Town Meeting approves budgets, by-law updates, etc. - Woburn Daily Times

WILMINGTON — Just over 200 Wilmington residents and a handful of non-residents came out for the annual Town Meeting this past Saturday, which began promptly at 9 a.m. in the high school auditorium. Town Moderator Jonathan Eaton opened the meeting with a moment of silence for those in the community lost in the service or otherwise this past year.

The first 35 articles were taken up in order, except for the consent agenda containing articles 4, 14, 17, 28, 33, 34, 35, and 36. Article 4 was the agreement for the Board of Selectmen with institutions providing banking services. The others pertained to the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems, Transportation Infrastructure Receipts Reserve Account, PEG Access, Fourth of July and Memorial Day celebrations, the VFW and American Legion, and composting and sewer funds.

Article 1 confirmed the appointments and reappointments from those voted into the School Committee: Stephen Turner, Jay Samaha, and Jesse Fennelly; the Board of Selectmen: Kevin Caira and Greg Bendel; the Housing Authority: Stacy Murphy; and the Shawsheen Tech School Committee: Gwen Lawson.

Representatives from the inhabitant by-law committee and new buildings committees shared updates during Article 2. The town budget was approved as proposed in Article 5, including a motion to restore the school department budget as originally proposed. Article 6 was considered by item for the replacement of various vehicles for the police department, fire department, DPW, and public buildings, all of which were approved.

Article 11, pertaining to signal improvements at Shawsheen Avenue, Hopkins Street, and Lake Street, was approved. Some articles, per usual, moved money into certain funds like the Other Post Employment Liability Trust Fund, the capital stabilization fund, and the Middlesex retirement system.

Residents approved resurfacing the teachers’ parking lot at the middle school and the Frank Kelley track at the high school. A few other school-related approved items included roofing at the Shawsheen Street School, design for roofing at the West Intermediate school, oil-fired boilers design, and replacing existing projectors, wireless networks, and sound systems at various schools.

Where the recommendation was to not adopt or pass over articles, including Articles 3, 32, and 37, residents voted the same. Article 3 was proposed to pay unpaid bills from previous years. Article 32 was proposed to transfer funds from the 2022 budget to other line items. Article 37 pertained to the Woburn and Lowell Street improvement plan as prepared by TEC.

After the articles in order, Eaton randomly drew Article 44, which required the meeting to take on Articles 45-48 after that. The town voted in favor of updating the inhabitant by-law with both organizational updates (Article 44) and substantive revisions (Article 45). They also approved petitioning general court and changing references that read “Board of Selectmen” in any form to “Select Board” appropriately in the zoning and inhabitant by-laws.

Article 52 was proposed by the Planning Board to amend landscaping requirements for parking lots in the zoning by-law. Planning Board Chair Michael Sorrentino explained that they’d be lowering the number of spaces in the by-law which sets the requirement for landscaping from 40 to 20.

Director of Planning and Conservation Valerie Gingrich shared that this was meant to help offset heat island effect. However, the vote requiring a two-thirds majority came in 54 to 54, so the article did not pass.

Residents did, however, support zoning by-law amendments in article 50 to update the standards for general development for the Planning Board. As Gingrich said, the update included standards with pedestrian-friendly walkways, seating areas, trees, and lighting on the street front. It would also require new developments in the applicable zoning districts to have active storefronts on the ground floor.

Article 51 was approved to make a small correction to the zoning by-law about pet care facilities in neighborhood mixed use zoning.

With Articles 42 and 43 being approved, the Hathaway Acres Conservation Trail will be named in honor of Officer John “Jack” Maguire, and the corner of Arlene Avenue and Salem Street will be named in honor of US Marine veteran Richard K. Hayden.

Several “no” votes were not enough to stop Article 40 from being approved, giving the town manager the ability to appoint a parking clerk. Police Chief Joe Desmond described how the designation of a parking clerk from one of the current police employees would allow the department to mark unpaid parking tickets with the registry so that car owners can’t register their vehicles without paying their tickets.

By the end of the meeting, there were less than 100 votes for items that required votes to be counted. The meeting ended just before 3 p.m.

source: http://homenewshere.com/wilmington_town_crier/news/article_8da08054-cc0b-11ec-bbcc-8fd0a2f57260.html

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