===PAGE 1=== Lunenburg Finance Committee Meeting Minutes Bilotta Meeting Room Lunenburg Town Hall April 25, 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 The meeting opened at 7pm 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements There was no announcement s . 4. Public Comment There were no comments. 5. Town Manager Report Additional funding was r eceived for the F lat H ill C ulvert P roject . A letter was submitted for additional funding to the DOT and we were notified that we received an additional $ 100,000 . C urrently we have $ 500,000 from a small bridge grant and the remaining $ 375,900 for the F lat H ill C ulvert P roject that was put out to bid in M arch . The lowest re sponsible bidder totaled $ 830,000. This project is anticipated to start in early fall. The Town was notifi ed that we received rural roads funding. The allotment was $ 21, 979. This will be added to C hapter 90 . There are currently 2 bids out . The first bid is for landscaping the town facilities and park s and is due June 11 th . The second bid is the r ebidding for the removal of solid waste at the Lunenburg Woodruff Conservation area located at 104 Fair v iew Road and that is due June 12 th . There was another major leak at TC Passios specifically above the cable access studio. The studio is going to be moved to the back wing of the studio where there are no leaks. Dave Passios questioned why the roof in that area isn ’t being fixed. Heather Lemieux states a significant amount of time is needed to put a bid of that caliber together. There was a discussion about maintaining the TC Passios building. Generally, everyone believes the time is now to make a decision about its future. ===PAGE 2=== The bill for means tested senior citizen property tax exemption is on the G overnor ’s desk and has yet to be signed but made it past the House and the Senate. 6. Finance Director Report There was no Finance Director Report. 7. New Business a. Quarterly Financial Report (FY24 Q2) –Finance Director The t otal revenue collected through December 31, 2023, was $ 23,499,570.03. For comparison through December 31,2022 was $ 25,025,707.45 The e stimated tax levy for FY 24 is $ 31, 493,890.48 . The t otal local receipts collected were 44.04% of the annual estimate or $ 1,417,065.66. State aid collected w as 48.28% of annual estimate or $ 5,139.824.85 . The t otal expenditures through December 31, 2023, w as $ 21,743,068.85 or 45.55% of the budget . Total d ebt is 14% less than last year . The total omnibus budget used for the first half of the year was 40.99% . Chris Menard questions why the radio watch line 46 relating to radio watch was at 83%. Heather Lemieux states that line is for the Nashoba V alley dispatch assessment, and t hat line mostly gets fully expended. Chris Menard questions if this cost is all paid upfront. Heather Lemieux confirms that is the case. Dave Passios feels that the incoming revenue comparison from 20 23 to 20 24 is showing a downward trend especially in excise tax. Eze quiel Ayala states the motor vehicle tax revenue is rec eived in July but is a part of FY23 revenue. Jay S imeone questions when the data for quarter 3 will be available . Ezequiel Ayala states the quarter ended o n M arch 31 and is in the process of closing quarter 3. Eze quiel Ayala states they will be provided in the next couple of weeks. Dave Passios requests a rundown of special revenue items to find out what we are earning in interest and ultimately where it ’s going. Eze quiel Ayala will create a presentation . b. Revenue Turnover Policy Discussion ===PAGE 3=== Dave Passios questions if it would be more appropriate to call this a revenue e xpense turnover p olicy. Heather Lemieux states this is just about collection of revenue and not about the expenditures. Heather Lemieux is working with the division of local services to update our exi s ting policies and add new financial policies . This is being completed through Community Compact. The purpose is to safeguard the town ’s assets as incoming revenue and how monies and checks are handled by staff when they are receiv ed. Dave Passios questions when schools are mentioned in the policy its only related to lunch money. Dave Passios wants to know what happens to the money, for example that comes from field sales at athletic events. Heather Lemieux states that t he list is not comprehensive and just gives some examples. Ch ri s Menard requests a comprehensive list of fees for the town. If the town is going to charge fees it should at lea st be written down somewhere. c. Consent Calander – Vote may be taken F or the town meeting the least contentious articles are combined into a single calendar article that gets voted on as a group. The r ecommended articles to add to the consent calendar are Article s: 1, 2, 4,12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25. There was a m otion to remove article 4 from the consent calendar by Dave Passios, seconded by Jean Russell . A ll in favor. There was a m otion to recommend approval of the remain ing article s and remove article 4 b y Chris Menard, seconded by Evan Watters. All in favor. d. Town Meeting Discussion The T own M anager scheduled a pre-meeting for next Wednesday. Evan Watters will send out an update after the pre- meeting. The a uditorium for the Town Meeting has a capacity of 600 and there will be 2 overflow areas (gym, cafeteria) . Chris Menard questions if there will be enough parking. 8. Old Business a. FinCom Report for Warrant Review Dave Passios states that the last page ends abruptly. After review there were minor grammatical errors that were corrected. ===PAGE 4=== There was a m otion to approve the annua l report with the minor edits that were made during the meeting by Chris Menard , seconded by Jean Russell. A ll in favor. b. FY25 Budget Discussion Dave Passios states that for FY 25 we need to f igure out what avenues we need to take to get to a point where we have borrowing capacity for short- term borrowing. We need to b e in a position where we can take on short term debt that we can actually pay . c. FY25 Override Discussion There was no discussion. d. Votes on Recommendations for Warrant Articles There was no discussion. 9. Minutes There are some members who didn ’t have a chance to review the minutes. There are a few meetings that don ’t have minutes dating back to 2023. Evan Watters will send the list to the minute writer. There was a motion to approve the minutes from March 20 th and March 21 st by Chris Menard, seconded by Dave Passios. The minutes were approved 5-1 with 1 member abstaining. 10. Committee Reports Chris Menard shares that the Parks Commission reorganized. The board is as follows: Chair Anita Scheipers , Vice Chare Colleen Shapiro, Clerk Karin Menard, Member Ana Lockwood, and Member Christopher Sullivan. 11. Topics for Future Meetings The committee wants to discuss the Chapter 90 briefing that the Select Board received that was provided by the Department of Public Works. 12. Upcoming Meetings: a. 5/4/2024 – Annual Town Meeting – Middle High School starting at 9AM. 13. Important Dates: a. 5/18/2024 – Annual Town Election TC Passios Gym 14. Public Comment ===PAGE 5=== Jay Simeone refers residents to get their information and questions specially relating to the Water District presentation on their website as opposed to Facebook . 15. Adjourn There was a motion to adjourn by Chris Menard, seconded by Jay Simeone. All in favor. The meeting closed at 8:58 PM .