LYNNFIELD — Now that the proposed tree bylaw has been pruned from the Town Meeting warrant, what’s left consists of mostly rather mundane housekeeping articles, says Phil Crawford, vice chair of the Select Board.
Still, Crawford says, “it’s important that the citizens come to the meeting and vote.”
The meeting will be held on Saturday, 10 a.m. at the high school athletic field in compliance with the Commonwealth’s COVID-19 guidelines for outdoor events. The meeting will be moved into the gym if it rains.
Of the 19 articles on the warrant, No. 13 and 15 appear to be the biggest, Crawford said.
No. 13 concerns the extra classrooms that will be built at the Huckleberry Hill and Summer Street schools, and 15 concerns a proposal to upgrade equipment in the schools through Trane Heating and Cooling Systems.
The school article would involve approximately $1.75 million, Crawford said, which is in addition to the money approved last year in the budget.
“The town approved the building project, but we didn’t know how much it would cost,” he said.
Much of the money involved reflects work that has to be done at the Summer Street School.
“In the area where they want to put the addition, we found long-standing drainage issues on the existing property and the adjacent one,” said Crawford. “The right thing to do is fix it.”
The increase also involves the rise in material costs due to shortages brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have to have a larger contingency to offset those cost increases,” he said. “One other thing is that you have additional safety measures, particularly at the Summer Street School.”
Crawford said the 15th article “is an interesting one.
“The Trane company makes some of the finest equipment on the commercial side, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) things. We can pay for it out of the money we save by having more efficient equipment.
“In the schools we did over 20 years ago, a lot of that equipment is end-of-life,” Crawford said. “I’ve always been of the opinion that you need up-to-date equipment of that nature. It would be a nice thing for the town to have.”
Crawford cautioned that just because the issues on this warrant — minus the tree bylaw — aren’t eye-popping, they are nevertheless important.
“The budget is obvious,” he said “It’s the biggest thing we do.”
Also to be decided are new fee schedules.
“Some fees we can change, and some we can’t,” he said. “We have to have town approval. In some fees, we are far below what every other town charges. The new fees put us in the middle.”
A senior tax reduction proposal is also on the warrant, as is recodification of the Storm Water Management Plan and the acceptance of Zapaj Lane as a town street.
