By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — The Fall Town Meeting warrant is set.
The Select Board closed the 11-article warrant during its Sept. 26 meeting. The proposed $34 million new Lynnfield Public Library project headlines Fall Town Meeting, which will take place on Monday, Oct. 16, beginning at 7 p.m. in the Lynnfield Middle School auditorium.
The Board of Library Trustees submitted Articles 10 and 11 for Fall Town Meeting. Article 10 will ask voters to approve sending the library project to a debt exclusion vote that will tentatively take place at a Special Town Election in early December.
Article 11 will request Fall Town Meeting to approve transferring a portion of land located on the Reedy Meadow Golf Course from the Select Board to the Library Trustees. If the project gets approved, the new library will be constructed on a portion of the golf course.
Assistant Town Administrator Bob Curtin said the land transfer is “contingent” on the library project getting approved by Fall Town Meeting and the subsequent debt exclusion vote.
Due to the $9 million provisional Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) grant that the town received, Town Administrator Rob Dolan said that the tax impact will be based on $25 million as opposed to $34 million.
“The average tax bill will be $295 per average house in Lynnfield,” said Dolan.
Dolan recalled that the $34 million Lynnfield Library project includes three different funding components. He said the new building’s cost totals $31 million, which includes the $9 million MBLC grant. He said an additional $2 million is needed to repair the current Lynnfield Library so it can be repurposed for a different use.
The remaining $1 million is needed to address the golf course’s needs. Dolan said the funds will be used to either move or replace a historic red barn that the golf course’s staff members use to store equipment. He said the course’s gasoline tanks have to be relocated as well. He also said the historic Danforth House has to be razed in order for the library project to move forward.
If the library project gets approved, Dolan said construction will begin in 2026 and it will take between 12 and 14 months for the new Lynnfield Library to be built.
Additional warrant articles
Curtin gave an overview of the remaining nine articles appearing on the Fall Town Meeting warrant to the Select Board.
Article 1 will ask Fall Town Meeting to approve transferring funds to pay overdue bills from a prior fiscal year. Curtin said Town Accountant/Assistant Finance Director Julie McCarthy is reaching out to department heads to see if any overdue bills need to be paid.
Curtin said Article 2 will request Fall Town Meeting to approve transferring funds to supplement certain accounts in the town’s current fiscal year 2024 operating budget.
“That’s something we work on leading up to Town Meeting,” said Curtin. “We want to make sure areas that might have a shortfall due to unforeseen expenses are addressed by moving money from line items that have excess funds.”
Curtin said Article 3 will ask Fall Town Meeting to approve appropriating “a sum of money from Free Cash to be expended in accordance with the Massachusetts State-Subdivision Agreement for Statewide Opioid Settlement.”
“Right now, there is no mechanism to segregate those funds, so they are going into Free Cash,” said Curtin. “But the settlements require that the funds be spent on related expenses. This is a way to put that money aside and not have them mixed with Free Cash.”
The Board of Health submitted Article 4. Curtin said the proposed warrant article seeks to update the Board of Health’s rules and regulations included in the town’s General Bylaws.
“We are basically cleaning up the bylaws pertaining to Board of Health regulations because they shouldn’t be bylaws,” said Curtin. “They should be regulations promulgated by the Board of Health. We are only including the fine schedule, which is required by state law.”
In response to a question from Select Board member Dick Dalton, Curtin said the Board of Health’s fines will not be changing.
Curtin said Article 5 will ask Fall Town Meeting to accept provisions of a state law that would allow “reserve, permanent-intermittent or call firefighters who are later appointed as permanent members of the Fire Department to receive credit for retirement purposes for their service.”
“We have a few members who would qualify for this,” said Curtin. “I am sure they would be very appreciative of the opportunity to take advantage of that.”
Curtin said Article 6 would authorize the Select Board to file “a petition for special legislation to allow Fire Chief Glenn Davis to work past the mandatory retirement age of 65.”
“This has been done for fire chiefs in other communities,” said Curtin.
The Planning Board submitted Article 7, which Curtin said seeks to amend the site plan approval portion of the Zoning Bylaw.
“This just makes it clear when a project goes before the Zoning Board of Appeals for site plan review,” said Curtin. “This is how we have done things in the past, but it cleans up ambiguities in the Zoning Bylaw.”
Curtin said Article 8 will ask Fall Town Meeting to approve appropriating additional money for the King Rail Reserve Golf Course clubhouse project that was approved by the 2022 Fall Town Meeting.
“We are still working on making sure that the funding is adequate for that project,” said Curtin. “This would appropriate funds from golf course reserves.”
Curtin said Article 9 would authorize the Select Board to “purchase and record an historic preservation restriction” for local attorney Jay Kimball’s historic home at 618 Main St.
“The home faces Town Common and the Meeting House,” said Curtin. “It’s an historic home that will be on the market for sale. Article 9 will ask Town Meeting to authorize the Select Board to purchase and record a historic preservation restriction on that property, which would preserve the facade of the historic building so that our historic Town Common area remains the charming Colonial area that we have come to know. This is a matter for further discussion, but we had to put it on the warrant if we wanted to act on it this fall.”