===PAGE 1=== TOWN OF LUNENBURG CAPITAL PLANNING COMMITTEE July 31 , 2024 Bilotta Meeting Room Lunenburg Town Hall 17 Main Street Lunenburg, MA 01462 Present Members: Vice Chair Tom Alonzo, Chair Peter Beardmore, Clerk Matt Brenner, Member-at-large Rob Bowen Absent Member: Finance Committee Representative Chris Menard Agenda 1. Call to order The meeting opened at 7:30 PM 2. Review and approve minutes There were no minutes to review. 3. Public Comment a. Member s The Committee welcomed a new member, Rob Bowen. b. Public There were no comments from the public. 4. Proposal and discussion for capital planning presentations and meeting schedule Peter Beardmore hasn ’t received any specific information about the availability of any department heads. Peter Beardmore plans to reach out to the Interim T own M anager to work on accelerating the presentation s from the department heads. 5. Standard information, criteria for capital planning presentations Peter Beardmore believes there should be some sort of overview of the needs and a slide emphasizing any key points that are not already covered in the clear gov submission. The C ommittee reviewed the clear gov submission form and its categories for criteria. There needs to be discussion about whether or not projects could potentially be support ed by any G reen C ommunities grants. Tom Alonzo requests documents be printed on 8 ½ x 11 sheets . P owerPoint presentation s should not be in PDF format. There should be a title for each request and a short description of the reasoning including ===PAGE 2=== pricing, maintenance price , why it is wanted, why it ’s needed, how ’s it going to be helpful . Matt Brenner wants to know how the request fits into the department ’s future . Additionally, there must be some level of cost benefit s analysis. Many departments have very repetitive capital needs. Peter Beardmore requests financial plans for new equipment. For g eneral request s for items that represent new inventory there needs to be some sort of cost benefit analysis. The se include items that represent replacements of aging inventory . Tom Alonzo states a ll dep artment heads need to know this is a sales pitch. They are s elling to the B oard to then have the B oard sell it at the Town M eeting. 6. Discussion on Draft Financial Policy Manual and possible follow- up Peter Beardmore states if the financial policy manual is followed it would make things a lot clearer . The C apital P lanning section is a 4-page document. Peter Beardmore notes there are no major objections but questions if this would have to be adopted as a replacement to the existing policy. Tom Alonzo states if there is something to be changed in the manual, then there would have to be a change in the charter, or a bylaw would have to be added. If this manual isn ’t consistently updated, then it will become useless rather quickly. Peter Beardmore requests the C ommittee read the document and have a discussion at an upcoming meeting . 7. Schedule and topics for future meetings Peter Beardmore suggests completing the annual workload earlier than usual. It ’s anticipated that there will be 5 to 6 weeks of presentations followed by 2 to 3 meetings to nail down the priorities list. Peter Beardmore believes presentations could start as early as September 11 th . Historical ly the C apital P lanning C ommittee must submit a prioritized list to the Town Manager. Then the Town Manager will investigate available funds from free cas h and other available resources to come up with a number to support the capital. The T own M anager does have the ability to reprioritize the list . The next anticipated meeting is August 21 st at 6:30PM . 8. Public comment a. Members The were no comments from the members . ===PAGE 3=== b. Public There were no comments from the public. 9. Adjourn There was a motion to adjourn by Tom Alonzo, seconded by M att Brenner. All in favor. T he meeting closed at 8:25 PM .