Officials try to rally residents into attending Lynnfield town meeting

LYNNFIELD – Some Lynnfield town officials are worried that not enough people will attend Monday?s Town Meeting to meet the 175-person quorum needed to hold the annual fall event.?It?s not a very exciting warrant, but it is important business and we hope we?ll get the requisite number, and we certainly hope people will show up,” Town Administrator William Gustus said Friday.Board of Selectmen Chairman Arthur Bourque said Friday he thinks the quorum, which is the amount of people required in attendance to begin the meeting, will “probably not” be achieved.?My guess would be it would be tough to get a quorum because there?s not that much critically important to people on the agenda,” he said.The seven-article meeting warrant includes four articles that require a town vote on completed subdivision roads to be accepted as public ways. Another article proposes that $480 be appropriated to pay three overdue bills from the 2011 fiscal year that came in after the year had closed, Gustus said.If the quorum is not met, the meeting will most likely be moved to Thursday or the following Monday, Bourque said, but the decision is up to the moderator, Dave Miller.If a quorum is not reached within a couple of attempts, Miller will meet with the Board of Selectmen to decide if it would be possible to push the articles to the annual spring town meeting, Bourque said.Gustus said that quorum issues usually arise when a special town meeting or a meeting continuation is scheduled.?Traditionally it has not been a problem to get a quorum for one of the annual, regularly scheduled town meetings,” he said, “but usually there?s far more on the agenda than there is for this one.”The meeting will cost the town between $1,500 and $2,000, Gustus said, which primarily accounts for having registrars check in voters and additional janitorial assistance.The meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the Lynnfield Middle School auditorium, and Gustus estimated that the meeting will not last longer than an hour or two.Registered voters living in Lynnfield are encouraged to attend.