SAUGUS — Six weeks and four sessions later, the Annual Town Meeting wrapped up Monday night with a quick $87.7 million debate.
The Finance Committee’s recommendation for the town budget passed, 45-0, with one member abstaining. It includes a $29.7 million school budget for salaries and expenses and $57.9 million for municipal town departments.
Town Meeting member Bill Brown said if he would change anything, he would find a way to include funding for additional safety measures to prevent motor vehicle and pedestrian accidents.
“When you try to cross a street in this town, sometimes people just don’t care if you’re in a crosswalk,” said Brown. “My family, many years ago, had a family member that was run over and I can tell you that you never get over it. Even when they announce on the news that it’s not an injury that will cause any type of loss of life, those who get injured by this suffer greatly for many years.”
Police Chief Domenic DiMella thanked Brown and said the department is using grant money to try to reduce the amount of accidents. The grant is being used to install decoys in crosswalks and a speed monitor that tracks data, including speed and times with increased traffic. The Department is also in the process of hiring more officers, he said.
Members appropriated $5.2 million for the Sewer Enterprise Fund, which included salaries and expenses. They also supported the Finance Committee’s recommendation to indefinitely postpone a transfer into the Stabilization Fund, because it was taken care of during the Special Town Meeting that preceded the start of the annual.
Money borrowed to repair and resurface Hamilton Street has been repurposed to reconstruct various streets and sidewalks across town.
Town Meeting Member Jean Bartolo questioned which specific streets would benefit from the reallocation.
“On Hamilton Street — we did not get cement sidewalks, we got asphalt,” she said. “Wormstead — you can’t even drive down it. I’m hoping this $144,000 is going to all those side streets off of Hamilton because it’s in the contract.
“I feel strongly that this was meant to be used for the side streets off of Hamilton.”
Town Manager Scott Crabtree said there is not a planned project that would use the money and there is not a list of streets to provide to Town Meeting members.
The Hamilton Street project was done by a previous administration that he believes thought they would save money by making the sidewalks asphalt instead of cement. Crabtree was on the Board of Selectmen at the time.
“What we’ve seen with other projects is that the cement sidewalks have a longer life, so I agree with you on that.
“Part of this is a cleanup to get that money out of an account that’s been sitting since 2011,” said Crabtree. “This is not an article that is specific to any streets.”
The article ultimately passed by a majority vote.
