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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-01-22-AC-min.pdf1/22/2026 AC Minutes Minutes Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee (AC) January 22, 2026 Place and Time: Remote participation via a Zoom teleconferencing session that was open to the public; 7:30 p.m. Members Present: Glenn Parker, Chair; Alan Levine, Secretary; Anil Ahuja; John Bartenstein; Eric Michelson; Sean Osborne; Vinita Verma; Carolyn Kosnoff, Assistant Town Manager, Finance (non-voting, ex officio) Members Absent: Sanjay Padaki, Vice -Chair; Lily Yan Other Attendees: Melissa Battite, Director of Recreation and Community Programs; Marilyn Fenollosa, Chair, Community Preservation Committee (CPC); Lisah Rhodes, Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC); Priya Patel All votes recorded below were conducted by roll call. At 7:35 p.m. Mr. Parker called the meeting to order and took attendance by roll call. Announcements and Liaison Reports Ms. Kosnoff announced that the White Book (preliminary recommended budget) is on target to be published on Friday, January 23. The budget for municipal departments is now balanced. The state Group Insurance Commission (GIC) updated its guidance on the increase of health insurance premi- ums from a 13.5% increase to a 9% increase which corresponds to difference of about $1.5 million. That allows additional funds to be allocated to both the school and municipal budgets. In response to a question from Mr. Bartenstein, Ms. Kosnoff stated that this change also allowed staff to zero out the use of free cash for the operating budget; most of that free cash will remain un- allocated. Ms. Kosnoff also announced that the Minuteman Regional High School assessment for Lexington will go up significantly, primarily because of an increase in the rolling -average number of Lexing- ton students used to determine Lexington's assessment. Ms. Kosnoff also noted that the Select Board is scheduled to approve the warrant for the Annual Town Meeting (ATM) on Monday, January 26. Mr. Levine stated that the School Building Committee met on Monday, January 12, 2026. Most of that meeting was occupied by discussions of aspects of the project design. A report on the status of the targeted value design process found that it has already yielded about $1.3 million in projected cost savings which is more than the estimate of roughly $500,000 to carry out the process. He also attended a meeting of the Sustainable Lexington Committee on Tuesday, January 20, where there was, among other topics, very preliminary discussion of potential new solar energy projects at the Town property on Hartwell Ave. and on the Harrington School grounds near the site of the new fields. Planning for the Committee's Report to the 2026 Annual Town Meeting Mr. Levine asked Ms. Kosnoff about the availability of current financial data in Wdesk that will fa- cilitate work on the report to town meeting. She answered that the data would be put into Wdesk shortly after the publication of the White Book. 1/22/2026 AC Minutes Mr. Levine also asked Ms. Kosnoff whether there was intent to put any funds into the OPEB trust specifically for the Recreation Enterprise Fund in analogy to the amounts from the Water and Sewer Enterprise Funds. She said that the present practice is to handle the Recreation OPEB obligation via the indirect charges to the Recreation Enterprise Fund from the General Fund, and, in any case, that the amount of funds involved would be very small. Discussion of Financial Articles for the 2026 Annual Town Meeting Recreation and Community Programs Ms. Battite said that there will be two requests for funds in regard to the Pine Meadows Golf Course. The first is $130,000 for course improvements which will involve shaping the second green and bunker and extending the third fairway to the left and installing irrigation in that fairway. She also noted that the Recreation Department would like to have drawings made of the underground infrastructure (irrigation and drainage pipes, etc.) since no drawings were transferred to the Town when it acquired the golf course. The Recreation Department is considering requesting funding next year to hire a surveyor to do the work. The second request is for $60,000 for equipment for the golf course to purchase a new Toro sprayer and an aerator as replacements for current pieces of equipment. Ms. Battite also described the request for $2.63 million in Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds that will be brought to the ATM under Article 10. Approval of that request would complete the funding needed to construct two new rectangular athletic fields at the Maple St. site where the old Harrington School building now sits. The current request was preceded by the appropriation for the design in 2024 and by an appropriation of $1,197,904 in CPA funds last year. A full-size cricket field will be able to overlay the new fields. There will be field lighting, a shelter area, team areas, and other amenities. The fields will consist of natural -grass sod on top of a sand base. Community Preservation Committee Article Ms. Fenollosa reviewed some statistics regarding the uses of CPA funds. She went over both the to- tal amounts of funding and the associated percentages for each of the four areas of historic re- sources, community housing, open space, and recreational resources. Among other charts, she showed graphs of the spending in each of these areas versus fiscal year and the cumulative amount in each area versus fiscal year. She also reviewed the history of Lexington's share of state matching funds and the amount that is expected to be received for FY2027, i.e., just over $1 million. She and Committee members dis- cussed how the amount of Lexington's state matching funds depends on the 3% surcharge rate adopted by the Town and how that amount would change if the surcharge rate was lower. Ms. Fenollosa went through the items recommended for funding using the presentation that the CPC developed for the Annual Town Meeting. The funds for archival preservation of historic documents would preserve two police department journals from 1923 to 1927, two marriage intention ledgers from 1918 to 1927, a police arrest ledger from 1921 to 1926, and the tax collector's book from 1899. In response to a question from Mr. Bartenstein, Ms. Fenollosa said she did not know whether there is any data on how often the historic documents are used for research but said she would inquire about that. She said that the $2 million for the Munroe Center replaces an equal amount of debt financing with cash and the project will remain fully financed, pending reception of bids. 1/22/2026 AC Minutes In regard to the funds for the Affordable Housing Trust (AHT), she suggested that someone contact the Chair of the trust, Elaine Tung, who has a detailed five-year plan. Ms. Fenollosa said that she expects Ms. Tung to post a video on the Town Meeting web site regarding the AHT request for CPA funds. The funding for LexHAB follows similar requests in previous fiscal years. The $100,000 for playgrounds would fund the installation of fences around the playgrounds at the Bridge and Fiske Schools. Fences would improve health and safety by discouraging access to peo- ple and their dogs, and even coyotes. It was noted that few other playgrounds in Lexington are sur- rounded by fences. The amount requested for funds for administration is the same as in previous years — the portion of the funds that are not used will flow back to the CPA account. Future Meeting Schedule A financial summit meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 28. Mr. Parker will not be able to attend. There are Appropriation Committee meetings scheduled for at least the next five or six Thursdays. The agendas are presently planned to include the following topics and invitees: January 29 Walnut St. speed controls Bob Rotberg and others February 5 financial oversight of the LHS project Deepika Sawhney and others February 26 public capital project information Steve Kaufman. Minutes of Prior Meetings Minutes for the meeting of January 8, 2026, were approved with several minor edits by a vote of 7- 0. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Alan M. Levine Approved: January 29, 2026 Exhibits 9 Agenda, posted by Mr. Parker