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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-02-16-AC-min 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 02/16/2023 AC Minutes 2 will be reopener clauses in any new contract to allow the possibilities of going to automated collec- tion, of allowing for trash metering, or of accommodating a more robust food composting program. Currently, there is a fee of $70 to $80 per ton to drop off the collected recycling material at the recy- cling facility. This cost is expected to escalate to $100 per ton next year. About 90% of the mate- rial collected in the recycling pickup is accepted for recycling processing. The tipping fee for trash is currently or will soon be $88 per ton, and may soon be less than the tipping fee for the recycling stream. Over the next two to three years, the tipping fee for trash is expected to increase very sig- nificantly. In response to a question, Mr. Pinsonneault said that the success of the proposed composting pilot program would be checked by monitoring the amount of trash collected, via weighing the collection trucks or otherwise estimating the amounts of trash collected. In regard to food composting, Black Earth does have estimates of how much material they collect. Per a recent State ban on disposal of mattresses and box springs in the trash, the Town pays its con- tractor for picking them up along with white goods. The Town has found a contractor that will take the mattresses and box springs at $45 a piece compared to a more typical $100. A proposal to cre- ate a revolving fund and charge a fee for the collection of mattresses and white goods, etc., will be presented to the Select Board most likely after the annual town meeting ends. The annual cash flow through a revolving fund is estimated to be about $230,000. The current trash collection is a manual process with partial automation. Full automation entails us- ing specified containers which would have a specified size and could facilitate charging a fee per container. The current Town bylaw allowance of 6 barrels per week is very generous compared to the limits in many other municipalities and may have negative effects when the Town applies for certain grants. There is consideration of changing the Town bylaw that says the Town must provide a free way to dispose of trash. Mr. Pinsonneault noted that several requested program improvements are not recommended by the Town Manager. One of these is related to maintenance of the new streetscape in Lexington Center that may not be urgently needed as the work will be under warranty for one year. The water and sewer budgets will be increasing because of increases in the MWRA assessments. Preliminary assessments just issued by the MWRA show a combined increase of 5.2% (the White Book contains 10% placeholders, but those should be updated before the Annual Town Meeting). The new automated water metering system is just about fully implemented. There will be increased software costs to keep the system running, and that will also affect the water and sewer budgets. On the other hand, the budget for meter replacement will likely decrease. Mr. Levine asked about replacement of the 350 or so non-LED streetlights with LEDs. Mr. Pinson- neault said that those are compact fluorescent streetlights that use less energy than the metal halide and high-pressure sodium vapor and other streetlights that were replaced with LEDs several years ago. The DPW is working with Eversource to analyze whether it makes economic sense to install LEDs in the remaining lights. In regard to the capital program, there is a need to repave some of the municipal parking lots. Fund- ing for a lead and copper water line survey and replacement program will be requested. The DPW has asked that the cost of a consultant for the water line program be funded with ARPA funds. There is work going on to analyze the alternatives for replacing the water towers, including testing the current site and determining whether it makes sense to repair the foundation under one of the tanks to prolong its useful life. 02/16/2023 AC Minutes 3 There is a need to do maintenance of traffic signals, as some of them are not operating properly. Some of the signal controllers are old and it is difficult to obtain replacements for parts that are not working. Replacement of, for example, a signal controller is considered to be a capital investment; the cost would be too high to be covered in the operating budget. The intersection of Pleasant and Watertown Streets will be changed to a roundabout, and the esti- mated cost may be in the FY2024 budget. The driveway to an abutting private development will enter the roundabout; this is legal and will be taken into account in the design. The bidding process for the whole Battlegreen streetscape including the roundabout near the Battlegreen is open right now. The proposed project to put a sidewalk on Cedar St. includes a roundabout at the intersection of Cedar St. with Hill St. and Paul Revere Rd. The capital budget includes a request to fund the replacement of 6 or 7 DPW vehicles with the most expensive being a street sweeper and a truck used for the collection of trash from the bins in parks, etc. The possibility of obtaining these two vehicles with electric or hybrid power was investigated but was found to not be economical at this time. The recommended budget includes the installation of electric charging facilities at the DPW building. A stormwater utility is being considered but no action on it will be requested at the upcoming an- nual town meeting. It may be on the warrant of a fall town meeting. Town meeting would be asked to create a stormwater enterprise fund, and in a separate action, to change the town bylaws to allow fees to be imposed to fund the Town’s stormwater management expenses. In regard to the admin- istration of the fee collection, if an enterprise fund is created and fees approved, the Town would add a line on water/sewer bills for the stormwater fee. This would streamline the administration so that no new staff would be needed. Mr. Pinsonneault noted that future tightening of regulations on the amounts of phosphorus that contaminate stormwater could mean that the Town will need to take expensive actions to meet the tighter regulations. If a stormwater enterprise fund is created, the Se- lect Board has indicated an intention to fund its operations from the General Fund for at least the first year to mitigate the impact of a new fee on taxpayers. The Select Board is also considering pro- posing an “underride,” which must be approved by a town-wide referendum, to make the transition from tax-based to a fee-based stormwater management operations all or partly revenue-neutral on a permanent basis. The DPW is requesting further capital improvements for public grounds irrigation systems and is advocating that there be an annual article to fund the construction of new sidewalks. The amount that will be requested for sewage pumping stations will be less than requested in recent years, since nearly all of the stations have been renovated recently or are being done now. The bids for the work on the North St. pumping station were recently opened. AC Report to Town meeting Mr. Michelson asked Ms. Kosnoff about 3-year financial projections. Ms. Kosnoff described the progress to date, and said the projections are almost complete. Ms. Kosnoff stated that the Brown Book would be released on Friday. There was discussion about the distribution of paper versus soft copies of the Brown Book and the AC report. The TMMA will survey town meeting members as to their preferences. More paper copies of the AC report may need to be printed this year than in the recent two or three years. 02/16/2023 AC Minutes 4 Minutes of Prior Meetings There are two outstanding sets of minutes but neither is ready to be approved. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned by roll call vote at 9:10 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Alan M. Levine Approved: March 2, 2023 Exhibits ● Agenda, posted by Mr. Parker