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March 27, 2006
Minutes
Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee
March 27, 2006
Members Present: A. Levine (Chair), D. Brown (Vice Chair), J. Bartenstein, R. Cole, R.
Eurich, P. Hamburger, P. Hoffman, D. Kanter, E. Michelson, R. Addelson (Assistant
Town Manager for Finance; non-voting)
Additional attendees: Ephraim Weiss, Patrick Mehr, Alessandro Alessandrini (Energy
Conservation Committee), Steve Kropper (Energy Conservation Committee), Keith
Ohmart (Energy Conservation Committee)
The meeting was called to order at 6:37 by Al Levine in Town Office Bldg. Rm. 111.
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1. E. Michelson volunteered to take minutes.
2. Eph Weiss discussed the points of his proposed warrant article for the
establishment of an Energy Committee. He distributed an outline of the
committee’s duties which include: inventorying existing operations, personnel
and their training; analyzing utility usage by building and system-wide; studying
the current preventive maintenance and repair schedule for buildings and
equipment by reviewing work records and interviewing personnel; reporting
findings to Town Meeting; and making recommendations to Town Meeting on
warrant articles. He made the point that creating a unified building department
would help insulate school maintenance budgets from the educational programs.
Steve Kropper stated the goals of the newly formed Selectmen’s Energy
Conservation Committee (ECC): reporting the magnitude of the energy use
problem to assure we are getting the best price for utilities; supporting the schools
efforts to do low and no-cost energy saving fixes; initiating a program to
immediately do minor capital investments that have short payback periods;
creating a plan to undertake major capital investments with longer paybacks; and
being involved in life cycle planning on new buildings to assure that life cycle
cost are considered.
AC committee members encouraged the ECC to report to Town Meeting annually
and to consider policies related to energy issues. Eph Weiss was asked to further
investigate whether the existing ECC was addressing his goals, and whether the
ECC, as a Selectmen’s committee, would be as effective an advocate for those
goals as would his proposed committee.
3. A. Levine queried the members as to their availability for a proposed budget
summit on Thursday at 5:30. Five members were available for a 6:30 start time.
4. R. Addelson presented the following updated information:
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March 27, 2006
a) Article 28c - the Selectmen are still asking for $150,000 of building
envelope money to remain unallocated and contingent on an override.
b) Article 28c – the $40,000 renovation to the Westview Cemetery building
includes about $13,000 to connect to the gas main and the balance to
completely replumb and replace the heating system and to repair the roof.
c) Article 28c – no plan exists for the Fire Station floor because the
engineering study still has to be completed.
d) The Unreserved Fund Balance (Free Cash) will be appropriated as
follows:
Article 40 – Stabilization Fund $2 mil
Article 34 – Harrington/Fiske $250K
Article 17 – Operating Budget $2 mil
Article 44 is unknown but should be $0
e) Article 39 – Post Employment benefits (retiree health insurance trust) will
be indefinitely postponed.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:28 .
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Eric Michelson
Approved June 26, 2006
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