Lincoln Select Board places five debt-exclusion questions on spring ballot

LINCOLN -- February 8, 2010, Lincoln Select Board sets five-question capital ballot, drops library fire-suppression bond. Meeting jointly with the Finance Committee, the board unanimously placed debt-exclusion questions for a $725,000 IT plan, a $210,000 replacement ambulance, a $650,000 K-8 school feasibility study (40 percent MSBA reimbursable), a $1 million McDowell property purchase and a second wine-and-malt license on the spring ballot. Finance Committee Chair John Kernick said the committee will recommend a non-override operating budget, including a $55,000 add-back for a fourth second-grade classroom, after roughly $300,000 in favorable pension-and-insurance adjustments and a revised state-aid assumption closed the gap. Total borrowing on the ballot reaches $8.835 million and a 9.29 percent tax increase including the previously approved $5.5 million roadway bond. The board accepted the Finance Committee's recommendation to drop a $750,000 library fire-suppression bond, with Kernick warning the full slate risked "an a la carte" outcome in which voters approve some items but not others.