By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — The Fall Town Meeting warrant is set.
The Select Board voted to close the Fall Town Meeting warrant during a Sept. 29 meeting. Fall Town Meeting will take place on Monday, Oct. 27, beginning at 7 p.m. in the Lynnfield Middle School auditorium. A quorum of 175 voters is needed for Fall Town Meeting to occur.
While Spring Town Meeting featured several high-profile warrant articles related to the $4.65 million Proposition 2 ½ override and Phase 1 of the Lynnfield Rail Trail that were all approved by voters, Fall Town Meeting will be much quieter with 15 warrant articles.
Fall Town Meeting’s warrant is headlined by Articles 8 and 9, which pertain to an updated Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) Bylaw (see separate story).
Retired Assistant Town Administrator Bob Curtin, who is still working as a part-time consultant for the town, said Article 10 will request Fall Town Meeting to approve rezoning the old South Lynnfield Branch Library, 630 Salem St., from a Residence A Zoning District to Limited Business. He said Article 11 will request Fall Town Meeting to approve transferring the South Lynnfield Branch Library building to the Select Board for the purpose of selling the property.
“The building will be sold through a bidding process as mandated by state law,” said Curtin.
While Curtin said the South Lynnfield Branch Library has not been used as a library since the 1980s, the Fire Department has been using the building for administrative offices while the new Fire Headquarters is under construction.
“We have a request for proposals out to bid,” said Curtin. “We have got several people interested, and we hope to sell that property that the board declared surplus many years ago.”
Curtin said Article 13 will ask voters to allocate funds to either repair or replace the Lynnfield Public Library’s roof. Curtin recalled that voters rejected the proposed new Lynnfield Public Library project two years ago and the library renovation project last year.
“The library roof has been on hold while we were waiting for the voters to make a decision about the projects,” said Curtin. “Now is the time to address the roof’s deficiencies.”
Town Administrator Rob Dolan informed the Villager that the goal of the proposed South Lynnfield Branch Library building’s sale is to fund the cost of the Lynnfield Public Library roof project. He said during the Select Board’s meeting that the two ADU articles and the library roof are “the drawing points of a more administrative Town Meeting.”
Two citizens’ petitions
Traffic Safety Advisory Committee (TSAC) Vice Chair Tom Manning submitted two warrant articles via citizens’ petition that will be appearing as Articles 14 and 15 at Fall Town Meeting. Manning submitted a citizens’ petition article that formed the TSAC during the 2024 Spring Town Meeting.
Article 14 will ask Fall Town Meeting to adopt an additional rule for the TSAC.
“Starting in January 2026 and every six months thereafter, the Select Board shall place a review of TSAC activities on the Select Board meeting agenda for open discussion,” states Article 14. “For purposes of this article, TSAC activities shall include, but not be limited to, the following: Open and closed resident issues brought to TSAC and the status of those issues, (and) performance of TSAC in adhering to the governance and compliance requirements of TSAC, including the TSAC Bylaw, Select Board minutes and agenda policies, and the Open Meeting Law of Massachusetts.”
Manning also submitted Article 15 for Fall Town Meeting, which seeks to create four additional rules for the TSAC and the Select Board to follow. The first proposed rule states that, “any issue duly brought before TSAC for consideration by a townsperson shall be scheduled for discussion with the Select Board within two months of the townsperson’s request to discuss the issue with the Select Board.”
The second proposed rule will require the Select Board to “schedule the discussion to meet the townsperson’s availability.” The third proposed rule will “allow the townsperson to present the issue.” The fourth proposed rule states that, “Adoption of these rules will not inhibit the appearance and comments of any TSAC member at any Select Board meeting for any issue under TSAC’s consideration.”
After the Select Board voted to form the TSAC’s membership in the summer of 2024, the Select Board discussed and approved two issues the TSAC brought forward during a meeting in late May.
The Select Board unanimously voted to approve removing the “No Parking” sign next to the library. The Select Board also approved an updated traffic matrix that Manning created.
Remaining warrant articles
Curtin said Article 12 will request Fall Town Meeting to appropriate additional funds in order to raze the South Fire Station once the $63.5 million public safety buildings/Town Hall project is completed.
According to the Fall Town Meeting warrant, Article 1 will ask voters to “raise and appropriate or transfer from available funds a sum of money into the Other Post-Employment Benefits Liability Trust Fund (OPEB Fund) established under General Laws Chapter 32B, Section 20.”
“This will accept the more modern Massachusetts General Law that governs OPEB funds,” said Curtin. “This was a recommendation from Finance Director/Town Accountant Dave Castellarin.”
Curtin said Article 2 will request voters to amend the Building Department’s fee schedule for inspectional services.
“This article will raise fees for inspectional services,” said Curtin.
Curtin said Articles 3 and 4 are related. He said Article 3 seeks to amend fees issued by the Town Clerk’s Office and Article 4 is looking to amend fees issued by the Town Administrator’s Office.
“Most of these are the same fees,” said Curtin. “We are moving some fees from the Town Clerk’s Office to our office because the town clerk felt they were more appropriate to be in our department. We are raising a couple of fees related to public hearing notices to keep pace with the actual cost of the hearings.”
Article 5 will request Fall Town Meeting approval for amending the Board of Health’s fee schedule.
According to the Fall Town Meeting warrant, Article 6 will request voters to approve amending the fee schedule for the Zoning Board of Appeals.
Curtin said Articles 1-6 were originally included on the Spring Town Meeting warrant, but he said voters “didn’t get to them” due to the 1,200 residents in attendance and the lengthy debate over the override and rail trail articles.
According to the Fall Town Meeting warrant, Article 7 will request voters to approve allocating $47,000 to the town’s fiscal year 2026 Medicare budget line item.
“The finance director recommended this article on the basis that the calculation used for the original budget was insufficient once we looked at the end of year actuals for this year,” said Curtin.