LYNNFIELD — The Lynnfield Select Board has had a busy year. According to Chair Phil Crawford, the upcoming year is only supposed to get busier.
“I’d say the most impactful things for the town have been … the first thing that comes to mind is the new classrooms at the elementary school level,” Crawford said.
The Huckleberry Hill and Summer Street Schools Expansion Project was fully completed this past year, he said.
“We … got six new classrooms at each school and got a new gymnasium at the Huckleberry school, as well as new parks and playgrounds at both schools,” Crawford said.
The Select Board was in charge of organizing and appointing the Strategic Planning and Study Committee as well as the School Building Committee for the project. It had “overwhelming support of the residents” and finished “on time and under budget,” he said.
“I think the second most important item would probably be what happened at town meeting, and that was the approval of the public safety building,” Crawford said.
The $63.5 million safety project was okayed by voters earlier this month. This has been an initiative the Select Board has been working on all year. Over the next year, its focus will be getting the safety project ready for bid.
Roadwork is another thing the Select Board has focused on this year, he said.
“When I got on the board 10 years ago, one of my main objectives was to increase the amount of roadwork that we would do every year, and last year, we did the largest roadwork program that we’ve ever done,” Crawford said. “That’s important and that’s certainly something that residents see every year that we’re doing as much as we can on the roads.”
The Select Board turned the Rail Trail project in a stand-alone project in Lynnfield, whereas previously it had been a combined effort with Wakefield at the state level.
“Now that’s going to be moving forward with a new engineering firm,” Crawford said. “That kind of got stalled and now we have a chance to get that project back on track and move that forward. So that’s going to be important. It’s still going to take several years for that to get done but at least we get it back on the right track.”
This year the Select Board also made an agreement to work with the Lynnfield Center Water District.
“We combined our services and we were able to provide them with needed support and equipment that they need to get their work done. In return, we get the expertise and services of their personnel to help us with the major projects that we have coming up,” Crawford said.
For 2023, the Select Board will be implementing everything that was voted on in 2022.
“We expect to continue our roadwork and construction program and keep that going,” Crawford said. He continued, “Then you’ll see some work going on in the beginning of the project up at Sagamore,” referring to the 66-unit senior housing development project that is to be built on undeveloped acres on the eastern side of the Sagamore Spring Golf Course.
Crawford said that, so far, they have committed about $100 million toward projects that need to get done.
“It should be a very eventful year coming up,” Crawford said.
