warrant Articles for 2024 Annual Town Meeting Ms. Kosnoff stated that she expects the Select Board to approve the final warrant for the annual town meeting on Wednesday, January 17, with publication on January 18. Ms. Kosnoff stated that the funding request for the semiquincentennial celebration has been esti- mated at $500,000, which the Select Board had planned to fund using ARPA money. Unfortunately, the rules for ARPA money require the funds to be contractually committed by the end of 2024, which is incompatible with how the Town had intended to spend most of that money, e.g., overtime pay and other event expenses in calendar year 2025. This will require allocating some additional non-ARPA funding for the celebration. The Chair of the Semiquincentennial Committee is Suzie Barry. Ms. Kosnoff stated that the Town still has a great deal of flexibility on how the ARPA funds are used, primarily because the Town is receiving less than $10 million, which lowers the reporting re- quirements. She is not worried about losing any of the money due to an inability to find suitable contracts. Invitations for Staff to Discuss the FY2025 Budget Mr. Parker reviewed the draft warrant articles and asked for suggestions on items where the Com- mittee would like to invite a proponent to attend a meeting. The following table summarizes the re- sults of the review. Topic Invitee 173 Bedford St. renovation, Library Mike Cronin, Jim Malloy, and possibly someone from the Recreation Committee regarding the overall plan CPA projects CPC Chair Semiquincentennial celebration Suzie Barry (Celeb. Comm. Chair) Affordable Housing Trust AHT Chair Recreation projects, Old Res. Bath- house, Fitness Path Melissa Battite (Recreation Dept.), Christian Boutwell (Recreation Comm.) Municipal capital, water and wastewater capital, information tech- nology David Pinsonneault (Dept. of Public Works), Dave Pavlik (Water/Sewer Supt.)