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Hannah Anderson, Secretary
Jay Simeone
George Martin
Marc Luescher
Michelle Walton
FAX 978.582.4148
Lunenburg Finance Committee
09-27-18
Location: Town Hall
Present: Terri Burchfield, John Henshaw, Hannah Anderson, Michelle Walton, Marc Luescher
Absent: George Martin, Jay Simeone
Guest: Heather Lemieux, TM.
1. Open Meeting:
The Chair called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm. This meeting is being recorded and
televised for re-broadcast on the Lunenburg Public Access cable channel.
2. Communications:
Public Comment:
None
From the Committee:
Terri suggested the community takes a look at the Virtex (Property Condition Studies)
that are on the Lunenburg, Mass website as a refresher as this is an ongoing discussion
and will be until it is finally resolved.
New Communications:
Nothing in our mailbox but Terri did want to let people know that the Planning Board is
having a Public Hearing about Marijuana sometime soon, so keep a look out for that.
3. Discussion regarding Free Cash. -JH Lead
John talked about new growth in the last 11 years and how it effects the town in
revenue. John says we cannot plan on new growth being a specific amount or percent
because it has a wide variance. It's not predictable or stable year to year like free cash
and the standard 2.5% levy is.
Terri asked if residential new growth includes places like Tri-Town? Yes
Terri asked if residential growth also includes building improvements on their home? Yes
Terri asked if in column 8, looking at one year at a time, i.e. 2015, the 1.4% is in there
and then the 2.5% is applied on top of that? Yes
John wanted to say there is an association between new growth and free cash, when we
budget for new growth it is about $375K but as shown in FY17 & FY18 new growth was
$488K & $481K making it a little over $100K in those years.
Karen Brochu said, if there is an increase from new growth from what was actually
estimated at Annual Town Meeting then those monies are appropriated during Special
Town Meeting in the Fall.
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Marc and Karen Brochu have made a date to enter numbers from the last 6 years. The
tool is set up for last 15 years, then it will just be adding more data. Terri mentioned how
nice it will be to see Marc and George's information together and where we are going
and why. One of the tools used is Cleargov.com but that is not the platform Marc is
using.
6. Review Minutes
9-13-18 minutes for review, Marc motioned to approve minutes as amended by Terri,
John second. 5-0
3-22.18 minutes for review, John motioned to approve minutes, Marc Second. 5-0
7. Town Manager/Financial Officer Reports
Karen Brochu- Balance sheet was submitted for the Department of Revenue today for
Free Cash Certification and she estimates it will be $1,530,000 and some change.
The town just received the growth from RRC, the company that does the towns personal
property values. Originally when estimated it was $50K but the actual is about $97K.
Based on the total estimated growth being $375K versus what we think it will be now,
there is $37,904 additional dollars available. That takes in account the personal property
component of the growth, not the real estate. There is a number from Harold and he
was firm from the real estate number so if that is the case the total new growth is $37K
higher than the $375K budgeted right now.
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Police Dept - Marc
Met with Chief Marino about staffing. In terms of
population growth adding one Police Officer per year
for the next 10 years would be fine but when it comes
to number of incidents that the department is dealing
with then the plan looks completely different, needing
5 officers right now.
Reached out to the Superintendent to schedule a
meeting for October.
Fire Dept - George
Schools - Hannah
Monty Tech - Hannah
Green Comm Task Force-Jay
Sewer Commission -Jay
Charter Review Comm - Terri
9. Public Comment
Terri mentioned the Ham & Bean Super on October 20m, 2018 at the Eagle house 4-7pm
10. Next Meetings
•October 11, 2018 6:30pm with BOS
7:30pm Public Hearing for Special Town Meeting
•October 25tr, 2018
11. Adjournment
John made a motion to adjourn. Hannah seconded the motion. The committee approved the
motion 5-0 at 7:45pm
Submitted by: Hannah Anderson
12. Attachments: (5) John and George's handouts.
1. Johns handout (draft) New Growth by Fiscal Year
George's handout (draft) pg. 1 Service Level Debt ***Trend Analysis*** Forecast
3. George's handout (draft) pg. 2 Fiscal Debt Policies (Forecast)
George's handout (draft) pg. 3 Itemized Regular Debt
George's handout (draft) pg.4 Itemized Excludable Debt