By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD – The warrant for the Annual Town Meeting is now set after the Town Council last week approved the final six articles for placement on the warrant.
Voters will be faced with a total of 19 articles when Town Moderator Bill Carroll gavels open the 2025 Annual Town Meeting at 7 p.m. on May 5 at the Galvin Middle School auditorium.
The first warrant article approved by the Town Council last week will ask Town Meeting voters to raise and appropriate funds for the FY2026 Capital Outlay budget. That includes $2,051,816 from tax levy and the transfer of $390,000 from the sewer retained earnings account to the Sewer Department capital outlay account and the sum of $254,000 from the water retained earnings account to the Water Department capital outlay account. Capital Outlay will appear as Article 2 on the warrant.
Article 3 will ask voters to raise and appropriate or transfer from available funds $5,359,880 for the Capital Projects/Debt Service Fund, also known as the Debt Service Fund. Town Administrator Stephen P. Maio reminded the Town Council that this account is used by the town to pay back bonds issued to fund larger capital items.
The board also approved an article to supplement the current year’s Fire Department budget. The requested $350,000 under Article 5 will be used pay unexpectedly high overtime and other costs incurred by the Fire department in FY2025.
The Town Council voted to approve Article 6, which will ask Town Meeting voters to raise and appropriate from Free Cash $80,000 to indemnify certain police officers and firefighters of the Town for medical, surgical and hospitalization expenses as a result of injuries received in the performance of their duties.
Article 9 will ask Town Meeting voters to appropriate $1.3 million for the purchase of a new 1250-gallon-per-minute pumper truck for the Fire Department. The new fire truck would replace a 25-year-old Seagrave pumper. There was some discussion of the anticipated schedule for replacing other fire apparatus in the coming years.
Councilor Douglas Butler questioned the need for the new pumper, claiming that Wakefield has “tops, 12 fires a year.”
Maio reminded Butler that fire engines also go out on medical aid calls, to which Butler quipped, “They could send a Toyota Prius out on medical calls.”
When Councilor John Carney objected to the Prius comment, Butler said that he was being facetious.
“I just feel like we’re overspending on fire equipment,” Butler said. “We overspend on Fire in general.”
Article 16 on the Town Meeting Warrant pertains to the improvement and reconfiguring of the intersection of Farm Street and Hemlock Road in conjunction with the construction of the new high school. The plan includes the creation of a roundabout at the intersection.
The Town Council voted unanimously to include the final six articles on the Town Meeting warrant before voting to approve the finalized 19-article warrant. The warrant also will include the omnibus $134,446,443 operating budget for the coming fiscal year, which includes the Water, Sewer and Municipal Gas and Light departments.