# finance-committee — 11 documents, concatenated for reading and search # # This is a CONVENIENCE BUNDLE, not a source. Every document below is # published separately and byte-identically; cite the individual file, # whose path is given in each header, rather than this bundle. # Index of all boards: https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/minutes/INDEX.txt # The town's own scanned original is linked per document. ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-03-07-minutes-6452.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-03-07 KIND : minutes OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-03-07-minutes-6452.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_03072024-6452 ======================================================================================== ===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 ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-03-14-agenda-6469.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-03-14 KIND : agenda OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-03-14-agenda-6469.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_03142024-6469 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Town of Lunenburg Evan Watters, Chair Christopher Menard, Vice-Chair Tiffaney Tavares, Clerk Jay Simeone Thomas Gray Jean Russell Dave Passios Lunenburg Finance Committee Thursday, March 14th, 2024 7:00 PM Bilotta Meeting Room, Lunenburg Town Hall Agenda 17 Main Street, P.O. Box 135 Lunenburg, MA 01462-0135 978.582.4139 FAX 978.582.4148 In accordance with the requirements of the Open Meeting Law, please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast over the Lunenburg Public Access channel and on Facebook Live on the Public Access Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Lunenburg-Public-Access- Cable-157427270975305). The following information is provided for members of the public that would like to participate in the meeting remotely: To Participate Remotely: From a computer, please use the link below to join the public meeting webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89226887485. From a telephone, dial the toll-free number (888) 475-4499, enter Webinar ID: 892 2688 7485. If you have not registered with Zoom you will be asked for your name and an e-mail address. Note: No participant ID is needed, just press # when asked. Telephone users may dial *9 to request to speak after joining the meeting. Computer and app users may use the “raise hand” feature to request to speak. This agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair. Votes may be taken as a result of these discussions. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by Open Meeting Law. 1. Call to Order 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements 4. Public Comment 5. Town Manager Report 6. Finance Director Report 7. New Business a. Fire Department FY25 Budget Presentation b. Lunenburg Public Schools FY25 Budget Presentation c. Warrant Article Discussion 8. Public Comment on FY25 Budget Presentations 9. Old Business a. FY21-FY23 Revenue and Expenditures Recap Discussion b. FY25 Budget Update/Discussion i. Previous FY25 Presentations ii. Upcoming FY25 Presentations 10. Minutes 11. Committee Reports 12. Topics for Future Meetings 13. Upcoming FY25 Budget Meetings a. Mar 20th – Monty Tech & Administration, Sewer, Unclassified, & Debt Services (FinCom) b. Mar 21st – Public Access Committee, & Other Monied Articles – Lunenburg Public Schools Update (FinCom) 14. Important Dates a. Jan 9th-Mar 18th – Town Meeting Warrant Open b. Mar 28th – FinCom Public Hearing c. Apr 2nd – FinCom Report for Warrant d. May 4th – Annual Town Meeting e. May 18th – Annual Town Election 15. Public Comment 16. Adjourn ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-03-14-minutes-6469.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-03-14 KIND : minutes OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-03-14-minutes-6469.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_03142024-6469 ======================================================================================== Lunenburg Finance Committee Meeting Minutes Bilotta Meeting Room Lunenburg Town Hall March 14, 2024 Present Members: Chair Evan Watters, Vice Chair Chris Menard, Clerk Tiffaney Tavares, Board Member Tom Gray, Board Member Dave Passios, Board Member Jean Russell (Zoom), Board Member Jay Simeone 1. Call to Order The meeting opened at 7:01 PM. 2. Pledge of Allegiance Announcements There were no announcements. Public Comment There were no public comments. Town Manager Report A proposal was received for Marshall Park. There was a request for qualifications for the OPM owners project manager. A review will need to be completed to ensure all qualifications are met. The Parks Commission will then do interviews and rate the firms. The invitation for bids for the Flat Hill Culvert Project is due March 27th. The bids are out for cleaning services for the town buildings and are due April 4th. Last week the DPW Director indicated the bids for road maintenance came in and the bid was $127,000 under the estimate. This bid was awarded to PJ Keating for a 1-year contract totaling $634,000. The new growth and certification were approved at $630,220. The assessment figures from Monty Tech were received and were the same as proposed in the preliminary budget. The overlay of $120,000 in the budget is not going to change as per a vote from the Board of Assessors. The additional new growth of $236,025.50 will be added to the school’s budget. Finance Director Report Ezequiel Ayala received an email relating to the chapter 90 funds and plans to get those to the Committee next week. New Business Fire Department FY25 Budget Presentation The Fire Chief, Pat Sullivan, provided the presentation. Personnel Chief 1 administrative assistant/EMT 3 Career officer/EMT’s 5 Call Fire Officers (4 EMT’s) 5 Career Firefighter/Paramedics 27 Call Firefighters, EMTs and Paramedics The department is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Monday through Saturday there are 3 firefighters/EMT’s or Paramedics and the Chief. On Sundays, there are 3 per diem Firefighters/EMTs or Paramedics and an on-call duty officer. Current equipment includes: 3 engines/pumpers 1 ladder truck 2 forestry 2 ambulances 1 water rescue unit 3 support vehicles The proposed level service budget for 2025 consists of an overall 2.21% increase from last year. This includes contractual increases and 100% paramedics coverage. There are additional above target requests including EMS supplies, IT related software/hardware, replacement of public safety grade radios that range from $3,000 to $5,000 per unit and have a lifespan of 10-25 years. There is a $10,000 increase in radio maintenance. A grant for replacement of units was applied for but was denied. Evan Watters asks how many radios are needed for replacement. Chief Sullivan states they will need 4 to 5 radios a year but need more than 40. There has been an increase in ALS requests/ ALS transport because the call volumes are increasing and also the types of calls for service have changed. The private service is suffering from manpower problems thus falling back to municipal services. Evan Watters asked for rates. Chief Sullivan states there is a rate for transport at a basic life support level, a rate if you transport at an advanced life support level with minimal skills, and a higher rate for more serious calls. The more serious calls include cardiac monitoring, IVs, and administering multiple medications. Chris Menard asks how the bill from insurance is received. Chief Sullivan states the money goes back into a general fund. Dave Passios questions if they have been able to maintain a shelf life on EMT supplies. Chief Sullivan states some medications have a longer shelf life while others do not so it’s tough to maintain. Some medications due to the expensive are not always used but when you need it you need it. Dave Passios questions if the medication is under a contracted service. Chief Sullivan confirms there is a yearly fee for maintenance. Capital Plan FY 24 Update The replacement of Rescue 1 is ongoing and is estimated to be ready in early 2025. Phase 1 radio infrastructure replacement is currently underway, and the Fire Department is working with vendors. Capital FY 25 includes Phase 2, the replacement of public safety radio infrastructure. Not included in this budget request but will be needed in the near future includes additional money for staffing and equipment. The specific equipment is an ambulance. Currently there is a 10-year life cycle, and ambulances are retired at 100,000 miles. Chief Sullivan anticipates the life cycle will decrease to 8 years in the future. Grant Funding A state grant for firefighting equipment was received in FY 24 and $18,853 was used to cover 3 portable radios and the replacement of power saws. In FY 24, the EMPG Grant was awarded and totaled $3,750. This was used to replace 2 outdated cold water rescue suits and equipment was purchased for the inflatable rescue sled. Additionally, a grant for S.A.F.E. / Senior Safe was received and totaled $7,430. These funds were used toward the smoke detector project, senior safety, and fire safety education/ awareness for kindergarten through 3rd grade. Dave Passios questions if the Chief sees an opportunity in the near future to mitigate some of the overtime pay. Chief Sullivan states if a career person is out and none of the other career people wants the time it is then offered to be filled by a per diem person. If there are no per diem people who want it, then it is offered to a career person as overtime. Dave Passios questions if there are any additional opportunities or funding from government that can be applied for in the next couple of years. Chief Sullivan shares that there are grants but they do not directly apply to Lunenburg. Evan Watters inquires if we are fully up and running to support the 12,000 residents. Chief Sullivan states it is a balancing act. We are still covering a lot of the calls. We do not drop a lot of calls or have to call out of town for assistance. Evan Watters states that inspections are decreasing, fires are plateauing, and EMS is skyrocketing. He asks if we will need a third ambulance. Chief Sullivan states we aren’t able to staff an additional ambulance right now but there is discussion about having a mechanical spare. Evan Watters asks for confirmation that we are not at the call volume where we need a 3rd truck and Chief Sullivan confirms. Evan Watters asks when the last salary comparison was completed, and Chief Sullivan confirms it was about a year or two ago. At that time, we were considered lower middle in comparison. Evan Watters questions if we are set to make it to mid-2025 if the new truck isn’t here yet. Chief Sullivan says yes. Tiffaney Tavares thanks Chief Sullivan for the thoughtful and relevant presentation. Lunenburg Public Schools FY25 Budget Presentation Presentation by Superintendent Dr. Kate Burnham, Director of Special Services Julianna Hanscom, and Facilities Director Eric Hevy This was not the full school budget presentation and only consisted of questions by the Committee for the above 2 departments. The full presentation will take place on March 21st after the school has voted on their budget. Chris Menard asks about the circuit breaker program and inquires if the school sees this coming into play for FY 25. Julianna Hanscom does a forecast and creates estimates based on OSD tuition. The last 3 to 4 years the reimbursement has been at 75%. There is a discussion about Keystone Education Collaborative program and the rates being raised almost 11%. Dave Passion questions how the 14% increase was absorbed last year. Julianna Hanscom states it is probably absorbed with a lot of the carry over for the circuit breaker monies and that’s why that account has gone down. Dr. Kate Burnham puts emphasis on the need for mental health in schools. Last year there were 12 mental health crisis hospitalizations requiring home tutoring for a long duration of time. The prior year there were only 4. Dr. Kate Burnham states we can’t lose any social workers. Dr. Kate Burnham states we don’t find out our grant allocation for federal grants until late July or early August. They then need to be approved as quickly as possible because school starts 2 to 3 weeks after. Dave Passios questions if there is an absolute drop date under collective bargaining agreements that members of those unions need to be notified, Dr. Kate Burnham confirms, and that date is June 1st. Chris Menard asks if there are cuts in the needs-based budget for special education teachers and if they would still be able to keep up with IEPS. Julianna Hanscom states the cuts are not impactful as far as us not being able to implement the IEPs. The implementation may have to be done in a different way or consolidation of programs. Tiffaney Tavares is requesting more information on the number that helped decide what was put down on the proposed budget. There is a question of how the school anticipates more educational contracts and more children in need of separate services. Julianna Hanscom states there is no formula. The school is aware of what students are in programs who will then go into a program next year. There hasn’t been a large or small caseload, and the inclusion of teachers is between 15 to 20 students. Tom Gray questions why there was a $25,000-budget line for high school department heads but wasn’t there previously. Dr. Kate Burnham states it’s a stipend that they get on top of their teacher salary for their responsibilities as department head. Previously that was covered out of a revolving account, but it is contractual. Jay Simeone questions why line 2110 has risen. In FY 24 it was $234,000 and in FY 25 it grew to $271,100. Dr. Kate Burnham states that number is a combined total for that section of the budget. If you look at it broken down that is the instructional services director and curriculum director. The reason for the jump is that the last time the district had a curriculum director position was in 2012. When that position was put in, we partially funded the position in the local budget, and some offset through grants. Gradually we added a little more FTE into that budget until the full salary would be carried in the local budget. This doesn’t reflect raises. Dave Passios asks if the collective bargaining agreements are expected to be negotiated in 2025. Dr. Kate Burnham is currently engaged with the teachers’ union. The current contract expires June 30th. The first meeting with paraprofessionals union is next week. Those are the 2 bargaining groups. Additionally, Comparative analyses are being completed. Tom Gray asks if there is enough money to do the things that will maintain the schools at a decent level. Dr. Kate Burnham believes that is hard to answer. There was a problem with the middle high school elevators. Someone came in and assessed the situation and it cost $14,800 to repair. The state came in and did an inspection to get the elevator back online and it failed inspection because there was a leak in the hydraulics. Any day there is something that can go and it’s the kind of situation where I can’t wait until the fall to put it on a capital plan to submit for capital plan funding. School facilities director, Eric Hevy, started in October and did an assessment of all school buildings. There really needs to be some service levels agreements in place for maintenance. There are a lot of heating issues district wide. Eric Hevy received a quote for having 2 technicians for an eight-hour day to start going through the building would cost roughly $3,200. There will be unexpected costs. Chris Menard believes there are 2 things at play. Immediate repairs and what can be good for a 10-year plan. Chris Menard wants to know if there is equipment that could be purchased as capital and if there is anything on the operating budget that could be a capital plan. Chris Menard asks for a copy of the bus contracts. The schools will be going out to bid for school buses in January. Chris Menard asks why there is a line item for snow removal. Chris Menard doesn’t agree that this is their responsibility and the DPW should be handling snow removal. Dr. Kate Burnham states the only problem is we may have to cancel or delay schools to wait for the DPW because they won’t come to the schools to clear out the lots until the roads are cleared to their satisfaction. Tom Gray believes there may need to be more discussion after budget season. Tiffaney Tavares asks for what is considered a contracted service. Eric Hevy states that current contracted services include replacing air filters and belts. There is a service level agreement with one vender to come in and service the units on the roof quarterly. The fire suppression inspection and fire alarm inspections are service level agreements. Currently, everything is under 1 line item and it’s tough to sort through. Chris Menard asks if there has been a decision on whether to pull school services from TC Passios and if there is anything left in the Brooks house. Dr. Kate Burnham states this is still being assessed. The ACE program is a special education program for 18- to 22-year-olds that is housed at TC Passios. That program could be moved. The challenge is it’s a life skill, doing laundry and learning to cook. The ACE program could move down to Turkey Hill but there are a lot of other factors. An electrician is going to look and assess to see if there could be a potential move. Tiffaney Tavares asks if there are any contracts for things such as paper goods and dispensaries. Eric Hevy will look into this further. Tiffaney Tavares asks if there is a BMS system for the high school rooftop units. Eric Hevy confirms. Tiffaney Tavares asks if there is capacity when there is an outage or electrical issue on the rooftop that a notification is sent out through the BMS. Eric Hevy is unsure and will be looking into it further. Warrant Article Discussion The Committee received drafted warrant articles from the Town Manager. There was nothing to report out of the normal. There will be an article from the assessors regarding decreasing the age for the low-income senior exemption. There will be 2 articles from the Planning Board relating to the water district and battery energy storage systems. Chris Menard questions if Letter L from the OPB trust fund could be skipped for a year. The Town manager states it would come down to the bond council but it a sign of not having good finances. Tom Gray wants to confirm that SAP comp class is going to affect this year and next year’s budget. The Town manager confirms that is the case and that impact would come out of our salary reserve account. Evan Watters questions if Article Letter E doesn’t pass then it will fall back on the budget. Town managers states that will be a decision for Tuesdays upcoming meeting and potentially paying out of ARPA funds. Chris Menard asks the Town Manager if there are plans for Chapter 90. Heather Lemieux states there is 1.9 million in that account. Chapter 90 funds haven’t been used because those were being exhausted to get all the roads done that were on the old pavement management plan. There is a Bridge and culvert inventory plan that should be completed in the fall. This grant was applied for through the community compact. Town manager was informed that there needs to be a yearly voting on exemptions. Public Comment on FY25 Budget Presentation Anna Lockwood believes we need to explore creating redundancy in facilities in towns and create a succession plan. We’re not talking about saving money in operations we are talking about being more efficient. Anna Lockwood suggests meeting in the spring and do a 5-year plan. There are great conversations happening, but they are within 2 months of budget season, and they need to start back in August. Old Business FY21-FY23 Revenue and Expenditures Recap Discussion This topic was skipped. FY25 Budget Update/Discussion Previous FY25 Presentation There are no additional discussions. ii. Upcoming FY25 Presentations Upcoming presentations including Monty Tech & Administration, Sewer, Unclassified, & Debt Services. Minutes All minutes will be approved at the next meeting. Committee Reports Chris Menard states the Parks Commission was granted a 1-million-dollar grant bringing their secured grant money amount up to 2.5 million. Topics for Future Meetings Tom Gray would like to talk about consolidation of certain functions that should be done after budget season. The Board requested a presentation after budget season relating to the health insurance plan. Evan Watters states at the last Select Board meeting the Chair mentioned that the town side employees don’t have paid maternity leave. There may be a warrant article coming forward. Upcoming FY25 Budget Meetings a. Mar 20th – Monty Tech & Administration, Sewer, Unclassified, & Debt Services (FinCom) b. Mar 21st – Public Access Committee, & Other Monied Articles – Lunenburg Public Schools Update (FinCom) Important Dates a. Jan 9th-Mar 18th – Town Meeting Warrant Open b. Mar 28th – FinCom Public Hearing c. Apr 2nd – FinCom Report for Warrant d. May 4th – Annual Town Meeting e. May 18th – Annual Town Election Public Comment Dave Passios reflected on where we are now compared to when the budget season started and where we are going to end up. There were many unknowns then and many unknowns now. The budget to be presented at the town meeting will be the best budget we could possibly bring forward and doesn’t believe an override is going to pass. Adjourn There was a motion to adjourn by Chris Menard, seconded by Tom Gray. All in favor. The meeting closed at 10:26 PM. ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-03-20-agenda-6481.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-03-20 KIND : agenda OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-03-20-agenda-6481.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_03202024-6481 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Town of Lunenburg Evan Watters, Chair Christopher Menard, Vice-Chair Tiffaney Tavares, Clerk Jay Simeone Thomas Gray Jean Russell Dave Passios Lunenburg Finance Committee Wednesday, March 20th, 2024 7:00 PM Bilotta Meeting Room, Lunenburg Town Hall Agenda 17 Main Street, P.O. Box 135 Lunenburg, MA 01462-0135 978.582.4139 FAX 978.582.4148 In accordance with the requirements of the Open Meeting Law, please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast over the Lunenburg Public Access channel and on Facebook Live on the Public Access Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Lunenburg-Public-Access- Cable-157427270975305). The following information is provided for members of the public that would like to participate in the meeting remotely: To Participate Remotely: From a computer, please use the link below to join the public meeting webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89226887485. From a telephone, dial the toll-free number (888) 475-4499, enter Webinar ID: 892 2688 7485. If you have not registered with Zoom you will be asked for your name and an e-mail address. Note: No participant ID is needed, just press # when asked. Telephone users may dial *9 to request to speak after joining the meeting. Computer and app users may use the “raise hand” feature to request to speak. This agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair. Votes may be taken as a result of these discussions. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by Open Meeting Law. 1. Call to Order 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements 4. Public Comment 5. Town Manager Report 6. Finance Director Report 7. New Business a. Monty Tech FY25 Budget Presentation b. Public Comment on Monty Tech Budget c. Sewer Department FY25 Budget Presentation d. Public Comment on Sewer Department Budget e. Administration, Unclassified, & Debt Service FY25 Budget Presentation f. Public Comment on Administration, Unclassified, & Debt Service Budget Presentation g. Warrant Article Discussion h. FinCom Report for Warrant Discussion 8. Old Business a. FY21-FY23 Revenue and Expenditures Recap Discussion b. FY25 Budget Update/Discussion i. Previous FY25 Presentations ii. Upcoming FY25 Presentations 9. Minutes a. 2/22/2024 10. Committee Reports 11. Topics for Future Meetings 12. Upcoming FY25 Budget Meetings a. Mar 21st – Public Access Committee, & Other Monied Articles – Lunenburg Public Schools Update (FinCom) b. Mar 28th – FinCom Public Hearing 13. Important Dates a. Apr 2nd – FinCom Report for Warrant b. May 4th – Annual Town Meeting c. May 18th – Annual Town Election 14. Public Comment 15. Adjourn ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-03-20-minutes-6481.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-03-20 KIND : minutes OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-03-20-minutes-6481.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_03202024-6481 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Lunenburg Finance Committee Meeting Minutes Bilotta Meeting Room Lunenburg Town Hall March 20, 2024 Present Members: Chair Evan Watters, Vice Chair Chris Menard, Board Member Tom Gray, Board Member Dave Passios, Board Member Jay Simeone Absent Members: Board Member Jean Russell and Clerk Tiffaney Tavares 1. Call to Order The meeting opened at 7:00 PM. 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements Evan Watter states Tiffaney Tavares and Jean Russell are absent for the meeting. 4. Public Comment Dave Passios states at the Select Board meeting last night it was announced that it was a member of the Finance Committee had submitted a citizen’s petition in regard to the override for the town side of the budget. Dave Passios is concerned that it’s connected to this committee, and it was submitted with no signature after the cutoff date. Dave Passios believes all members know that they need to be careful as to what the committees’ actions are and what they are being construed as. 5. Town Manager Report There are several bids out right now include: - The Flat Hill Culvert Project bid is due March 27th. - Cleaning services for the town buildings is due April 4th. - A proposal for data collection services for the assessing department for cyclical inspection is due April 8th. 4 response requests were received for the qualifications for the owner’s project manager services for Marshal Park. The Parks Commission is currently reviewing. Effective November 30th of 2025 an updated natural gas contract will go into effect. The rate for the town and school is $5.66 and it’s a locked in rate for 3 years. This is a raise compared to the current rate of $4.39. The town is approaching the end of the 3-year contract with El Harvey for solid waste and recycling removal. There was a meeting to negotiate and extend the contract. Unfortunately, to extend that contract, there would be a 70% increase. The original bid project was based on an 80-hour work week in labor but it’s taking El Harvey 120 hours a week to do all of the roots. For them to make a profit they would have to purchase new trucks, thus increasing costs. The ongoing approach is to put a bid out immediately to see what we get for proposals. Also, will be working with El Harvey on a cart toter system. ===PAGE 2=== Jay Simeone asks if El Harvey disposes of the town trash. Heather Lemieux confirms. Jay Simeone asks if bidding for the town and residents could be separated. Heather Lemieux states there is an itemized list in the bid package and then the town is decreasing the size of 2 containers at a town building. Jay Simeone then asks if there has been a change in the amount of disposal bags being sold. Heather Lemieux states it has remained consistent. 6. Finance Director Report This topic was skipped for this meeting. 7. New Business a. Monty Tech FY25 Budget Presentation The Superintendent-Director Tom Browne and Human Resources/Business Manager Tammy Crockett presented the budget. Monty Tech actively seeks out grants and opportunities to get funds into the building to support the students. For FY 24 Monty Tech received 1.4 million in grants. The Kenneth Donley workforce grant was received. The $500,000 was added as a contribution towards installing 2 spray booths. A $25,000 grant was received specifically for the auto body department. All individual shops are actively applying for grants. Perkins funds were received and used for workforce training. This $298,000 was used on industry recognized credentials. Monty Tech has partnered with CAPS Collaboration in Westminster and the Arc in Fitchburg. Students from both programs are going to be trained in 4 different areas. This includes 7 weeks of technical skill training, 1 week of professional skills, and 2 weeks of paid internship. Last year Monty Tech was identified by Mass Save as one of the largest climate leaders. This program trains students in terms of how to address energy efficiency when they go into the workforce. FY 25 Foundation Budget The Foundation enrollment includes 1476 students who live in one of the 18 communities. Total foundation budget was $29,900,307 which then gets divided by the foundation enrollment equaling $2,258 per pupal. A total of $18,318,704 was received from Chapter 70 funding. The amount of aid for FY 25 is $18,257,075 and this year is considered to be a hold harmless district. The State is giving a minimum aid of 30 per pupil so that’s an additional $44,280 in additional chapter 78. ===PAGE 3=== The required net school spending is $30,011,216. This is the minimum spending every school district must spend not including debt services, capital transportation, meals. There is a burden of $525,000 budgeted increase that falls on the communities. Evan Watters questions how the district contribution number is calculated. Tammy Crockett states the number is based on towns property value, wealth. This is then multiplied by the municipal revenue growth factors and that equals the required district contribution. An additional factor is how many kids there are in Lunenburg. The transportation cost for 30 buses equals $2,516,010. Currently they are in year 2 of their contract and consist of a 4% contractual increase. The Lunenburg foundation enrollment increased from 97 students to 99 students thus the required minimum went from $1,127,113 to $1,172, 061. Dave Passios asks if Monty Tech has a dedicated staff member that writes grants. Tom Browne confirms and states they have a development coordinator and that’s one of her primary jobs. Evan Watters reiterates that the state is spending an average of 126% and asks how that works. Tammy Crockett states each school gets a different net school spending number. It changes from district to district and is a balancing act of what each town can afford. If you go below 95% you won’t get the chapter 70 increases. Chris Menard questions if the town were to pass the 2 ½ override for schools if that would have any effect on next year’s assessment. Tammy Crockett states that would not affect the assessment. Dave Passios asked if there were any catastrophic increases that weren’t banked on and had to budget for. Tammy confirms there have been issues mostly with technology. Evan Watters asks how the transportation is broken down. Lunenburg has a similar total number of students, and their transportation costs are lower. Tammy states they bid by route and currently they are using 3 different bus companies. b. Public Comment on Monty Tech Budget There was no public comment. c. Sewer Department FY25 Budget Presentation There was a presentation by the Vice Chair of the Sewer Commission, Brett Ramsden, and Business Manager, Paula Bertram. The department consists of: - Chair John Reynolds - Vice Chair Brett Ramsden - Secretary Michael Nault - Member David MacDonald - Member Michael Mackin - DPW Director Bill Bernard - Business Manager Paula Bertram ===PAGE 4=== - Administrative Assistant Camille Farrar The Sewer Commission was established in 2006 and operates under the sewer enterprise fund. The system consists of 16 miles of gravity sanitary sewer, 3.9 miles of forced mains, 2.3 miles of low-pressure sewer, and 10 pumping stations. There are intermunicipal agreements in place with Fitchburg and Leominster to treat waste. Current concerns - Significant infiltration and inflows - Pump stations need upgrades and repairs and nearing the end of their design life of 20-25 years. - Increased feeds from Fitchburg and Leominster o Fitchburg is increasing their rates by 7% each year for the next 5 years. o Leominster is increasing rates by 16.7% effective July 1, 2024, and an additional 3% for FY 26. Leominster’s NPDES permit has new requirements thus Lunenburg being a co-permittee Lunenburg has new report requirements to meet. New strategies are being put in place to address the infiltration and inflow of the system. ARPA funds of $100,000 were awarded to repair manholes throughout the town. There is a plan to go out to bid in spring to correct the identified manholes. There is a need to purchase equipment to assist with identifying sources of infiltration and inflow. This will also include engaging engineering services. Some improvements from FY 24 include the addition of new cranes installed at Dana Street, Leominster Road, and Mass One Station. Control panels were replaced and upgraded at West Street and Francis Ave. Station. Funding within the budget has been incorporated to clean wells annually. The Capital plan has increased to $368,749 for FY 25. This includes replacing aging equipment at various stations and addressing priority repairs at Mass One and Dana Street. The Commission has been working with Green Communities to obtain grant funding for pumps. The FY 25 Enterprise Fund Budget Revenues totals $1,751,189.00. Currently there is $33,750 in the contingency plan for emergency funding. Evan Watters questions if the proposed numbers include the cost of labor. Brett Ramsden confirms that is the case. Chris Menard asks if they see sewer lines and storm water lines along the same road. Paula Bertram states sometimes yes and sometimes no. The GIS system shows storm water drainage and sewers. Dave Passios asks if there is a design flaw that has led to the rusting of pipes and if the proper material was used. Paula Bertram states the force main can’t be a different material, but the suction lines could possibly be replaced with schedule 80 PVC. There are currently discussions with an engineer to confirm. ===PAGE 5=== Rate Increases Sewer rates will increase by $12.34 per month for the average residential customer. The average residential unit is currently $233 per quarter and will increase to $270. The minimum charge will increase from $115 to $126. The connection fee will increase from $2,250 to $3,900 due to Leominster’s increase. The National Pollutant Discharge of Elimination System (NPDES) program administered by the EPA regulates discharge of waters. The new requirements set by NPDES include: - Adaptive plans must be completed within 24 months to identify vulnerable critical assets. - Adaptive measures within 36 months to minimize the impact of future conditions on critical assets and operations. - Within 48 months a schedule of implementation and maintenance of adaptive measures must be submitted to the EPA. - Annual maintenance plan and reports on adoption plan process and activities related to implementation of the ONM plans. Chris Menard asks when they project the retained earnings to go to zero. Paula Bertram hopes that doesn’t happen and we continue getting grant funding. By 2029 we hope to be starting to make a regular investment into retained earnings. Chris Menard asks what your assumptions are relative to rate increases over those years. Paula Bertram states this has not been decided. We are looking at 16% potentially but that is dependent on whether grant funding is received. Dave Passios asks if they plan to put a more aggressive inspection cycle into place. So that we will have a better handle on what’s going on before we have a major spill. Brett Ramsden states that is absolutely the case. The new plan includes draining those wet wells on a regular basis. That wasn’t the prior practice. Paula Bertram states we are also looking for I&I. As we identify issues, we will correct them and that will reduce costs but also weaken the infrastructure within. Jay Simeone questions how many customers they have. Paula Bertram says currently we have approximately 1365 units. We don’t bill customers. An example is the luxury apartments where they get 1 bill and there’s 42 units. Evan Watters questions if we are getting to the point where we may soon see catastrophic failures across the pipes. Brett Ramsden doesn’t believe so. He suspects that the pipes underground are generally in good shape. Evans Watters questions if we are anywhere near capacity issues with the current load. Brett Ramsden confirms that there is a lot of room. Paula Bertram states on average the flow is about 200,000 gallons per day to Leominster and the intermunicipal agreement is for 500,000 gallons per day. d. Public Comment on Sewer Department Budget There was no public comment. ===PAGE 6=== e. Administration, Unclassified, & Debt Service FY25 Budget Presentation Selectmen Administration There are 2 increases that reflect additional advertising for open positions as we try to fill vacancies. An increase for the meeting training line that reflects actual expenditures. The assistant town manager’s salary and the executive assistant salary will be dependent on fiscal 25 impact in the salary administration plan. This is an article at the annual town meeting brought forward by the Personnel Committee. Evan Watters asks how it works if we go into town meeting with this as our balanced budget then we then approve an SAP increase. Heather Lemieux states that will have to come out of the salary reserve or another category. Finance budget is level funded with the below increases: - $2,000 increases in the cost of dues and membership line. - $500 increase to attend conferences. - $100 increase in postage cost, $50 increase to reflect actual cost for contracted services. - Additional $1,000 in meeting line for additional training for new staff The town accountant salary line is contractual and the clerical staff line for the assistant town accountant includes contractual costs that were in the clerical collective bargaining agreement and the payroll benefits coordinator salary is dependent on the salary administration plan and town meeting vote. Chris Menard asks which positions are in the town accountant clerical line. Heather Lemieux states it’s the assistant town accountant, payroll, and benefits coordinator position. The Annual town audit budget is level funded for fiscal 25. Dave Passios asks what the GASB 45 evaluation is. Heather Lemieux states it’s required government audit standards board. The Legal budget is level funded for fiscal 25. Evan Watters questions if these services are contracted. Heather Lemieux confirms that’s the case and there have been occasional rate increases. There are 2 councils: Labor Council and Town Council. Assessors budget: There is a need for an additional position in that office for a data collection clerk. This is for 19 hours per week. The treasurer/collector budget is level funded. This includes contractual salary increases for the assistant treasurer who is covered under the clerical bargaining agreement. It is dependent on the salary administration plan in the article at the town meeting. This is the same for the assistant collector. The Town Clerks’ budget reflects a 2.5% increase in salary. Dave Passios asks why the town clerks’ budget is separated by line item. Heather ===PAGE 7=== Lemieux states it’s historically always been that way. It is also covered by clerical bargaining agreements. The grant writer budget includes $50,000 for FY 25 for writing services. The health and sanitation budget reflects inflation throughout the economy with a 10% increase. The health insurance budget reflects the 10% renewal rate increase for active employees and a 6% increase for retirees. The preliminary budget reflects the annual renewal rate which is a 5.7% increase for active employees and a 6% rate of increase for retirees. Chris Menard asks if there are any incentives offered if employees don’t take the offered insurance. Heather Lemieux states there is an opt out program that started last year and has been extended to the end of next year. Chris Menard asks what the results were and Heather Lemieux states it was minimal. Tom Gray requests to see the numbers and be informed about what they are receiving. Tom Gray asks if the town has a health insurance broker and Heather Lemieux says yes. Unclassified - Workers’ compensation and liability insurance are estimated at a 5% increase. - Police/Fire injures on duty insurance estimated at a 5% increase. - Medicare costs are estimated at a 10% increase. - Assessment for Montachusett’s planning is 10% increase. - Salary reserve estimated decrease from $199,000 to $100,000. - Reserve funds estimated decrease from $275,000 to $100,000. Debt service highlights FY 25: ES/HS heating system exempt debit retires in FY 24 ($163,806), portion of sewer enterprise debt retires in FY 24 ($335,148), Meadow Woods water debt decreases $1,250 and MSBA payment for old school project reduced from $59,969 to $4. FY 26: Library exempt debt, ladder truck, and Saliba property general fund debt retires in FY 25. FY 30: Artificial turf field general debt bonded in 2017 retires in FY 29 FY 36: Pavement management excludable debt bonded in 2020 and retires in FY 35 FY 46: MS/HS excludable debt retires in FY 45 FY 48: Meadow Woods USDA debt for water/sewer retires in FY 47 Non-discretionary -Total appropriation for FY 25 debt service is $2,941,322. f. Public Comment on Administration, Unclassified, & Debt Service Budget Presentation Dave Passios questions why some budding towns such as Ashby are capital exemption for 1 year and would like to see the comparison between Lunenburg and Ashby. ===PAGE 8=== Evan Watters believes that Lunenburg is pushing an upper middle-class town and doesn’t believe we are going to get additional money. The state thinks that we are supposed to fund our schools to a certain amount. Chris Menard states we can’t keep electing the same people because we know their priorities are not on schools. He pays a lot of money in state taxes, and it should be coming back to our communities. Dave Passios states we keep getting hit from unfunded mandates from the state and federal government. Evan Watter states 100% of our property taxes come back to Lunenburg. That’s the highest value for the dollar that were going to find the largest amount of change that can be made directly for the town. Tom Gray believes the problem with increasing real estate taxes is that there are people who bought expensive homes 40 years ago who don’t have the income to pay the higher taxes. g. Warrant Article Discussion The below list are updated warrant articles submitted by the Town Manager: - Local Wetland Protection bylaw fees - Language for prop 2 ½ for schools. This doesn’t include numbers. - SAP warrant article has language but no numbers. - SAPs from the Personnel Committee - State exemption for taxpayers who are granted exemptions. -Board of Assessor article has been submitted but doesn’t include numbers. -Adoption of Mr. Alonzo’s for historical app - OPAB Liability Trust fund and zoning code The Planning Board articles have the changes in language but changes from Town Council are coming. There is an article with language relating to the water supply district. Heather Lemieux states the Select Board reallocated ARPA funding to cover the network upgrade equipment, 911 compliant phone systems, and Chromebooks totaling $221,640. That money will come out of the school’s budget and be paid through ARPA. Additionally, there will be a pause on the pavement management plan and that would reallocate $50,000 towards the schools. h. FinCom Report for Warrant Discussion There was a brief discussion about the timeline that this report needs to be completed by. Additionally, discussion will take place at the next meeting when Tiffaney Tavares is in attendance. Chris Menard states that every department request has been reasonable this year. Evan Watters wants to address the debt capacity spending. Tom Gray agrees and believes we need to prepare the town for this discussion and get a consensus from the town. ===PAGE 9=== 8. Old Business a. FY21-FY23 Revenue and Expenditures Recap Discussion This topic was skipped for tonight’s meeting. b. FY25 Budget Update/Discussion i. Previous FY25 Presentations Dave Passios reiterates his concern relating to the food service manager position and the increase in hours. He wants a clear answer as to what’s going to happen with that position. Tom Gray states these are difficult discussions. We must ask the Town Manager and department heads as if it were their money being spent. Evan Watters states he trusts the department heads and their knowledge of what they need. Simply reducing people down to numbers is not what we should be doing. ii. Upcoming FY25 Presentations There was no discussion. 9. Minutes a. 2/22/2024 The Committee postponed the 5 sets of minutes for approval to the meeting scheduled for tomorrow. 10. Committee Reports Dave Passios states there is a green communities meeting on the 25th. There will be a discussion and next steps relating to the sewer commission upgrade to their pumping stations. 11. Topics for Future Meetings - Create a table or graph of the override per household - Town needs for upcoming services for buildings - Prepare the town for upcoming projects - Deeper dive into budgets this year - Capital plan update - Addressing the millionaire’s tax only hitting so far for Chapter 90 - Update on SAP plan - Consolidation of services - Grant writer services 12. Upcoming FY25 Budget Meetings a. Mar 21st – Public Access Committee, & Other Monied Articles – Lunenburg Public Schools Update (FinCom) b. Mar 28th at 6:30 PM – FinCom Public Hearing c. Apr 1st at 7PM – Remote Meeting ===PAGE 10=== d. Apr 4th - FinCom Public Hearing 13. Important Dates a. Apr 2nd – FinCom Report for Warrant b. May 4th at 9:00 AM – Annual Town Meeting c. May 18th – Annual Town Election 14. Public Comment Ana Lockwood had a comment relating to some of the proposed positions going from part-time to full-time. The Council on Aging and Parks and Recreation Departments are there to serve the people, the assessor’s office are there to assess taxes fairly and that can’t be put into the private sector. The public sector is not bringing in direct revenue from their activities. The money being spent to have a cook to serve people over the age of 50 in Lunenburg is not expensive. 15. Adjourn There was a motion to adjourn by Chris Menard, seconded by Dave Passios. All in favor. The meeting closed at 11:30 PM. ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-03-21-agenda-6482.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-03-21 KIND : agenda OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-03-21-agenda-6482.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_03212024-6482 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Town of Lunenburg Evan Watters, Chair Christopher Menard, Vice-Chair Tiffaney Tavares, Clerk Jay Simeone Thomas Gray Jean Russell Dave Passios **REVISED** Lunenburg Finance Committee Thursday, March 21st, 2024 7:00 PM Bilotta Meeting Room, Lunenburg Town Hall Agenda 17 Main Street, P.O. Box 135 Lunenburg, MA 01462-0135 978.582.4139 FAX 978.582.4148 In accordance with the requirements of the Open Meeting Law, please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast over the Lunenburg Public Access channel and on Facebook Live on the Public Access Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Lunenburg-Public-Access- Cable-157427270975305). The following information is provided for members of the public that would like to participate in the meeting remotely: To Participate Remotely: From a computer, please use the link below to join the public meeting webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89226887485. From a telephone, dial the toll-free number (888) 475-4499, enter Webinar ID: 892 2688 7485. If you have not registered with Zoom you will be asked for your name and an e-mail address. Note: No participant ID is needed, just press # when asked. Telephone users may dial *9 to request to speak after joining the meeting. Computer and app users may use the “raise hand” feature to request to speak. This agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair. Votes may be taken as a result of these discussions. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by Open Meeting Law. 1. Call to Order 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements 4. Public Comment 5. Minutes a. 2/20/24, 2/21/24, 2/22/24, 2/29/24, 3/7/24 6. Town Manager Report 7. Finance Director Report 8. New Business a. Public Access Committee FY25 Budget Presentation b. Public Comment on Public Access Committee Budget c. School Department FY25 Budget Presentation d. Public Comment on School Department Budget e. Other Monied Articles Presentation f. Public Comment on Other Monied Articles Presentation g. Warrant Article Discussion h. FinCom Report for Warrant Discussion 9. Old Business a. FY21-FY23 Revenue and Expenditures Recap Discussion b. FY25 Budget Update/Discussion i. Previous FY25 Presentations 10. Minutes 11. Committee Reports 12. Topics for Future Meetings 13. Upcoming FY25 Budget Meetings a. Mar 28th – FinCom Public Hearing b. Apr 1st – FinCom Special Meeting (Remote) c. Apr 4th – FinCom Special Meeting 14. Important Dates a. Apr 5th – FinCom Report for Warrant b. May 4th – Annual Town Meeting c. May 18th – Annual Town Election 15. Public Comment 16. Adjourn ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-03-21-minutes-6482.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-03-21 KIND : minutes OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-03-21-minutes-6482.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_03212024-6482 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Lunenburg Finance Committee Meeting Minutes Bilotta Meeting Room Lunenburg Town Hall March 21, 2024 Present Members: Chair Evan Watters, Vice Chair Chris Menard, Clerk Tiffaney Tavares, Board Member Tom Gray, Board Member Dave Passios, Board Member Jean Russell (Zoom), Board Member Jay Simeone 1. Call to Order The meeting opened at 7:00 PM. 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements There were no announcements. 4. Public Comment Mary Foyle, 985 Flat Hill Road, spoke as the President of the Lunenburg Education Association. Mary Foyle wanted to clarify that the $4,300 is the amount of money that separates a first-year teacher with a bachelors in Lunenburg from being eligible for government assistance programs. She doesn’t believe the Finance Committee is working with accurate data or they don’t fully understand the data they are using. Mary Foyle asks the Committee to do their due diligence and fact checking. Rhonda Lisio,181 Reservoir Road, made a comment about whether the Finance Committee is going to vote on the override prior to it being on the warrant. Rhonda Lisio believes that some people look through the warrant and think nothing is being contested so these must be necessary things. 5. Minutes a. 2/20/24, 2/21/24, 2/22/24, 2/29/24, 3/7/24 Dave Passios is concerned about the wording related to Mr. Beardmores comment and wants another member to review. Jay Simeone is requesting a link be added to the minutes for the YouTube recording. Additionally, any public documents should be added as part of the minutes. ===PAGE 2=== At 9 minutes and 30 seconds the audio cuts out for a few minutes so I’m not sure who made the motion or seconded. Additionally, I believe the minutes that weren’t approved were the 22nd but that was not audible in the recording, so I just want to double check. Motion to approve the minutes from 2/20/24, 2/21/24, 2/29/24, 3/7/24 by , seconded by . Roll call vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye, 6. Town Manager Report 7. Finance Director Report Audio returns around 12 minutes 29 seconds. I didn’t see Heathers report or the finance directors report. 8. New Business a. Public Access Committee FY25 Budget Presentation The Chair of the Public Access Cable Committee, Steve Walker, presented their budget. The Public Access Cable Committees mission is to establish, develop, modernize, and operate the town of Lunenburg’s public educational and government channels. The amount of content has grown and is now shared on a nationwide media database. Some recent accomplishments include: - Improvement of the production quality of town meetings by using 4 cameras and direct inputs for presentations and a voting machine. - Increased overall amount of government meetings recorded and broadcast. - Continuing local programming growth PACC oversees Channel 22, which has been in operation for 4 years. The channel is populated with local and educational database content. Additionally, the School Committee is aired 3 times a week and high school sports are aired 2 times a week. Locally produced programs that are not governmental are played on channel 9. Between FY 22 and FY 23 there was a 242% increase in broadcasting middle and high school sports. ===PAGE 3=== Finances The franchise fees from Comcast are the principal source of the PAC income and are reserved for PAC capital improvements and operations. This does not affect the town budgets. Enterprise fund reserved for fitting out and equipping the new studio space. Some of the funds from the enterprise fund have been invested in short-term bonds per the town treasurer to manage inflation. Evan Watters asks if there is a timeline for planning the buildout for the studio. Steve Walker says there is not and it’s dependent on having a building with enough space. Currently PAC takes up 900 square feet in TC Passios. The new space is going to be roughly 3 times that size. Anticipated income for FY 25: - Comcast $194,304 - Regular interest $13,499 - Bond interest $30,960 This totals $238,763 minus the reserve funds comes to $207,803. The contract with Comcast is in effect until February 2028. There are 2 employees 1 employee works 36 hours a week at a rate of $33.97. The other employee works 20 hours a week at a rate of $24.04. FY 25 budget summary - Salaries $126,643 - Indirect costs $27,930 - Operations $24,200 The total budget for operations is $178,773. ARPA Funding $50,700 ARPA funding was received and includes 3 categories of improvements 1. Videographer kits: $12,000 2. Studio: $34,300 3. Broadcast Audio: $4,400 There is potential legislature for a bill called the Act to Modernize Funding for Community Media. This is a proposition of a 5% fee on digital streaming providers, based on a company’s gross annual revenue in the state. Monies collected at State level are disbursed as follows: - 20% to state general fund ===PAGE 4=== - 40% to municipalities - 40% community media Chris Menard questions if it has been confirmed that this is coming to Lunenburg. Steve Walker states they are currently waiting for information but confirms that the monies that come into the State would be distributed or dispersed by the population. Proposed Warrant Article There is a request to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate or transfer from available funds, a sum of money to fund the FY 25 Public Educational Government (PEG) Access Enterprise operating and capital budgets; or take any other action relative thereto. Tiffaney Tavares asks what the line item for consultant services is for. Steve Walker states that the cost is for a technician to come in on an hourly basis to solve complex problems. Evan Watters questions if the upgraded studio includes switching over to some type of high-definition system or if that is an additional expense. Steve Walker states the present contract allows for 1 high-definition channel. All current equipment being used is high definition. b. Public Comment on Public Access Committee Budget Rhonda Lisio, 181 Reservoir Road, is concerned about the dropping revenue and how much is being spent on operations. The rent is still $6,000 and has been since 2012. A 3,000 square foot place seems like a lot of space especially since most of the programming is generated outside. Steve Walker states its size is comparable to other towns. Additionally, they are looking at creating a podcast which will require additional space. c. School Department FY25 Budget Presentation The preliminary budget was presented by Superintendent Dr. Kate Burnham, Chairperson Carol Archambault from the School Committee, and Julianna Hanscom Director of Special Services The mission of the schools is to provide all students with skills, confidence, and passion for lifelong learning so that they may find their own path to successful careers, active citizenship and rewarding lives. Student Enrollment The average class size for the 2023-2024 school year ranged between 17-25 students apart from pre-k ranging 11-13 students. ===PAGE 5=== 2023-2024 homeschool data • 4 students have returned to the district. • 19 students have moved or reported attending other schools in the State. • 37 students have homeschool plans approved by the district. • 14 students (families) in the district are still working on plan/status. Student count on IEPS • Lunenburg Primary School: 79 students • Turkey Hill Elementary School: 61 students • Lunenburg Middle School: 62 students • Lunenburg High School: 46 students • ACE Program: 7 students The district will evaluate at least 110 students this year to determine eligibility for special education services. Students on Section 504 from 2023-2024 • Lunenburg Primary School: 8 students • Turkey Hill Elementary School: 33 students • Lunenburg Middle School: 51students • Lunenburg High School: 69 students • ACE Program: 0 students This includes students with either identified disability or a suspected disability. This does not involved specialized education. Board Certified Behavior Analysists BCBA Caseload for FY 24 • Lunenburg Primary School: 44 students • Turkey Hill Elementary School: 25 students • Lunenburg Middle School: 23 students • Lunenburg High School: 24 students • Out of District: 3 students Evan Watters asked if the numbers for BCBAs in the school is catching up to needs or if they are climbing. Dr. Kate Burnham believes the teachers may be more in tune with what they need to be looking for and how to approach getting students’ assistance and support. There is a referral process before they get to the level of special education. Evan Watters questions if the parents are aware if their child is going through a referral process. Dr. Kate Burnham confirms there is communication. ===PAGE 6=== Behavioral Health Update & Response Mental Health Crisis/ Hospitalizations - Section 12 Middle/High School: 0 hospitalizations from 2023–2024 Middle/High School: 1 hospitalization in the Middle school in 2022-2023. Hospitalizations requiring tutoring. 2023-2024: 4 students (data up to 1/11/24) 2022-2023: 16 students 2021- 2022: 4 students Chris Menard asks if this data shows a student being hospitalized on multiple occasions. Dr. Kate Burnham states there were 2 or 3 individuals that had multiple hospitalizations last year. Tiffaney Tavares asks how the 16 hospitalizations affect the budget. Dr. Kate Burnham states there are programs where students who might be coming back from a hospitalization are transitioned into a smaller setting to ease back in. This classroom was always offered as a fall back if students were having trouble. There is also a budget line for hospital tutoring and last year that line was underfunded. Tiffaney Tavares questions if there is tutoring for non-behavior related medical issues. Dr. Kate Burnham confirms that is the case and isn’t aware of any trends. Grants Esser grants were used in FY 21 to FY 24. The intent of these funds was primarily to address the covid impact. The 2 biggest priority areas of impact were social emotional mental health and academic learning loss. Tiffaney Tavares raised concern relating to learning loss for students. She is of the opinion that students who have gone from elementary school this past year and are now in middle school were not prepared for having homework and the rigorous schedule. Tiffaney Tavares believes this is because there was not a plan in place for elementary school students to have homework and doesn’t believe that has changed this year. She is concerned and curious if the clinicians are going to see a heavier workload and reoccurring problems. Dr. Kate Burnham states the strategy is pedagogy. If you look at academic performance of the Turkey Hill Elementary School, its increased during the years when there hasn’t been mandatory homework. At home they are to prioritize free ===PAGE 7=== reading. Teaching children time management is not the first right answer for why we give homework. It should be connected to the learning outcome. Tiffaney Tavares disagrees and encourages Dr. Burnham to sit through a sixth-grade classroom. The amount of work is shocking, and the teachers are stressed out from having to acclimate those students and spending resources to try to decrease the stress levels in that middle school because kids are not prepared. She questions if they wouldn’t need as many clinicians and time could be stretched differently if there weren’t as many anxieties thus have a little less on their plate. Loss of Esser Funds Tiffaney Tavares asks what is happening with the position cuts of the PE teacher for the primary and elementary schools. Dr. Kate Burnham shares that most of their unified arts for the last 3 years have been shared. One building will have their specials scheduled in the morning and the other building will have their specials scheduled in the afternoon. Chris Menard asked when the cuts are announced to the teacher or the union. Dr. Kate Burnham confirms they are trying to figure out what the cuts could potentially be before she goes to a public meeting. The individuals attached to these positions will meet and have a discussion. These conversations are timed tightly just in advance of a list of positions being discussed at public meetings. Dr. Kate Burnham emails out regular updates. Chris Menard states there have been times in the past at the last moment where chapter 70 funds were increased by our legislature. This was due to a statewide problem. Heather Lemieux states it would take another town meeting vote to make those adjustments. Every year federal grants are received, also known as entitlement grants. The state grants need to actively be pursued. There is no primary grant writer position. Typically, it’s the lead person that would be connected to that grant area. FY 25 Budget Priorities Factors underlying the need for reductions for FY 25 • Health insurance increases $500,000 • Contractual increases $400,000 • Loss of COVID grant funding $600,000 The Town Mangers budget calculations reflecting a 2.94% increase Total school department budget for FY 24 $22,878,443 Plus, the 2.94% increase of $672,262. ===PAGE 8=== The Town Managers 2.94% increase totals $23,551,069 The Town Managers revised budget reflecting a 4.19% increase. Addition of new growth $236,025 Addition of monies from the pavement management plan $50,000 The Town Managers budget with the 4.19% increase totals $23,837,094 At the Select Board meeting on March 19, 2024, there was a vote to approve reallocating $101,640 that was previously allocated for sidewalks. Chris Menard states going forward with a 7-digit override number is a much harder ask than a 6 digit and may be more palatable to residents. Carol Archambault thoughts were if we went with a $700,000 override the problem is we will be doing this over again next year because that’s not enough to raise the base. Tom Gray questions if we have a million dollar override this year what happens with the additional $200,000 requested. If we are doing an override and we are going to be taxing the people $221,000. He wants to know where that money will go. Carol Archambault doesn’t think it would be a problem to find places for that money. We’re not going to get an override 2 years in a row. If the override goes and it’s not enough, then what happens. We will always have major maintenance, football field repairs, and reoccurring Chromebook expense every year. Peter Beardmore, 282Pleasant Street, the numbers have changed on an almost daily basis for the past 2 weeks. The School Committee voted on the pink column the night before. That is the absolute minimum amount of money needed to operate the schools without massive disruptions. This still includes a lot of cuts. The maintenance requests for next year are going to be double those of this year. The rationale behind the roughly 1-million-dollar override is the difference between the budget base and what the Town Manager has offered and put on the warrant. This is not putting money aside from the override. Chris Menard wants more understanding of the rationale behind the override figure that was obtained. We need a clear answer from the Select Board who will be putting a number on a piece of paper, the School Committee, and the finance department to make a recommendation. That recommendation needs to be made within a week. We need to plan operations in capital, infrastructure and everything needed for the next 10 years. ===PAGE 9=== d. Public Comment on School Department Budget TJ Laughlin, 207 Rolling Acres Road, states he is seeing a common trend. This is the 4th meeting where people have said they don’t know what they’re looking at and people need to come back with the facts. How can we educate the public when none of it is being stabilized. This process is not all inclusive. Why? Who is responsible for making this an all-inclusive process because the Select Board has not acted, and you guys have not acted. Peter Beardmore, 282 Pleasant Street, asks if the Committee has received or heard anything about the salary administration plan or the salary gap that was discussed a few weeks ago. Evan Watters states we have received that information this afternoon. What we’re seeing is the MO of the Town Manager and Peter Beardmore wants to know who is going to hold her responsible. Believes the chair of the select board and the Town Manager made this plan in the beginning of February to shift the burden onto the school department. Somebody needs to show some leadership and it certainly isn’t coming from the executive of this town. Mary Foyle, 985 Flat Hill Road, has worked at Lunenburg public school and states we have never had good programming. We have been the bare minimum and suggest using ARPA funding for programming. Mary Foyle appreciates the work of everyone. The Town Manager states there are a lot of untruths in the previous speakers’ comments tonight. She states she is looking at local receipts and needs to look at historically what has been estimated versus actuals. Tiffaney Tavares believes Dr. Burnham needs to also take accountability. This isn’t only about looking at the numbers. It’s about the school as a whole and how this is affecting teachers and can we operate differently to save money, to save time, to save stress. Sometimes someone else needs to step in and look closely and find different possible perspectives. Jean Russell thanks Dr. Kate Burnham for her presentation. e. Other Monied Articles Presentation This presentation did not take place. f. Public Comment on Other Monied Articles Presentation The other monied articles presentation did not take place. g. Warrant Article Discussion This discussion did not take place. ===PAGE 10=== h. FinCom Report for Warrant Discussion This discussion did not take place. 9. Old Business a. FY21-FY23 Revenue and Expenditures Recap Discussion This topic was not discussed. b. FY 25 Budget Update/Discussion This topic was not discussed. i. Previous FY25 Presentations This topic was not discussed. 10. Minutes This topic was tabled until the next meeting. 11. Committee Reports There were no committee reports. 12. Topics for Future Meetings This topic was not discussed. 13. Upcoming FY25 Budget Meetings a. Mar 28th – FinCom Public Hearing b. Apr 1st – FinCom Special Meeting (Remote) c. Apr 4th – FinCom Special Meeting 14. Important Dates Apr 5th – FinCom Report for Warrant May 4th – Annual Town Meeting May 18th – Annual Town Election 15. Public Comment Tom Gray states that since this started, I have seen people working really hard trying to do the right thing whatever that may be. We will get through this as a town, and we will move on. 16. Adjourn There was a motion to adjourn by Chris Menard, seconded by Tiffaney Tavares. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye, The meeting closed at 11:29 PM. ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-03-28-agenda-6497.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-03-28 KIND : agenda OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-03-28-agenda-6497.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_03282024-6497 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Town of Lunenburg Evan Watters, Chair Christopher Menard, Vice-Chair Tiffaney Tavares, Clerk Jay Simeone Thomas Gray Jean Russell Dave Passios **Public Hearing** Lunenburg Finance Committee Thursday, March 28th, 2024 7:00 PM Bilotta Meeting Room, Lunenburg Town Hall Agenda 17 Main Street, P.O. Box 135 Lunenburg, MA 01462-0135 978.582.4139 FAX 978.582.4148 In accordance with the requirements of the Open Meeting Law, please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast over the Lunenburg Public Access channel and on Facebook Live on the Public Access Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Lunenburg-Public-Access- Cable-157427270975305). This meeting will be held in-person at the location provided on this notice. Members of the public are welcome to attend this in-person meeting. Please note that while an option for remote attendance and/or participation is being provided as a courtesy to the public, the meeting will not be suspended or terminated if technological problems interrupt the virtual broadcast, unless otherwise required by law. Members of the public with particular interest in any specific item on this agenda should make plans for in-person vs. virtual attendance accordingly. The following information is provided for members of the public that would like to participate in the meeting remotely: To Participate Remotely: From a computer, please use the link below to join the public meeting webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89226887485. From a telephone, dial the toll-free number (888) 475-4499, enter Webinar ID: 892 2688 7485. If you have not registered with Zoom you will be asked for your name and an e-mail address. Note: No participant ID is needed, just press # when asked. Telephone users may dial *9 to request to speak after joining the meeting. Computer and app users may use the “raise hand” feature to request to speak. This agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair. Votes may be taken as a result of these discussions. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by Open Meeting Law. 1. Call to Order 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements 4. Public Comment 5. New Business a. 7:05pm – Public Hearing on Warrant Articles b. Vote on Recommendations c. **Public Hearing Close** 6. Old Business a. FinCom Report for Warrant Discussion b. FY21-FY23 Revenue and Expenditures Recap Discussion c. FY25 Budget Update/Discussion i. Previous FY25 Presentations 7. Town Manager Report 8. Finance Director Report 9. Minutes 10. Committee Reports 11. Topics for Future Meetings 12. Upcoming FY25 Budget Meetings a. Apr 1st – Remote Meeting for ATM Report b. Apr 4th – Meeting for ATM Report & Warrant Article Recommendations 13. Important Dates a. Apr 5th – FinCom Report for Warrant b. May 4th – Annual Town Meeting c. May 18th – Annual Town Election 14. Public Comment 15. Adjourn ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-03-28-minutes-6497.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-03-28 KIND : minutes OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-03-28-minutes-6497.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_03282024-6497 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Lunenburg Finance Committee Meeting Minutes Bilotta Meeting Room Lunenburg Town Hall March 28, 2024 Present Members: Chair Evan Watters, Vice Chair Chris Menard, Clerk Tiffaney Tavares, Board Member Tom Gray, Board Member Dave Passios, Board Member Jean Russell (Zoom), Board Member Jay Simeone . 1. Call to Order The meeting opened at 7:00 PM . 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements There were no announcements. 4. Public Comment Rhonda Liscio questions if there will be public comments during the article discussion s . Evan Watters says yes. Evan Watters states J ean Russell is joining the meeting remotely thus all votes taken will be roll call votes. 5. New Business a. 7:05pm – Public Hearing on Warrant Articles There was a motion to open public meeting by Chris Menard , seconded by D ave P assios. Roll call vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye . Annual T own M eeting A rticles Article A: To see if the town will vote to hear and/or accept the regular written reports of the T own O fficers and C ommittees. There were n o C ommittee or public questions/comments. Article B: A nnual article to vote on the spendings threshold every year for the rest of the revolving fund . There were n o C ommittee or public questions/comments. Article C: T he C onservation C ommission chair recently reviewed this bylaw and saw reference to a revolving fund. This is a creation referring to the ===PAGE 2=== revolving fun d that ’s already in the existing law. The total amount generated from the bylaw is $ 50,000 . There were n o C ommittee or public questions/comments. Article D: A rticle to see if the town will vote to raise, appropriate or transfer funds from a sum of money for payment of prior years ’ expenses . This is a reoccurring article that currently has no prior year expenses. Article E: A rticle to transfer from available funds all sums of money necessary to amend the amounts voted for the towns FY 24 budget. Currently Heather Lemieux d oesn ’t have the numbers for this article. Article F: A rticle to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate , borrow , or transfer from available funds a sum of money for the FY 25 C apital P lan . There were n o C ommittee or public questions/comments. Article G: A rticle to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate , borrow , or transfer from available funds a sum of money to defray the charges and expenses of the Town and to fix the salaries and compensation of all elected officials of the town. TJ Laughlin, 207 Rolling Acres Road, questions if the recommended budget conclusion slide includes the schools . Heather Lemieux confirms the slide includes the schoo ls. Article H: A rticle to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate $ 948,000 to supplement the Lunenburg P ublic S chools operating budget for FY 25 contingent upon the passage of prop 2 ½ ballot question. This is the gap between the needs-based budget up to the level service budget minus E sser funds. R honda L iscio , 181 R eservoir R oad , appreciate the increasing efficiencies between the town and the school and that the C ommittee has been doing everything th ey can to share the resources between the 2 . The extra money added to the school budget came from the town ’s side. Every group in town has lost service to give to the school group. Rhonda Liscio w ants to see the dollar amount of the impact on taxpayers based on the values of homes. Evan Watters states that information will be put into the F inance C ommittee report that shows the breakdown across a wide range of property values. TJ Laughlin believes what the C ommittee decides, includes and recommends i s important and it should be aligned with other departments , the Town Manager , and S elect B oard goes a long way to the viability of the override ===PAGE 3=== Chris M enard says he can see both views. The question is what the right recommendation for the financial health of the town is . It ’s a school and town problem going forward and is i n support of the override . Evan Watters is also i n support of the override and thinks is necessary and not something that should be pushed off. Tiffaney Tavares believes this is the time to start looking at how we are operating as a town, including the schools. Laura B rzozoski, 21 Francis Ave., states if anyone has strong feelings about the school funding they should contact the state legislators . Evan Watters requested and was sent historical data starting back in 2009. There are 2 expense lines that take up the most expenses: transportation and health insurance. The other expense lines don ’t show much change. For the p ersonnel side, aside from a few positions there hasn ’t been a substantial increase in high school teachers ’ education pay in the last 8 years. General education teachers are the main driver on the personnel side. Over 15 years , the increases have been about the same with a few exceptions. In the last 15 years, Health I nsurance has increased 90% , transportation has increased 62%, general education has increased about 50%, special education has increased by 91%, paraprofessionals pay has increased 74%. The schools have been increasing incrementally as expected . Chris Menard disagrees and says that the burden of the salaries should be reflected in the budget that hires them to see the full cost. Tom Alonzo is questioning how the ARPA funding is being used in the school budget. Carol Archambault states the schools are try ing to close the gap in th e budget and ARPA funds were used . Next year the budget is starting at 4.3%, it ’s not starting at 5.4%. Evan Watters wants to know how much of the $948,000 includes the money that was given the ARPA. Carol Archambault states it was $ 221,000. A S elect B oard member said if you ’re going to do an override then we must make sure that ’s enough. Tom G ray believes there n eeds to be a well thought out plan for what needs to be done in town. ===PAGE 4=== Article I: Article to a mend the S alary A dministration P lan (SAP) Classification and Salary Schedule Susan Andrews, 81 Horizon Island R oad, stated that 2 years ago the goals were set to determine if the job descriptions for the entire SAP organization were up to date . Consultants were hired to write job descriptions and assess the grid . A Survey of 8 comparable towns were used to determine that the 2.2% was not enough . O n top of the 2.5% being requested there is a request to start the pay scale at $1,550. This is roughly an $ 89,000 change. Evan Watters asks if this is just changing the grid and doesn ’t have anything to do with money. Susan Andrews confirms that is the case. Article J: Article t o transfer a sum of money from available funds to fund the wage increase for FY 24 and transfer a sum of money from available funds to fund the wage increases for FY 25 for Salary Administration Plan employees Susan Andrews states the anticipated cost to the retro 24 is $ 101,4 6 8.69. The additional requested increase would make an impact on the budget of $89,761.69. This article will fund the additional sums of money which would be 3% on top of the 2.5%. Heather Lemieux states that for FY 24 the cost will come out of the surplus revenues. There is about $ 76,000 in the salary reserve account for FY 24. The FY 24 adjustment article make s the necessary transfer for the full amount into the salary reserve account. The fiscal 25 amount will be out of the salary reserve account. Article K: Article for the Town to v ote to amend the Chapter 70 entitled S alary A dministration P lan S ection 20 Susan Andrews wants the added factor that if an employee becomes a parent with or without giving birth . F or example, if the employee ’s spouse gives birth to a baby or the employee adopts a child the employee may access up to 8 weeks or 40 days of sick leave however all other available accrued time vacation and personnel must first be exhausted. Chris Menard believes the language needs to be changed . This article just says once you have a child at any time forever you can take up to 40 days of sick leave. It doesn ’t say in any way it ’s the first 8 weeks. Susan Andrews confirms they are getting a recommendation from the Select Board about wording. Tiffaney Tavares questions if a person adopts or fosters a 16-year-old does that fall under th e same category too? Susan Andrews states yes if they choose to. Generally, people plan when they have these events and ===PAGE 5=== may save sick or vacation time. Adopting at 16 can be just as traumatic for a family as a brand-new baby. Chris Menard asks if this would cover fostering and Susan Andrews says yes. Article L: Article to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate or transfer from available funds, a sum of money to the stabilization fund totaling $ 100,000 . There were no Committee or public questions/comments. Article M: Article to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate or transfer from available funds, a sum of money to the stabilization fund. There were no Committee or public questions/comments. Article N: Article to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate or transfer from available funds, a sum of money into the OPEB Trust Fund totaling $ 187,000 . There were no Committee or public questions/comments. Article O: Article to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate or transfer from available funds, a sum of money to operate the Sewer Enterprise Fund for FY 25 totaling $ 1,712,419.87 . There were no Committee or public questions/comments. Article P: Article to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate or transfer from available funds, $ 35,000 into the sewer Capital Reserve Stabilization Fund. There were no Committee or public questions/comments. Article Q: Article to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate or transfer from available funds, a sum of money to operate the Solid Waste Disposal Program Enterprise Fund for FY 25. Dave Passios asks if there are any other options for lowered recycling costs. Heather Lemieux states the bid was put out 3 years ago and only received 1 bid. The costs are high due to the market, not the contractors . Article R: Article to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate or transfer from available funds, a sum of money to operate the Water Enterprise Fund for FY 25 totaling $ 45,000 . There were no Committee or public questions/comments. Article S: Article to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate a sum of money to fund the FY 25 Public Educational Government (PEG) Access Enterprise operating and capital budget totaling $ 1,843.03 There were no Committee or public questions/comments. ===PAGE 6=== Article T: Article t o see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $ 10,000 from the sale of cemetery lots from the sale of ceme te ry lot accounts to be used for the care , improvement , embellishment of the town cemeteries. Jay Simeone wants the cemetery commission and DPW to discuss if that ’s the correct number. Evan Watters will request the C emetery C ommission to come to a meeting to discuss the sale of the cemetery lots and account . Article U: Article to see if the town will vote to accept M.G.L. Chapter 59 Section 5C1/2 which provides for an additional real estate exemption for taxpayers who are granted personal exemptions on their domiciles under M.G.L. Chapter 59, Section 5, including certain blind persons, veter an s , surviving s p ouses , and seniors. Th e additional exemption s hall be up to 50 percent of the personal exemption. Chris Menard questioned why the Select Board didn ’t make a recommendation on this article. Heather Lemieux clarifies that there is a question that the assessors are still looking into. Article V: Article to see if the town will vote to amend the vote decrease the exemption age from 70 to 65 and further to amend the reimbursement amount up to 100 percent of the exemption There were no Committee or public questions/comments. Article W: Article to see if the town will vote to re-adopt and accep t the previous provisions of S ection 20 C hapter 32B , as amended by Section 15 of Chapter 218 of the Acts of 2016, establishing an Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) Liability trust Fund; to authorize the Select Board and Treasurer to execute a declaration of trust creating an expendable trust for the purpose of holding monies appropriated to such funds to designate the treasurer as the trustee of said such trust to authorize of any and all monies currently being held for the purpose of paying all retiree health and life benefits to such trust and to authorize the trustee to invest and reinvest the monies in such funds in accordance with the prudent investor rule. Heather Lemieux says the town voted to create a OPEB fund in 2010. The law changed in 2016 and that law requires towns to report the provisions of the law otherwise it just continues from their other adoptions. There is no financial impact . Article X: Article to see if the town will vote to amend the code of Lunenburg C hapter 12 entitled B oards, C ommissions, and C ommittees by adding a new article 4 thus codifying the affirmed votes of the M ay 1979 annual town meeting articles 21 and 22 and the May 08 annual town meeting article 18. Dave Passios states there is no financial impact in this article. ===PAGE 7=== Article Y: Article to see if the town will vote to amend the code of Lunenburg to modify a Section of the Protective Bylaw entitles ‘Use Table ”, by inserting a new use entitled “Battery Energy Storage System ” Richard Harris states the town was approached by a company that wants to put a battery storage system in town . The At torney G eneral ha s ruled that battery engine storage systems are allowed under an exemption for solar . Chris Menard questions what happens if a battery ruptures or there ’s a failure in the mechanisms that go into a storage system. Additionally, he asks if the town would need to have any special hazardous gear or special trucks. Richard Harris says no . The systems are monitored 24/7 at an offsite location that can detect if there ’s a surge. Article Z: W ater S upply P rotection D istrict . The Water Supply Protection District is an overlay district superimposed on the zoning districts There were no Committee or public questions/comments. b. Vote on Recommendations A. There was a motion that there is no direct financial impact on Article A by Chris Menard, seconded by Tiffaney Tavares. Roll Call vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote was u nanimous . B. There was a motion to recommend approval of Article B by Chris Menard, seconded by Tiffaney Tavares. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote was unanimous. C. There was a motion to recommend approval of Article C by Chris Menard, seconded by Jean Russell. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote was unanimous. D. There was motion to recommend deferring A rticle D by Chris Menard , seconded by Tom Gray. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote to defer was unanimous. E. There was a motion to defer A rticle E by Chris Menard, seconded by Dave Passios. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote to defer was unanimous. ===PAGE 8=== F. There was a motion to recommend approval of A rticle F by Chris Menard, seconded by Tiffaney Tavares. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios no, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote was 6 -1 to recommend approval. G. There was a motion to recommend approval of A rticle G by Chris Menard, seconded by Jean Russell. Roll Call vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios no, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares abstains , Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote was 5-1-1 to recommend approval. H. There was a motion to defer A rticle H by Chris Menard, seconded by Tiffaney Tavares. Chris Menard and Tiffaney Tavares want to hear the opinion of the Select Board before making a recommendation. Evan Watters disagrees and thinkings post poning the vote is going to do damage to the override potential. There was a r oll call vote to defer the vote on the override. Jean Russell no , Dave Passios aye , Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares abstains , Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters no . The vote was 4-2-1 to defer the override vote . I. There was a motion that there is no direct financial impact on A rticle I by Chris Menard, seconded by Tom Gray. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios abstain, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote was 6-0-1 to find there is no direct financial impact . J. There was a motion to recommend approval of A rticle J by Chris Menard, seconded by Dave Passios. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote was unanimous. K. There was a motion that there is no direct financial impact on A rticle K by Chris Menard, seconded by Tom Gray. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios abstain, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote was 6-0-1 to find there is no direct financial impact . L. There was a motion to recommend approv al of A rticle L by Chris Menard, seconded by Dave Passios. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote was unanimous. ===PAGE 9=== M. There was a motion to recommend approv al of A rticle M by Chris Menard, seconded by Dave Passios. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote was unanimous. N. There was a motion to recommend approv al of A rticle N by Chris Menard, seconded by Dave Passios. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote was unanimous. O. There was a motion to recommend approval of A rticle O by Chris Menard, seconded by Jean Russell . Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote was unanimous. P. There was a motion to recommend approv al of A rticle P by Chris Menard, seconded by Jean Russell. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote was unanimous. Q. There was a motion to recommend approval of A rticle Q by Chris Menard, seconded by Jean Russell. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote was unanimous. R. There was a motion to recommend approval of A rticle R by Chris Menard, seconded by Dave Passios. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote was unanimous. S. There was a motion to recommend approval of A rticle S by Chris Menard, seconded by Jean Russell. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye . The vote was unanimous. T. There was a motion to recommend approval of A rticle T by Dave Passios, seconded by Jean Russell. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote was unanimous. U. There was motion to recommend deferring A rticle U , seconded by Tiffaney Tavares. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard ===PAGE 10=== aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote to defer was unanimous. V. There was motion to recommend deferring A rticle V , seconded Tiffaney Tavares. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote to defer was unanimous. W. There was a motion that there is no direct financial impact on A rticle W by Chris Menard, seconded by Dave Passios. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote was unanimous. X. There was a motion that there is no direct financial impact on A rticle X by Chris Menard, seconded by Dave Passios. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote was unanimous. Y. There was a motion that there is no direct financial impact on A rticle Y by Chris Menard, seconded by Dave Passios. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote was unanimous. Z. There was a motion that were is no direct financial impact on A rticle Z by Chris Menard, seconded by Dave Passios. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The vote was unanimous. a. **Public Hearing Close** There was a motion to close the public meeting by C hris M enard, seconded by D ave P assios. Roll call vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye. The public hearing closed at 10:55 PM. 6. Old Business a. FinCom Report for Warrant Discussion b. FY21-FY23 Revenue and Expenditures Recap Discussion ===PAGE 11=== c. FY25 Budget Update/Discussion Heather Lemieux shares the FY 25 recommendations. The recommended budget reflected a needs based LPS budget and level service town department budget with some exceptions. $ 100,000 of free cash was moved into the FY 25 Reserve Fund account. $ 105,000 from the health insurance stabilization account was used to offset insurance costs. The local receipts increased by $ 41,360 more than the recommendation presented in February. Below are the updated FY 25 projected revenues : - Property tax : $ 32,823,309 - State aid : $ 10,682,086 - Local receipts : $ 3,307,851 - Other available funds : $ 2,541,625 Totaling : $ 49,354,871 Prop er ty tax revenue - Prior year level limit : $ 29,375,035.67 - 2 ½ increase to levy : $ 734,375.89 - Estimated new growth : $ 400,000 - Deb t exclusions : $ 2,313,898.33 Totaling : $ 32,823,309.89 Enterprise Budgets for FY 25 - PACC Enterprise: $208,773 - Sewer Enterprise: $ 2,114,689 - Water Enterprise: $45,000 - Solid Waste Enterprise: $500,000 for PAYT program The Governor provided $ 10,682,186 as the estimated number for state aid for FY 25. This is a 1.04% decrease from FY 24. Evan W atters questions why the investment income was so high last year. Heather Lemieux states it was due to the market . Changes from the Preliminary Budget to the Recommended Budget for FY 25 : - Solid waste & recycling line increased $ 100,000 - Reserve Fund Account increased $ 100,000 - Salary R eserve line increased $ 55,000 - Funding for an additional Police Officer was cut . - Additional hours for IT Administrative Assistant, COA Meal Site Manager, Recreational Director, Teen Libraries were cut . ===PAGE 12=== - Data C ollection line was cut $ 5,000 - IT Hardware line was cut $ 18,000 - Active Health Insurance was cut $ 77,000 Highlights for non-discretionary budget: - R etirement assessment increased 10.94% - Health insurance reflects a 5.7% increase for active employees and a 6% increase for retire d - Solid waste and recycling increased 33 % - Debt services decreased 16.39% - C herry sheet offset charges decreased 6% FY 25 Capital Plan Town Managers – These projects are all being funded by free cash and unexpected capital . 1. Public S afety R adio S ystem, P hase 2 : $ 315,263 2. Townwide Keying, C ard A ccess and A larm S ystem U pgrades : $ 185.000 3. Northfield Culvert Construction : $ 200,000 4. Turkey Hill Elementary School, ADA Study for Reservations and Assessment and Schematic Design : $ 275,000 5. Marked Replacement K9 Cruiser : $ 92,211 6. Library Security Cameras , Phase 1 : $ 36,000 7. Marked Replacement for Traffic Cruiser : $ 73,627 8. Turkey Hill Elementary School Installation of 3M Wind o w Safety Film : $ 33,569 9. Security Camera Upgrades at Town Buildings : $ 36,450 10. Wallis Park Basketball and Tennis Courts : $ 70,000 i. Previous FY25 Presentations There were no additional discussions. 7. Town Manager Report There were no additional reports from the Town Manager. 8. Finance Director Report There w ere no report s from the Finance Director. 9. Minutes There were n o minutes to review . 10. Committee Reports Dave Passios states that the Green Communities will be meeting next Monday . 11. Topics for Future Meetings Evan Watters took note to invite the C emetery C ommission to an upcoming meeting to clarify some questions. 12. Upcoming FY25 Budget Meetings ===PAGE 13=== a. Apr 4th – Meeting for ATM Report & Warrant Article Recommendations 13. Important Dates a. Apr 5th – FinCom Report for Warrant b. May 4th – Annual Town Meeting c. May 18th – Annual Town Election 14. Public Comment John Bowen thanks the Committee for their work. John Bowen clarifies that an amendment can be raised at Town Meeting regarding the numbers specifically in Article J. Additionally, he is not satisfied that there is an increase in wage of the DPW Directors salary relating to Article I and thinks it ’s a mistake in structuring. John Bowen states the Cemetery and town is only responsible for graves over 100 years old and he believes the money from taxes should be used towards that. 15. Adjourn Motion to adjourn by Chris Menard , seconded by T iffaney T avares. Roll c all vote. Jean Russell aye, Dave Passios aye, Tom Gray aye, Jay Simeone aye, Tiffaney Tavares aye, Chris Menard aye, Evan Watters aye . The meeting closed at 11:39 PM. ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-04-04-agenda-6507.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-04-04 KIND : agenda OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-04-04-agenda-6507.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_04042024-6507 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Town of Lunenburg Evan Watters, Chair Christopher Menard, Vice-Chair Tiffaney Tavares, Clerk Jay Simeone Thomas Gray Jean Russell Dave Passios Lunenburg Finance Committee Thursday, April 4th, 2024 7:00 PM Bilotta Meeting Room, Lunenburg Town Hall Agenda 17 Main Street, P.O. Box 135 Lunenburg, MA 01462-0135 978.582.4139 FAX 978.582.4148 In accordance with the requirements of the Open Meeting Law, please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast over the Lunenburg Public Access channel and on Facebook Live on the Public Access Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Lunenburg-Public-Access- Cable-157427270975305) and will be uploaded to the Lunenburg Access YouTube channel after the meeting. This meeting will be held in-person at the location provided on this notice. Members of the public are welcome to attend this in-person meeting. Please note that while an option for remote attendance and/or participation is being provided as a courtesy to the public, the meeting will not be suspended or terminated if technological problems interrupt the virtual broadcast, unless otherwise required by law. Members of the public with particular interest in any specific item on this agenda should make plans for in-person vs. virtual attendance accordingly. The following information is provided for members of the public that would like to participate in the meeting remotely: To Participate Remotely: From a computer, please use the link below to join the public meeting webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83241759373. From a telephone, dial the toll-free number (888) 475-4499, enter Webinar ID: 832 4175 9373. If you have not registered with Zoom you will be asked for your name and an e-mail address. Note: No participant ID is needed, just press # when asked. Telephone users may dial *9 to request to speak after joining the meeting. Computer and app users may use the “raise hand” feature to request to speak. The agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair. Votes may be taken as a result of these discussions. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by Open Meeting Law. 1. Call to Order 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements 4. Public Comment 5. Town Manager Report 6. Finance Director Report 7. New Business a. FinCom Report for Warrant Workshopping 8. Old Business a. FY25 Budget Discussion b. FY25 Override Discussion c. Votes on Recommendations for Warrant Articles 9. Minutes 10. Committee Reports 11. Topics for Future Meetings 12. Upcoming Meetings: a. 4/11/2024 b. 4/25/2024 c. 5/4/2024 – Annual Town Meeting 13. Important Dates: a. 5/18/2024 – Annual Town Election 14. Public Comment 15. Adjourn ======================================================================================== DOCUMENT : 2024-04-04-agenda-6512.txt BOARD : finance-committee DATE : 2024-04-04 KIND : agenda OUR COPY : https://lunenburgbudgetproject.org/docs/minutes/text/finance-committee/2024-04-04-agenda-6512.txt TOWN PDF : https://www.lunenburgma.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_04042024-6512 ======================================================================================== ===PAGE 1=== Town of Lunenburg Evan Watters, Chair Christopher Menard, Vice-Chair Tiffaney Tavares, Clerk Jay Simeone Thomas Gray Jean Russell Dave Passios **REVISED** Lunenburg Finance Committee Thursday, April 4th, 2024 7:00 PM Bilotta Meeting Room, Lunenburg Town Hall Zoom Meeting Agenda 17 Main Street, P.O. Box 135 Lunenburg, MA 01462-0135 978.582.4139 FAX 978.582.4148 In accordance with the requirements of the Open Meeting Law, please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast over the Lunenburg Public Access channel and on Facebook Live on the Public Access Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Lunenburg-Public-Access- Cable-157427270975305) and will be uploaded to the Lunenburg Access YouTube channel after the meeting. This meeting will be held in-person at the location provided on this notice. Members of the public are welcome to attend this in-person meeting. Please note that while an option for remote attendance and/or participation is being provided as a courtesy to the public, the meeting will not be suspended or terminated if technological problems interrupt the virtual broadcast, unless otherwise required by law. Members of the public with particular interest in any specific item on this agenda should make plans for in-person vs. virtual attendance accordingly. The following information is provided for members of the public that would like to participate in the meeting remotely: To Participate Remotely: From a computer, please use the link below to join the public meeting webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83241759373. From a telephone, dial the toll-free number (888) 475-4499, enter Webinar ID: 832 4175 9373. If you have not registered with Zoom you will be asked for your name and an e-mail address. Note: No participant ID is needed, just press # when asked. Telephone users may dial *9 to request to speak after joining the meeting. Computer and app users may use the “raise hand” feature to request to speak. The agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair. Votes may be taken as a result of these discussions. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by Open Meeting Law. 1. Call to Order 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Announcements 4. Public Comment 5. Town Manager Report 6. Finance Director Report 7. New Business a. FinCom Report for Warrant Workshopping 8. Old Business a. FY25 Budget Discussion b. FY25 Override Discussion c. Votes on Recommendations for Warrant Articles 9. Minutes 10. Committee Reports 11. Topics for Future Meetings 12. Upcoming Meetings: a. 4/11/2024 b. 4/25/2024 c. 5/4/2024 – Annual Town Meeting 13. Important Dates: a. 5/18/2024 – Annual Town Election 14. Public Comment 15. Adjourn