By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — The Select Board closed the Spring Town Meeting warrant during a March 27 meeting.
Spring Town Meeting will take place on Monday, April 24, beginning at 7 p.m. in the Lynnfield Middle School auditorium. A quorum of 175 voters is needed for Town Meeting to proceed.
While the 2022 Fall Town Meeting included the $63.5 million public safety buildings and Town Hall project as well as two zoning changes related to the over-55 Sagamore Spring Golf Club development, the 15-article Spring Town Meeting warrant features mostly routine matters related to the town’s fiscal year 2024 operating and capital budgets.
Assistant Town Administrator Bob Curtin gave an overview of the warrant, which is headlined by the town’s operating budget for FY24. Article 6 will ask Spring Town Meeting to approve the proposed $65,049,217.48 spending plan, which represents a 3.4 percent increase over FY23’s $62,930,355 spending plan.
Article 7 pertains to the FY24 capital budget, totaling $2,880,929. Town Administrator Rob Dolan said during the Select Board and Finance Committee’s joint public hearing about the FY24 budgets that the capital budget will not include $150,000 for a bucket truck that was requested by the Fire Chief/Emergency Management Director Glenn Davis. Select Board member Dick Dalton recently criticized Dolan’s decision to include the bucket truck in the capital budget.
“We may bring it back in October or sometime after,” said Dolan.
There were no residents who spoke during the Select Board and Finance Committee’s annual public hearing on the proposed FY24 budgets.
Veterans’ articles
Curtin said Articles 14 and 15 seek to support the town’s veterans. He said Article 14 will ask Spring Town Meeting to accept the provisions of a state law that would allow veterans living in properties held by a trustee, conservator or other fiduciary to be able to receive real estate tax exemptions.
“Many families put properties in trusts,” said Curtin. “The feeling is if a veteran served the country but the property is in a trust, they should be able to have the same benefits as if they owned the property.”
Curtin said Article 15 would allow the town to accept provisions of a state law that would exempt Gold Star parents or guardians from paying real estate taxes on their late child’s property if they were soldiers, sailors and National Guard members who died in active service or as the result of their service.
“Adoption of this clause would enable the assessors to grant full tax relief to Gold Star parents,” Curtin stated in a memo about Article 15. “We are aware of one such family in our jurisdiction that would receive this benefit.”
Additional warrant articles
Article 13 seeks to increase the town’s cemetery fees (see separate story).
Curtin said Article 1 will ask Town Meeting to approve the annual Town Report. Article 2 will choose all town officers “not required to be chosen by ballot,” which are three field drivers, one pound keeper and three wood measurers.
Article 3 will request Town Meeting to approve the salaries for the Board of Assessors and the Select Board, which are the only boards in town that get paid.
According to the warrant, Article 4 will ask Town Meeting to “vote to raise and appropriate or appropriate by transfer from available funds, sums of money to supplement certain accounts in the current 2023 fiscal year budget where balances are below projected expenditures for various reasons.”
Curtin said Article 5 will request Town Meeting to pay “overdue bills from a prior fiscal year.”
According to the warrant, Article 8 will ask Town Meeting to appropriate $50,000 to the Capital Facilities Fund. Article 9 will request Town Meeting to allocate $150,000 to the Stabilization Fund.
“We are going to be adding to our reserves in both cases,” said Curtin.
Curtin said Article 10 will request Town Meeting to appropriate funds to the Emergency Medical Service Enterprise Fund’s budget. Article 11 will request Town Meeting to allocate funds from “Golf Enterprise receipts and/or Golf Enterprise Retained Earnings to pay expenses and contractual services required to operate the Reedy Meadow Golf Course and King Rail Golf Course.”
“Both of those are paid for by the receipts the town receives from those services,” said Curtin about Articles 10 and 11.
Curtin said Article 12 will set spending limits for the town’s revolving funds. The limit for the Council on Aging’s revolving fund totals $85,000. The Board of Health’s revolving fund’s limit is $15,000. The Lynnfield Public Library’s revolving fund limit totals $10,000. Lynnfield Recreation’s revolving fund limit equals $340,000. The DPW’s fields’ revolving fund limit totals $100,000. The DPW’s revolving fund limit for the Al Merritt Media and Cultural Center is $10,000.