The Community Preservation Committee on Oct. 16 reviewed fiscal 2025 receipts and fund balances and voted to authorize staff to complete updates to the community preservation plan appendix and the committee's Step 1 application form.
Mike Ellis, Lakeville finance director and town accountant, told the committee that during fiscal 2025 the community preservation surcharge produced $244,230.18 in receipts and the town received a $42,003.42 state match. The fund earned about $13,003.61 in interest and closed the fiscal year with a combined Community Preservation Fund balance of $573,007.58, Ellis said.
Ellis presented a preliminary estimate for fiscal 2026 receipts of $277,500, composed of an estimated $20,000 state match, $247,001.40 in surcharge receipts and about $10,003.60 in interest. Using the committee's 10-percent allocation plan, Ellis said 10 percent of receipts were allocated to each of the historic, open-space and community-housing reserve categories, administrative costs were estimated at $8,325, and the undesignated fund balance projection for fiscal 2026 stood at about $185,925 after administrative allocations.
The committee discussed a number of bookkeeping items: a $25,000 engineering appropriation for John Pond Park that remained unspent on the books; a $30,000 appropriation for the town hall roof that had been closed out in part to fund balance and in part to historic reserves; and small remaining balances from cemetery gravestone repairs and door replacement projects. Members clarified that tax-lien redemptions and related penalties tied to the real-estate portion of tax bills are segregated and that amounts attributable to the Community Preservation Fund remain with that fund.
Committee members also discussed how to report mixed funding sources on the state CP-3 closeout form (the town's CP-3 submission that documents project closeouts and funding sources). Kathleen Barrack, member at large, and others asked that staff provide project-level detail showing amounts paid from grants versus CPA reserves when projects close. Ellis agreed to provide that detail for completed projects.
On a procedural matter, the committee voted to let Mike Ellis and staff finish populating the Community Preservation Plan appendix spreadsheet (the step 1/CP-3 breakdowns) and to update the committee's Step 1 application form as recommended. The committee voted unanimously; a motion to authorize staff to work with Ellis and publish the updated appendix and form carried after a second.
The committee chair said the group would leave projected fiscal 2026 figures blank in the appendix where state-match or interest figures remain uncertain until year-end receipts are confirmed.
The committee also discussed whether to retain a column in the appendix that breaks out the current fiscal year component of undesignated funds and concluded it was optional; members agreed staff could remove it if it duplicated totals already shown.