Wakefield Town Council Notes -- January 22, 2024

Here’s a summary of what the Town Council reviewed at our meeting on Monday night:

- The Town Council approved 10 smaller department budgets for Fiscal year 2025, which begins on July 1, 2024. The budgets approved included the Treasury Department, Conservation Commission, Emergency Management Department, Inspectional Services Department, and Historical Commission. These budgets will increase by a total of 1.3% over the current fiscal year, for a total of $1.6 million, representing 1.5% of the total town budget.

- As part of our budget review, the Council had a lengthy discussion about whether to increase the budget for the Conservation Commission to fund additional hours for Wakefield's Conservation Agent. Ultimately, the Council voted 4-3 to maintain the current schedule. I joined the majority in this vote because I believe that we need to collect more data on the Conservation Agent's workload to determine if additional staffing is needed. We also should look critically at how this position relates to other staffers at Town Hall to determine whether we have adequate staff in other areas to help support this function.

- The Town Council voted to refer the proposed MBTA Communities Overlay District Bylaw to the Planning Board. This referral allows the Planning Board to hold public hearings on this zoning proposal before it goes before Town Meeting for consideration this spring.

- Upon the recommendation of Town Counsel Tom Mullen, we agreed to refer the Traffic Rules and Orders regulations codified in Division 2 of the Town's online code to the Traffic Advisory Committee for review and updates. Many of these regulations have not been updated in decades, so this review is long overdue. Town Counsel Mullen will be reviewing Wakefield's Alcoholic Beverages regulations to assure that they also are up to date.

- The Department of Public Works presented an update on Wakefield's tree and vegetation policies. It was exciting to see that over the past several years, Wakefield has continued to plant more public shade trees than we have lost to disease, aging, and storm damage. This is important because many of Wakefield's shade trees were planted in the 1970s and are approaching end-of-life; a robust tree planting strategy helps assure that our tree canopy can continue to grow in the future. To help manage the tree canopy, the Department is in the process of developing a digital database of all public shade trees in Wakefield. We also discussed the Department's mowing practices for Town-owned parks and fields.

- The Town Council re-appointed Jason Cohen and Wayne Hardacker to the Permanent Building Committee. We also accepted the resignation of Jim McBain from the Zoning Board of Appeals, as Jim is moving out of town. Jim has dedicated thousands of hours to Wakefield through the Board of Appeals, and I'm grateful for all of his great work. He leaves big shoes to fill!

Our next meeting will be on Monday, February 12 at 7:00 PM. As always, please don't hesitate to join us on Zoom, or in-studio at Wakefield Community Access Television.