===PAGE 1=== Lunenburg Finance Committee Meeting Minutes Bilotta Meeting Room Lunenburg Town Hall March 7 , 2024 Present Members: Chair Evan Watters, Vice Chair Chris Menard, Board Member Tom Gray, Board Member Dave Passios, Board Member Jean Russell (Zoom) , Board Member Jay Simeone Absent Member: Clerk Tiffaney Tavares 1. Call to Order Th e meeting opened at 7:05 PM . 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements There were no announcements . 4. Public Comment Peter Beardmore , 282 Pleasant Street , states there has been discussion about proportional increases in the town budget relating to new spending versus contractual obligations. He b elieves these numbers derived from the proposed budget but were not specified. Additionally, those numbers are to justify what he considers inequitable budgeting . Peter Beard more requests th at the F inance C ommittee review and delve into what real savings are in terms of discretionary funds/spending derived from retired debt services. There is a question about h ow much of th e $ 500,000 is actually spendable in the retiring debt service . 5. Town Manager Report There was no report from the Town Manager. 6. Finance Director Report There were n o new reports or updates . 7. New Business a. DPW FY25 Budget Presentation DPW D irector, Bill Bernard, presented the budget. Starting next week, the department will be fully staffed. For the presentation Bill Bernard r eviewed the budgets for the past years to get an average of the spending. The FY 25 request is 5.5% higher than FY 24 request. ===PAGE 2=== Bill Berard is requesting double the budget for this year ’s tree removal. A report was conducted in 2015 where an arborist came out to assess the trees. It was found that there are over 1,000 trees that are considered hazardous. There hasn ’t been a budget available so only some trees are only being taken down, but this has been on a reactive basis. Evan Watters request s a rough estimate of how much it costs to have an arbor study done. Bill Bernard states it ’s between $30,000 to $50,000. To remove a small tree the cost is roughly $1,000 . A large tree that requires a cran e is between $3,000 and $4,000 and needs to be taken down by contract ors since we don ’t have a tree bucket truck. Dave Passios questions where the removed trees go. Bill Bernard states there are not too many trees that are brough over to the landfill. Stormwater and drainage related issues are the number 1 call that ’s being received at the department. There is a backup occurring in some pipes and are too small for the water volume to pass through. Engineering needs to take place to find the water volume level that can come through that pipe. There will be upcoming public outreach related to a stormwater utility/enterprise fund so make the public aware of the issues. There is a continuing increase each year of roughly 50,000 for pavement management. Chapter 90 funds can also be used as another funding source for paving. Jay Simeone questions how much money right now is in the chapter 90 fund. Bill Bernard confirms there is 1.6 millio n in that fund. Evan Watters asks if there are any union contracts coming to an end. The highway crew ’s union is up on June 30 th . Chris Menard requests putting a plan in place for tree removal and stormwater for next budget season. Currently this year, we are $150,000 over the snow removal budget. Bill Bernard is hoping to get 4 new trucks before next winter. This will be cost effective as it will be much cheaper than hiring out for snow removal. The vehicle maintenance is level funds. There are new trucks, and the budget should be able to be maintained. Bill Bernard is requesting a larger budget for the cemetery. The seasonal laborers are requesting more hours and a higher pay rate. Chris Menard asks if the presented budget will meet the cemeteries ’ commissions high level of service. Bill Bernard states the level of service with this budget will not be met. The job title of Step 1 is currently $ 17 an hour and Bill Bernard is requesting $ 18 .58. The budget last year was for 19 hours per week for 17 weeks. Bill Bernard is looking to increase 19 hours a week for 20 weeks. ===PAGE 3=== Jay Simeone asks if they use inmates from the work progra m. Bill Bernard has used the DOC, and they were very helpful. The inmates don ’t get paid, and the town only needs to supply them with lunch. Bill Bernard has been in contact with the DOC, and they should be able to send a crew once a week . The C emetery Commission has enforced new rules and regulations. Bill Bernard would need more personnel than just once a week to meet their requirements. A grant has been received of $25,000 to complete a bridge and culvert prevent ative and maintenance plan . b. Facilities FY25 Budget Presentation The b udget was presented by the Facilities Director Christopher R uth . In 2023, P arks, F acilities and G rounds were removed from the umbrella of the D ept of P ublic W orks and a new dept was created. The new departments c onsist of a F acilities D irector, F acilities S uperintendent, F acilities C ustodian, part time R ecreation D irector , S easonal B each D irector, and S easonal L ifeguards . There are 11 town buildings and grounds that facilities are responsible for upkeep and maintenance. For the FY 25 budget there is a request for an additional $5,000 for a landscaper. The current 3-year contract is up this year. In the past 3 years the prices have risen and there have been services that haven ’t been completed over the years . There is a request to i ncrease the directors ’ hours from 19 hours to 28 hours per week. Currently there are not enough hours in the day to complete everything she is working on. This increase in hours doesn ’t include school vacation weeks where programs were running 5 days out of the week. There is enough work for this position to be full-time hours. Another request is an increase in the salary for the beach staff. They are constantly running a $ 4,500 deficit and need to use revolving funds. Anna Lockwood states the Parks Commission ran programs at TC Passios for 4 days out of the week and for 2 months . A total of $4,000 dollars were brought in of revenue from those programs. Chris Menard asks for an estimated cost for each building. Chris topher Ruth can get those numbers, but he doesn ’t have them available tonight. Christopher Ruth will send the numbers to Chris Menard. ===PAGE 4=== Evan Watters questioned why there is only a $4,500 difference in the facilities salaries from FY 24 to FY 25. Christopher Ruth states this is a very small department. Dave P assios asks if the budgeted numbers and actual numbers for the use of electricity are similar. Chris topher Ruth confirms that is the case. Dave Passios asks if there is a way to offset the elec tric costs . Chris topher Ruth and the Town Man a ger along with the Facilities Department are working out their solar credits . Un itil has rules where we are allowed to adjust where credits are used twice a year. Those adjustments should lower those numbers . Jay Simeone asks if there are any projects that would qualify for Green Communities. Green communities are working with the DPW to get a grant to replace sewer pumps . The only caveat is that w ith G reen C ommunities you can ’t get another grant or apply for another until its spent and closed out. Chris topher Ruth has provided a list of future capital projects for them to review. Dave Passios questions if any changes can be made to the Ritter Building and still be within the budget. Christopher Ruth states no. Capital Projects completed /ongoing.  Senior C enter outdoor ADA pavilion .  Ritter B uilding is currently awaiting an architect to get updated construction estimates for an ADA Ramp and exterior improvements .  Marshall Park  Town H all renovations starting with the roof.  Gas Station in the center of the town removal.  Public S afety C arpet R eplacement is almost complete . The c ost s w ere low enough to carpet the first floor and second floor a nd still fall within the capital budget. Goals  Create and implement a comprehensive building maintenance program.  Better utilize the building management software .  Catch up on capital projects.  Look towards the future to prepare for the needs of to w n facilities, grounds, and parks . Jean Russell states at the Board of Selectman meeting it was said that Marshall Park was coming in at a much higher cost around 5 million . Anna Lockwood states there are d ifferent phases of project development with ===PAGE 5=== different variations. An example is the price of the boardwalk. There was a request for 3 different prices, and it varied from $ 600,000 to 1.5 million. The scope of the project has not changed. Chris Menard asks if there are any grants that are being awarded or currently ongoing. Anna Lockwood confirms that a half million-dollar grant was received and has applied for another million-dollar grant . Dave Passios asks if there are any small grant s available to fund the improvements on H ighland S treet at the end of the pond. Anna Lockwood states there was a new way of phasing, so she doesn ’t have the numbers currently available . Jay S imeone shows interest in how much funding we can get from Green Communities. Christopher Ruth says the process started t o day with a wal k through of all the town buildings with Unitils energy auditors to see what ’s available with them . 8. Public Comment on FY25 Budget Presentations Peter Beardmore , 282 P leasant S treet , asked if the DPW direct or just present his proposed budget, or did he present how he plans to meet with the town manager ’s preliminary budget . Bill Bernard states that he presented his proposed budget. Heather Lemieux confirms that historically departments present their needs budget including request s that weren ’t funding in the preliminary budget. Peter Beardmore states he is stunned by the balance in C hapter 90. He wasn ’t aware that we were accumulating and not spending that amount of money. He b elieves there needs to be communication with the F inance C ommittee and the S elect B oard to create a policy for those funds. Chris M enard is requesting a budget request t h at aligns to the town manager ’s budget. Chris Menard thinks there is a lack of clarity going on. Heather Lemieux states that she can point out the specific line items where there are difference s . Carol Arch a mbault , Chair of the School Committee, states the Committee was looking at ways to cut funds out of budget. One of the options was to move out of TC P assio s due to the deterioration of the building . Anna Lockwood , 91 M ain S treet , states there are way s of consolidating budgets. She h as looked at other towns such as Westford that have double the size of our budget and they only have 1 facilities director and 1 ===PAGE 6=== facilities department. There is so much more we can accomplish by having larger, more meaningful facilities groups in town. 9. Old Business a. FY21-FY23 Revenue and Expenditures Recap Discussion This topic was skipped for this meeting. b. FY25 Budget Update/Discussion i. Previous FY25 Presentations There were no discussions about previous presentations. ii. Upcoming FY25 Presentations The F ire D ep artment and S chool C ommittee presentations are scheduled for next week. The S chool Committee voted and provided the Select Board with an override number. The number was 715,000 dollars and this reflected a level service budget minus Esser positions . After the meeting , it was discovered there was a hidden cell in the spreadsheet being used that included the dollar amount of the Esser funds. It was removed and then the S uperintendent sent an updated form with the T own M anager ’s budget at 2.94%, a need s based recommended budget at 5.4% and the E sser cuts level service 8.59%. The school committee will be before the Fi nance committee on the 14 th and on the 21 st . The schools recommended budget won ’t be voted on until the 20 th . Heather Lemieux states there was a request by a F inance C ommittee member to meet and have a negotiation with the School Committee . There were no additional funds available. The only thing that could change is when the growth g e ts certified. Any additional funding would be committed to the schools. The only change was that the BOA submitted an article to change the exemption age for low-income seniors. There is a suggestion to move the School Committee presentation to March 21 st . Ultimately, it was r ecommended to move the presentation from the 14 th to the 21 st in hopes of creating less confusion. iii. Override Warrant Article Update; Possible Vote The Select Board didn ’t have a vote but agreed to put the article on the ball o t. ===PAGE 7=== Evan Watters questions if we need to vote to stop the warrant article and everyone believ es that is not necessary. The Finance C ommittee is not involved in putting together a warrant article for an override. 10. Minutes There are 2 sets of minutes that some members have not had a chance to read. Chris M enard states there are 4 meetings on the website that don ’t have minutes available. Chris Menard will get the dates of those meetings to look into this further. 11. Committee Reports Dave Passios states that Green Communities are fast tracking the sewer project into the April grant round. The $ 195,000 is nowhere near enough to complete this project. The caveat is that there is already money in place to balance . The next grant round that we will be eligible for will be in April of nex t year. Green C ommunities is c ollecting information f rom various departments to look over to review for possible grant opportunities. Chris Menard says there was a Parks meeting and th ere is an upcoming volunteer day to tear out the carpet in the subfloor at the bea ch house . Information to sign up will be made available soon. Programming for most ages has been added to the lunenburgrecreation.com website. Evan W atters states the Master S teering P lan C ommittee had a meeting. They received 457 responses from the second survey . A third survey will be released in mid to late April. The Committee is looking for more in formation for more results from renters, farmers, and M unicipal Building D esign C ommittee . Phase 1 has been completed and is now moving into the recommendation phase, phase 2. 12. Topics for Future Meetings There are no additional topics for future meetings. 13. Upcoming FY25 Budget Meetings a. Mar 12th – Select Board Meeting b. Mar 14th – Fire & Lunenburg Public Schools (FinCom) c. Mar 20th – Monty Tech & Administration, Sewer , Unclassified, & Debt Services (FinCom) d. Mar 21st – Public Access Committee, Sewer, & Other Monied Articles – Lunenburg Public Schools Update (FinCom) ===PAGE 8=== 14. Important Dates a. Jan 9th-Mar 18th – Town Meeting Warrant Open b. Mar 14th – FinCom Public Hearing - CANCELED c. Mar 28th – FinCom Public Hearing d. Apr 2nd – FinCom Report for Warrant e. May 4th – Annual Town Meeting f. May 18th – Annual Town Election 15. Public Comment There was no public comment. 16. Adjourn There was a m otion to adjourn by Jay S imeone , seconded by Chris Menard. Roll Call vote . Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. Unanimous vote. The meeting closed at 11: 16 PM