HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-11-13-AC-min 11/13/2024 AC Minutes
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Minutes
Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC)
November 13, 2024
Place and Time: Cary Memorial Building, Hudson Room; 6:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.
Members Present: Glenn Parker, Chair; Sanjay Padaki, Vice-Chair; Alan Levine, Secretary; Anil
Ahuja; John Bartenstein; Eric Michelson; Sean Osborne; Vinita Verma; Lily Yan (7:10 p.m.); Car-
olyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex officio)
Other Attendees: Charles Lamb, Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC); Peter Kelley; Jeanne
Krieger; Dr. Julie Hackett, Superintendent of Schools; Rosalyn Impink, Budget Officer
At 6:35 p.m. Mr. Parker called the meeting to order.
Announcements and Liaison Reports
Mr. Padaki noted that the Recreation Committee had revised the motion under Article 7.
Ms. Kosnoff noted that the School Building Committee (SBC) had voted to choose the option
“Bloom” which would construct an all-new high school on the Center Recreation athletic fields.
The SBC also chose the “add/reno” field house option for the baseline plan and decided to not re-
serve any area at the site for a new field house.
Warrant Articles for Special Town Meeting 2024-1
Article 7
Ms. Krieger told the group that she is no longer planning to move an amendment since the Recrea-
tion Committee has revised the main motion to study both synthetic turf and natural grass field op-
tions.
Article 8
Mr. Parker allowed Mr. Kelley to speak to Article 8. Mr. Kelley stated that he was the chair of the
Permanent Building Committee (PBC) in the years before and during the high school renovation
that was carried out around the year 2000. Mr. Kelley noted that the 1997 debt exclusion referen-
dum failed even though he advocated for it. A debt exclusion was approved for a reduced scope
project in 1998.
Mr. Kelley believes the original (1953) buildings are worth keeping, but that it would not be worth-
while to put money into the 1960’s buildings.
He opposes building on the athletic fields. He stated that since the Bloom concept building would
be constructed close to the current buildings and the noise from the construction would be an issue,
it is hard for him to accept arguments about (less) disruption that are given in favor of Bloom.
Mr. Kelley raised the issue that deep foundations will be necessary to build on the fields since the
fields are located on top of a 50 foot deep layer of peat.
Mr. Padaki asked about the claim that the Thrive concept might be less expensive than Bloom. Mr.
Kelley responded by saying that the project should deal only with what is needed now. There was
discussion of what work would trigger a requirement to do a building code upgrade and what that
might involve. Mr. Kelley said he used a figure of $1000 per square foot to estimate the cost of the
Thrive concept and that his estimate of the time to construct a phase-one building was based on his
11/13/2024 AC Minutes
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prior experience. In response to a question, Mr. Kelley stated that he had not fully outlined next
steps in the event this article was approved by Town Meeting.
Article 9
Mr. Padaki said that he and Mr. Ahuja met earlier with the Select Board and have revised the main
motion under Article 9 to be acceptable to that board. The Committee revoted to recommend ap-
proval of the revised motion under Article 9 by a vote of 9-0.
Ms. Yan added her yes vote to prior articles and abstained on Article 8.
Adjourn
The meeting was adjourned at 7:20 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Alan M. Levine
Approved: December 12, 2024
Exhibits
● Agenda, posted by Mr. Parker