The effort to build a new building for the Lynnfield Public Library has come to an end after the Finance Committee voted against moving the project forward to Special Town Meeting. Instead, the town is committing to renovating the existing building.
A citizen petition had called for a Special Town Meeting to be held, allowing people to vote on two articles: one to approve the appropriation of funds required to build the new library, and another to grant a portion of land from the Reedy Meadow Golf Course to the Library Board of Trustees so that it could be built there.
However, the warrant to fund the project did not get the two-thirds approval required at Town Meeting in fall 2023. As a result, the Finance Committee’s recommendation of the funding article was necessary for it be included at Special Town Meeting, where residents would have been able to vote on it.
“So, while the Town Meeting must still be held, the purpose for which it was called is no longer achievable by the meeting,” Lynnfield Assistant Town Administrator Bob Curtin said in a statement.
In the statement, Curtin said that a Special Town Meeting cannot be canceled by the Select Board after a successful citizen petition calls for one. There will likely not be enough registered voters to form a quorum for the meeting at March 18, meaning no action will be taken.
“In the unlikely event a quorum of more than 175 registered voters appears, the moderator, on advice from town counsel, will advise the voters that as the Finance Committee has not recommended the resubmission of Article 1, therefore it is not properly before the meeting and no action can be taken on it,” Curtin said.
Curtin also mentioned what would then happen with the second land transfer article, which was also on the warrant.
“Town Meeting could then take up Article 2, which would transfer the portion of the golf course to the Board of Library Trustees,” Curtin said. “But without funding for the new library project, such an act would merely deprive the golf course of a portion of its layout for no apparent reason.”
Curtin added that once the Finance Committee voted, the town canceled arrangements with outside companies that would have provided costly audiovisual and electronic voting support for Town Meeting.
He also said that while the article failed to move forward, the town is “committed to looking into multiple options for renovation of the current library building and is awaiting cost estimates to be developed for the options.”
Before the vote, Committee member Tom Kayola said that members should not be voting to support or oppose the project, but that they should vote for the article to allow the process to move forward. He emphasized that the Finance Committee is an advisory committee and that its job is to make recommendations, but “the Town Meeting is where the article should pass or fail.”
“I don’t think that a group of 10 or 11 of us should stand in the way of that predetermined process that allows these articles to move forward after being defeated once,” Kayola said. “So I think we should move it forward.”
Others, like Committee member Joe Gallagher, disagreed.
“I think right now, we need to look at this and consider if it makes sense if this project moves forward,” Gallagher said. “Is it in the best financial interest of the town, I think, is the primary question, and quite frankly I don’t think it is.”
Gallagher and Committee members Julie Mitchell, Chris Caprio, Sarah Kelley, Gene Covino, Steve Riley, and Chris Mattia voted against the article, while Kayola, Nick Connors, and Brian Moreira voted in favor of it. Alexis Leahy was not present during the roll-call vote.
The question of whether to build a library building has been a point of contention for residents, largely due to its cost of more than $30 million. Even though the project was awarded $9 million in funds through a grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners last year, some residents were still not convinced.
“This grant from the Massachusetts Library is like getting a gift card from Target for $25, and spending $100, and being excited about saving $25 when you actually spent $75,” resident Curtis Craffey said during an earlier Finance Committee meeting. “How many more meetings does it take, when is the end of it?”
On the other hand, some argued that the existing library building has too many problems for it to function properly, such as its vulnerability to flooding due to its age and a lack of sufficient parking spaces.
“We can’t rely on fixing up the old building,” resident Karin Round said. “As attractive as it is to the town, the library can’t function to its full capability unless it’s in a different and new building.”
