2024-02-01-AC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

2/1/2024 AC Minutes 1 Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) February 1, 2024 Place and Time: Remote participation via a Zoom teleconferencing session that was open to the public; 7:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m. Members Present: Glenn Parker, Chair; Sanjay Padaki, Vice-Chair; Alan Levine, Secretary; Anil Ahuja; John Bartenstein; Eric Michelson; Lily Yan (8:00 p.m.); Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex officio) Members Absent: Sean Osborne Other Attendees: Suzie Barry, Select Board; James Malloy, Town Manager; Dr. Julie Hackett, Su- perintendent, Lexington Public Schools; David Coelho, Asst. Superintendent for Finance and Oper- ations; David Kanter, Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC) At 7:34 p.m. Mr. Parker called the meeting to order and took attendance by roll call. All votes recorded below were conducted by roll call. Announcements and Liaison Reports There were no announcements or liaison reports. Lex250 Celebration Ms. Barry and Mr. Malloy discussed the current budget plan for the Lex250 Celebration (Semi- quincentennial). Ms. Barry stated that she had discussed the needs for the Town during the celebra- tion with Mr. Malloy, Doug Lucente (Select Board and Lex250 Committee), and the senior staff of the Town’s municipal departments including the Police command staff, Fire command staff, Dept. of Public Works, Dept. of Public Facilities, and the Health Dept. They reviewed the schedule of events, which continues to evolve, and reviewed the events planned for 2024. The full celebration will begin on April 19, 2024, and events are scheduled through July 2026. Ms. Barry asked the staff to consider what additional funding they would need during FY2025 to cover staffing, supplies, and equipment related to Lex250. Ms. Barry also attended a “public safety kickoff” at the MEMA bunker in Framingham to learn more about the preparations that should be made to handle these events. The command staffs of the Lexington Police and the Fire Departments were also represented at the meeting. Ms. Barry noted that Article 24 currently requests $500,000 to support the work of the Sem- iquincentennial Commission. The Commission currently has access to $500,000 in ARPA funds, which must be spent or under contract by the end of December 2024. The Commission also has an earmark of $100,000 of state ARPA funds from Senator Barrett, all of which has already been allo- cated if not spent. The commission expects to receive another $150,000 state earmark from Repre- sentative Ciccolo, which must be spent by June 30, 2024, but the status of this earmark is uncertain. Mr. Malloy stated that the Commission expense budget currently totals $1,013,000, but the availa- ble funding, including the amounts that are expected to be covered by ARPA funds and the upcom- ing request under Article 24 totals roughly $880,000. He is working refining the estimates of the funding of the Town services that will be needed to support the celebration. The timing of various expenses determines which funding source will be most appropriate. Most of the largest expenses