LYNNFIELD — Residents voted on the town’s 12-article warrant at Fall Town Meeting on Monday evening at the Lynnfield Middle School auditorium. The headline acts of Town Meeting were a $34 million project for a new library, which was rejected, and the extension of Fire Chief Glenn Davis’ tenure.
Article 6 asked for special legislation to extend the tenure of Davis beyond the mandatory retirement age of 65. The town passed the article with 421 votes in favor. Town Administrator Rob Dolan said that Davis’ tenure extension is “critical to the town, since he is involved in important projects.”
Article 10 specifically concerned the acceptance of a $9 million provisional grant received by the Lynnfield Public Library from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. The town rejected the grant, closing the book on the $34 million library project as a whole.
The town did not pass Article 12, which would have authorized the Select Board to purchase 1005 Summer St. to expand Willow Cemetery. The article would have also determined whether the purchase would be funded by borrowing or transferring from available funds. The Select Board recommended approval of the article, but it did not meet the necessary two-thirds majority.
The fifth article passed with 416 votes in favor, allowing permanent members of the Fire Department who were previously reserve, permanent-intermittent, or call firefighters to receive credit for their service before they became permanent members, for retirement purposes.
The eighth article asked to appropriate money and potentially raise funds for the design, construction, furnishing, and equipping of a clubhouse at the King Rail Reserve Golf Course and site work at that location.
Resident Pat Campbell pointed out that the town had already allocated funds for the King Rail Reserve Golf Course last year.
“The previous year you asked for $900,000 and this year you are requesting $300,000,” Campbell said.
However, the golf course’s administration assured the town that this would be the last time the town would be asked for money for the course. The article passed with 320 votes in favor.
The ninth article concerned authorization of the purchase of a historic preservation restriction for the Kimble property at 618 Main St. After a brief question-and-answer session, the town passed the article with 355 votes in favor.
The remaining articles passed without much debate or discussion.
Article 1, which will raise and appropriate funds for overdue bills from the previous fiscal year and supplementing accounts in the current fiscal year for various purposes, passed unanimously.
Article 3, which will appropriate funds from Free Cash to strengthen resources for substance-use disorder prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery through the Massachusetts State-Subdivision Agreement for statewide opioid settlements, passed unanimously as well.
The town voted to pass Article 4, which will remove all references to the Board of Health as an enforcement agent in the town’s general bylaws, replacing them with “Health Agent.” Article 7, which focused on altering specific words in the zoning bylaws, was also passed by the town.
