By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — 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 proceed. There are 14 articles appearing on the warrant.
Fall Town Meeting’s warrant is headlined by Articles 7 and 8, which pertain to the updated Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) Bylaw (see separate story).
“This is the one topic that will hopefully get people to Town Meeting to vote on,” said Select Board Chair Phil Crawford.
Retired Assistant Town Administrator Bob Curtin, who is still working as a part-time consultant for the town, said Articles 9 and 10 pertain to rezoning and selling the old South Lynnfield Branch Library, 630 Salem St. He said Article 9 will request Fall Town Meeting to approve rezoning the property from a Residence A Zoning District to Limited Business.
Curtin said Article 10 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. While Curtin said the South Lynnfield Branch Library has not been used as a library since the 1980s, the Fire Department had been using the building for administrative offices until the new Fire Headquarters opened last week.
Greg Antonelli, who owns 140 Tremont St., LLC, submitted the winning bid for the former South Lynnfield Branch Library property, totaling $475,000.
“Following state law, we held a bid process and had a winning bid that was awarded subject to approval of Articles 9 and 10,” said Curtin. “This would rezone that property to Limited Business. It is abutting a Limited Business District. Article 10 would ask the voters to grant the Select Board the right to sell the property through that bid process.”
Curtin said Article 12 will ask voters to allocate funds to replace the Lynnfield Public Library’s roof. He recalled that voters rejected the proposed new Lynnfield Public Library project two years ago and the library renovation project last year.
“The problems with the roof are well-known,” said Curtin. “We need to address this roof at this time.”
Crawford asked what is the library roof’s cost estimate.
“Right now, we have interest from seven commercial roofers and the number we are hearing right now is $525,000, but it obviously hasn’t been bid,” said Town Administrator Rob Dolan. “We want to complete this work in the spring of 2026. Obviously, most of that money will be offset by the sale of the South Lynnfield Branch Library building.”
Article 11 will request Fall Town Meeting to appropriate additional funds in order to raze the South Fire Station once the $63.5 million public safety/Town Hall project is completed.
“The public safety/Town Hall building project encountered a large, unexpected expense when soil contamination was discovered at the South Fire Station site during construction: PFAS, a group of synthetic substances used for many purposes, including fire extinguisher foam,” states an explanation of Article 11 in the Fall Town Meeting warrant. “Several efficiencies and cost-cutting measures were implemented to address this unexpected expense. This article would provide additional project funding to ensure its completion.”
While Dolan said the town doesn’t have an “exact number” on the additional funds needed, he believes the cost will range between $300,000 and $350,000.
“We are using the figure of $200,000 to remove and remediate any contamination from the old fire station to expand parking,” said Dolan. “We are also at this time looking at $100,000 and $150,000 for closeout contingency. If we do not spend that money, it will be returned to the fund. We are looking for that money in case we need it.”
In response to a question form Select Board Vice Chair Alexis Leahy, Dolan said the $300,000 to $350,000 would come from the town’s Capital Improvement Reserve Fund.
“There is no impact in terms of taxpayers,” said Dolan.
Crawford agreed.
“There are no tax consequences,” said Crawford. “We are just moving money from one account?”
Dolan said Crawford was correct.
Leahy asked if the funds included in the fund were previously earmarked for “anything else capital improvement-wise from the capital planning group?”
Dolan said no.
“This is one-time monies used for one-time purposes,” said Dolan. “It is money that has been put away over the years as a best practice. We have $1.4 million in that account. We feel that this is the fund that is best served to do the work that we may need to do. If we don’t need it, we are going to put it back.”
Finance Director/Town Accountant Dave Castellarin said the fund is used to make any repairs to municipal buildings if the need arises.
Citizens’ petitions opposed
While the Select Board unanimously voted to recommend 12 out of the 14 articles appearing on the Fall Town Meeting warrant, the Select Board unanimously voted not to recommend two citizens’ petitions that will be appearing as Articles 13 and 14 on the warrant (see separate story).
Additional warrant articles
Curtin said 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 is the adoption of the state’s new OPEB Trust Fund Law as recommended by the finance director,” said Curtin.
Article 2 will request voters to amend the Building Department’s fee schedule for inspectional services. According to an explanation in the Fall Town Meeting warrant, Article 2 “seeks to adjust town building and electrical fees.” The commercial additional/renovation fee is proposed to increase from $12 to $20 per $1,000 of value, and would increase the “first one to 10 outlets” cost from $50 to $100 for commercial additions/renovations.
Curtin said Article 3 will request Fall Town Meeting to amend the Town Clerk’s Office fee schedule.
“Our former Clerk Amanda Haggstrom worked on this,” said Curtin. “She found some fees that were remiss and not included in our schedule and some got moved to the Select Board schedule because we administer those fees, but otherwise it is fairly straightforward.”
Curtin said Article 4 pertains to the Select Board’s fee schedule.
“The fees are staying the same, but we are now increasing our fees for the advertisement of public hearings and the application fee because we have to cover the cost of actually placing those ads, which the fee no longer did,” said Curtin.
“We are also making a minor adjustment to the restaurant all-alcohol fee, which has remained the same for 40 years.”
Curtin said Article 5 will request Fall Town Meeting to approve amending the Board of Health’s fee schedule.
“This article merely adopts the existing fees that the department charges and codifies them,” said Curtin.
Curtin said Article 6 will request voters to approve allocating $47,000 to the town’s fiscal year 2026 Medicare budget line item.
“When the budget was adopted, we did not have a final figure,” said Curtin. “This reflects our actual cost.”