Town Meeting notebook
By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD – It took just under two hours for the 153 voters who turned out for last Saturday’s Regular Town Meeting to handle the six articles on the warrant.
Town Moderator William H. Carroll gaveled the meeting open at 9 a.m.
Article 1 asked that Town Meeting accept the final report of Town Administrator Stephen P. Maio on the FY 2022 budget. After Maio presented his financial review, which was summarized in the warrant booklet and is also posted on the town’s website, Town Meeting voted to accept the report with no discussion from the floor.
Under Article 2, voters were asked to authorize the use of $3.3 million in Free Cash toward the FY 2023 budget and to instruct the Board of Assessors to use that amount in computing the FY 2023 tax rate. Article 2 was passed by voters with no discussion.
The purpose of Article 3 was to correct a technical error from last spring’s Annual Town Meeting. The motion under Article 2 on the 2022 Annual Town Meeting warrant misidentified the funding source for Water and Sewer Department capital outlay funds. Last Saturday’s action under Article 3 corrected the error. The action does not affect the budget or the water and sewer rates.
Under Article 4, Town Meeting was asked to authorize the Town Council to petition the state legislature to enact special legislation allowing the town to continue offering its means-tested senior citizen tax exemption.
Director of Assessments Victor Santaniello explained that the town’s tax relief program for seniors has been in place since Annual Town Meeting passed it in April of 2018, but the program needs to be renewed with authorization from the state every three years.
He said that an average of 225 seniors take advantage of the program each year. Applicants must be 65 or older and meet certain income limits. The town matches up to the amount that a senior gets from the Massachusetts Senior Circuit Breaker program, and is now seeking authorization to match up to 150 percent of that amount.
The senior tax exemption saves qualifying applicants about 15 percent on their real estate tax bills, Santaniello explained. The exemption adds $0.04 to the residential tax rate which translates into an increase of $28.04 on the average single family tax bill to help local seniors continue to remain independent and age in place.
There was no discussion from the floor on Article 4, which was approved by Town Meeting.
As detailed in Monday’s Daily Item, voters approved Article 5, which will allow the Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department to construct an energy park/micro-grid on Hemlock Road to serve the needs of the new Northeast Metro Tech and the proposed new Wakefield Memorial High School.
Article 6 was a Planning Board sponsored article related to updating the town’s bylaw on street name changes. Planning Board chairman Theo Noelle made a motion for indefinite postponement of Article 6. He said the reason was to allow the Bylaw Committee to weigh in on the changes. He said that a similar article will be resubmitted for the 2023 Annual Town Meeting warrant.
Saturday’s Regular Town Meeting was dissolved just before 11 a.m.