Town Meeting easily cleared a two-thirds majority vote on $10 million in design funds for Lexington High School and $2.5 million for Pine Meadows Golf clubhouse renovations.
The April 1 meeting opened with lively questions from Lexingtonians for some of the members of the Recreation Department and Department of Public Facilities (DPF) on the proposed renovations of the clubhouse building at the Pine Meadows Golf Course.
Christian Boutwell, Vice Chair of the Recreation Committee, presented the Article 25 request for “an appropriation of $2,575,000 from the tax levy for renovation.” Michael Cronin, Director of Public Facilities, and Melissa Battite, Director of Lexington Recreation and Community Programs, were on hand to answer questions and explain how the funds would be utilized.
Boutwell detailed the long overdue modernization, which includes bringing restrooms up to code, improving accessibility to ADA standards, an all-electric HVAC system upgrade, and installation of a solar energy system to contribute power to the building. The solar energy study and schematic design were completed in 2023, and Cronin assured residents it would “easily be a more than net zero building.”
Battite clarified that the funding source for renovations would be out of debt service, paid out of the town’s general fund.
The golf course is fully subsidized through user fees, and “is the single largest revenue source for the Recreation Enterprise Fund and thus subsidizes other recreation operations and programming in Lexington,” Boutwell pointed out.
Ricki Pappo, Precinct 2, posed the question of whether there could be a review of that land use, and asked if the renovations would benefit only golfers or also other users. Some residents have suggested it could be used for affordable housing or non-recreational uses. Boutwell responded that “the Recreation Committee hasn’t met on that topic. We’ve advanced this project as we think it’s the best project at this time.”
The Chair of the Lexington Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC), Charles Lamb, spoke in support of the renovations, saying, “The golf course has been designated as recreation land for 36 years.” Lamb noted that re-assigning the land for anything other than recreational use was a lengthy process, requiring a town meeting and state legislature vote. That loss of recreational land would then have to be replaced with the same amount of recreational land somewhere else in Lexington or a “like-for-like swap,” Lamb explained.
Resident Lance Conrad submitted a statement read at Town Meeting in support of the renovations. He lives five doors up from Pine Meadows and says he plays in “excess of 50 rounds a year” and is impressed by the maintenance provided by New England Golf Management contracted by the city to run the facility. “As one of the few revenue-generating public facilities in town, in excess of $1 million in annual net revenue,” he wrote, “the investment of $2.5 million dollars is justifiable and will pay for itself in about 2 years,” Conrad stated. This sentiment was seconded by resident Umesh Shelat, from Precinct 7, who called it an “excellent return on investment.”
The Pine Meadows Clubhouse Renovation motion was carried by more than the necessary two-thirds vote, with 151 yes, 12 no, and 8 abstaining.
Next on Monday night’s agenda was a much more sizable request, but with considerably fewer questions and barely six minutes of deliberation. Article 26 requests an appropriation of $10,000,000 to pay for “design, engineering, studies, testing and all appropriate costs” for the new or renovated Lexington High School construction project.
Michael Cronin, Director of Public Facilities for Lexington, gave a detailed presentation, and called attention to the many School Building Committee and community meetings that have preceded this request. He described the different modules of the feasibility and schematic design studies that the Town is engaging with to receive funds from the MSBA grant program for the project.
Lamb discussed the issue of the debt exclusion vote scheduled for a special town meeting in November 2025, to be followed by the actual debt exclusion by the end of 2025. “This is obviously a huge expenditure,” he said. “We’ve never spent this much on D&E (Debt Exclusion) before, so we need to think carefully about it. This Committee is not political, but we’ve gauged the political climate, and there seems to be support and a definite need for this project. This committee unanimously supports recommending the approval of this article,” he concluded.
Bob Avallone from Precinct 8 enquired how much of the $10 million dollars the town would expect to get back in grants versus falling upon the taxpayers to pay. Mr. Cronin explained that “the town is entitled to about 35% of the total reimbursable costs. In reality that nets out to be about 24 or 25%,” he said. “I would say about two and a half million” will be eligible for reimbursements.
With no other questions or concerns raised, the moderator pointed out that, as with the Pine Meadows funding request, the town “will require a 2/3 vote,” because Article 25 involves borrowing. After a mere four minutes of questioning the vote passed easily with 172 yes votes, zero in the negative, and 5 abstaining.