===PAGE 1=== Lunenburg Finance Committee Meeting Minutes Bilotta Meeting Room Lunenburg Town Hall February 13, 2025 Present Members: Chair Chris Menard, Vice Chair Jean Russell, Committee Member Tanya Dall, Committee Member Jay Simeone Absent Member: Clerk Tom Gray 1. Call to Order The meeting opened at 7:00 PM. 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements Chris Menard states there are 4 candidates who are interested in being on the Finance Committee. The 2 open seats are anticipated to be filed at the Finance Appointing Committee meeting on February 18th. Additionally, Chris Menard confirms its budget season. All 8 budget hearings are scheduled, and the agendas are posted online. 4. Public Comment There are no comments from the public. 5. Town Manager & Finance Director Reports There were no reports from the Town Manager or the Finance Director. 6. Scheduled Meetings a. Reserve Account Transfer Request by School Department for 911 Cabling Costs Susan Gilson, Director of Administration and Finance, was present to discuss the 911 cabling costs. This is a requirement to have the school system in compliance with state and federal regulations. The total cost for the system is $65,574. Dr. Kate Burnham confirmed this system was budgeted for. When the technicians came to start the project, they were intending to use the cabling to the PA boxes in each of the classrooms but upon further inspection it was determined that the existing cabling was not adequate. The entire building needs to be re-cabled to have a drop line in every single classroom for the connection. The additional cost of $60,000 was not in the original budget. Jay Simeone asks if the job was re-quoted after learning there would need to be additional work. Dr. Kate Burham states the original quote from the ===PAGE 2=== company was $106,000. After receiving that quote, they reviewed the state bid list and received an additional quote that came in at $65,000. Additionally, Dr Burnham investigated ARPA funds but that wasn’t an option. The work was completed early in the budget year when there were extra funds. Those funds have since been expended due to unexpected unbudgeted costs throughout the year. There was a memo from the Interim Town Manager, Carter Terenzini, with his approval and support for this request. Ezequiel Ayala confirmed there is currently $200,000 in the reserve fund. $15,000 was expended on the town manager search and $65,000 was for the cabling compliance. This leaves $120,000 in the reserve fund for the rest of the year. There was a motion to transfer $58,320 from the reserve fund to the school department contracted services and $7,254.65 from the reserve fund to the school department computers purchase and lease line items by Tanya Dall, seconded by Jay Simeone. Roll call vote. Jean Russell aye, Tanya Dall aye, Jay Simeone aye, Chris Menard aye. b. Preliminary Budget Jennifer Warren-Dyment, Town Manager, was present and states she has been on board for a little over a week. At this time, she will not be presenting a budget. She can confirm that work has been ongoing since early fall. Prior to the Interim Town Managers’ departure there was communication with all department heads, committees, commissions and boards of what the financial situation was at that time. In order to prepare a budget, there needs to be a review of the revenue estimates. There was a mathematical error and the allowed prop 2 ½ total was not applied to the full levy from last year. Additionally, the calculation of local receipts was calculated based on an average. The Town Manager would like to do a deeper dive into the local receipts. Jennifer Warren-Dyment anticipates presenting the full budget at the next Finance Committee meeting on February 27th. c. FY26 Capital This agenda topic will be discussed at the February 27th meeting. d. Information Technology Department The presentation was provided by the Director of IT, Casey Chisholm ===PAGE 3=== Completed FY 25 initiatives include: -Public safety phone upgrade - Computer upgrades - Increased roles and responsibilities for the admin assistant Ongoing FY 25 projects include: - Townwide cell phone replacement - Library camera upgrade Initiatives for FY26 include: - Software maintenance - Hardware maintenance - Town Clerk software system - Internet speed for DPW. In order to increase their megabyte connection, it would cost an additional $1,000 per year. Jay Simeone questions how often the IT staƯ are on site. Casey Chisholm states that Mason is on site every day and the other employees’ schedules vary if they are part time. Jay Simeone asks what the fees are from Comcast versus a fiber network. Casey Chisholm confirms there are grant funding options that could be investigated, and more cost analysis would be needed. Chris Menard inquiries if all the MUNIS issues have subsided. Casey Chisholm confirms they are getting better and anticipates significant reduction in issues after the next jump in the cloud. Ezequiel Ayala is currently testing the SAS cloud, and the environment has been built. The testing will continue through March and anticipate going live the second week of April. The company who owns MUNIS has been very responsive and helpful. Chris Menard asks if there is municipal software available for tasks such as scheduling rooms for zoom, workflow management, and taking minutes. Casey Chisholm states there are some features in OƯice 365 for scheduling rooms but there will need to be more collaborations and discussions for anything additional. Chris Menard suggests the schools and the town be in the same system. This has been a prior fiscal year budget request. 7. New Business There is no new business. ===PAGE 4=== 8. Old Business a. FY26 Budget Discussions b. FY26 Warrant Articles c. Budget Task Force Recommendations 9. Minutes There was a motion to approve the minutes from January 9th by Jay Simeone, seconded by Tanya Dall. Roll call vote. Jean Russell aye, Tanya Dall aye, Jay Simeone aye, Chris Menard aye. 10. Committee Reports Chris Menard states that currently there is no representative from the Finance Committee on the Master Plan Steering Committee. 11. Actions and Topics for Future Meetings There are no additional topics or actions for future meetings. 12. Important Dates & Upcoming Meetings a. Thursday 2/20/2025– Presentation by the Council on Aging, Public Access, Library b. Tuesday 2/25/2025- Presentations by the Police, Fire, Land Use Department c. Thursday 2/27/2025– Presentations by the DPW, Facilities and Sewer d. Thursday 3/6/2025- Presentations by the Schools and Monty Tech e. Thursday 3/13/2025 (Public Hearing) f. Thursday 3/20/2025 g. Thursday 3/27/2025 13. Public Comment There were no comments from the public. 14. Adjourn There was a motion to adjourn by Jay Simeone, seconded by Tanya Dall. Roll call vote. Jean Russell aye, Tanya Dall aye, Jay Simeone aye, Chris Menard aye. The meeting closed at 7:50 PM.