Long before it became part of my job, I would attend practically every Town Meeting. It wasn’t out of any sense of civic duty. I’ve always found Town Meeting to be great entertainment. That has led some to suggest that I seek professional help.
Last week’s two-part episode did not disappoint. If you’re one of the 18,000 or so voters who missed it, there’s always next November. Mark your calendars.
Continue reading ‘Fear and loathing at Town Meeting’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: budgets, bylaws prohibition, Cannabis Community sea turtles, Chamber of Commerce, Christine DeFelice, Galvin Middle School, herb, local government, Marianne Cohen, marijuana, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, plastic bags, pot, Rada Boutique, schools, Town Meeting, voters, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Walton School, weed, William Carroll
By MARK SARDELLA
Wakefield Town Meeting last night overwhelmingly approved three articles intended to ban any recreational marijuana business from operating in the town of Wakefield. The measures included amendments to both the Zoning and General bylaws prohibiting recreational pot businesses in town as well as a moratorium calling for a moratorium on any pot businesses until July 1, 2018.
Town Counsel Thomas Mullen said that after Massachusetts voters approved a ballot question legalizing recreational marijuana last November, he was asked by the Board of Selectmen to come up with as surefire a way as possible of assuring that no recreational pot business could open in town. The three seemingly overlapping Town Meeting articles, he said, offered the town the best protection against commercial recreational marijuana businesses.
After Town Administrator Stephen P. Maio made the motion on Article 25 (the zoning amendment) he asked Police Chief Rick Smith to speak on the issue.
Continue reading ‘Town Meeting acts to ban pot businesses’
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Tags: Anthony Longo, Bill Carroll, business, bylaws, Doug Butler, drugs, edibles, James Scott, Jim Scott, law, legalization, marijuana, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, moratorium, News, Police Chief Rick Smith, pot, retail, Rown Counsel Thomas Mullen, Steve Maio, THC, Town Meeting, vote, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, weed, zoning
Municipal self-loathing
Most people think Wakefield is a pretty nice town. We have two lakes, a beautiful Common and a walkable downtown area with some great restaurants. We have easy access to public transportation and are near two major highways. Oh, and we are one of the few places outside of big cities that still has a daily, family-owned newspaper.
And, of course, there’s Fred’s Franks.
What’s not to like?
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Tags: business, city, Community, development, downtown, Facebook, Fred's Franks, Lake Quannapowitt, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Opinion, Politics, roads, Route 128, Route 93, taxes, town, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Wakefield 150
Not very many people realize it yet, but 2018 is shaping up as a pretty significant year around here.
If the first thought that popped into your head was that retail sales of weed will be legal in Massachusetts starting in July 2018, it might be time to put down the bong and pick up the job listings.
No, I’m talking about something even more important than that, if you can believe it. It’s also something more local.
The year 2018 marks our 150th birthday as the Town of Wakefield. It’s because of what happened nearly a century and a half ago in 1868 that the address on your checks reads “Wakefield” and not “South Reading.”
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Tags: 150, 1868, 2018, anniversary, Bob McLaughlin, celebration, Cyrus Wakefield, Fourth of July, History, Independence Day, Jeff Wakefield, July 4th, marijuana, Massachusetts, rattan, Reading, South Reading, town hall, Wakefield MA
Comedy fundraiser Sunday, April 9 at Giggles
By MARK SARDELLA
When last we heard from Salem Street resident Danielle Resha, she had won a trip to Superbowl 51 by doing the most pull-ups in 95 seconds in the Live ULTRA Pull-up Challenge sponsored by Michelob ULTRA.
Well, she’s back from Houston, and witnessing Tom Brady and the Patriots pull out an unbelievable come-from-behind Super Bowl victory has inspired her to give something back. She will be participating in Tom Brady’s Best Buddies Challenge charity bike ride in June.
“I’m going to do a 100-mile bike ride from Boston to Cape Cod on June 3 to support Best Buddies. She hopes to raise 3,000 for the charity.
Continue reading ‘Local woman to bike for Best Buddies’
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Tags: Best Buddies, Best Buddies Challenge, bikw bicycle, Boston Militia, charity, Christine Hurley, comedy, football, Giggles, intellectual disabilities, Lenny Clarke, Mark Sardella, new england patriots, pizza, Tom Brady, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Bag the ban
It was only a matter of time.
A small group of our fellow citizens has decided that they know better than the rest of us and want to dictate how we can carry our shopping purchases out of a store. Ten citizens have signed a petition to place an article on the May 1 Annual Town Meeting to prohibit the use of so called “thin film” plastic checkout bags in Wakefield.
Who could have imagined twenty years ago – or even a decade ago – that purchasing marijuana at a store in Wakefield would be viewed as perfectly normal, but using a plastic bag to carry a half-gallon of milk out of a store would make you a lawbreaker?
Continue reading ‘Bag the ban’
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Tags: bags, ban, business, bylaw, capitalism, choice, Farmland, free market, lightbulbs, litter, marijuana, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, oceans, petition, plastic bags, recycling, single-use, stores, sustainability, thin-film shoppomh bags, Thomas Edison, Town Meeting, trash, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, wildlife
After the Big Bump
When the Wakefield School Department came out this week and requested a 4.84 percent increase in its FY 2018 budget, they turned a few people into prophets.
In 2015, Annual Town Meeting approved a “one-time” 11.4 percent increase in the School Department budget. The Big Bump was supposed to “right size” the School Department by “investing” in full-day, tuition-free kindergarten, updated K-8 math curriculum and K-1 phonics curriculum, increased staffing and technology and appropriate special education funding.
Pretty much everyone in town went along with the increase on the theory that the School Department had been deprived of what it needed during the lean budget years following 2008.
To sell the taxpayers on this gesture of largesse in 2015, much was made of the following quid pro quo: the School Department was expected to commit to no more than a 4 percent increase over the subsequent three years.
Continue reading ‘After the Big Bump’
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Tags: budget, drama, education, funding, Galvin Middle School, marching band, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, music, Opinion, Politics, School Committee, schools, students sports, theater, Town Meeting, user fees, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Public Schools
My War on Winter
The older I get, the more I hate winter.
I hate Old Man Winter almost as much as CNN hates the President of the United States.
I have no proof, but I’m convinced that winter is a Russian plot to turn the United States into Siberia.
Continue reading ‘My War on Winter’
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Tags: battle, birds, blizzard, carbon, cars, Climate Change, CNN, disrupt, election, Global Warming, Humor, hybrid car, Mark Sardella, Mazda, normalize, oil, Opinion, petroleum, President Donald Trump, Prius, recount, Resistance, Russians, science, shovel, Siberia fossil fuels, snow, solar power, storm, Wakefield Daily Item, war, winter
By MARK SARDELLA
Last year, he got Boston Bruins great Terry O’Reilly to participate in the Wakefield Independence Day Parade. So why not shoot for the moon this year, right?
Brian Fox, who books the non-musical acts for the parade, is hoping to get the greatest quarterback in NFL history to be part of the biggest Fourth of July parade in the state this year.
But will he succeed in bringing Tom Brady to Wakefield on July 4, 2017?
Continue reading ‘Can parade organizers bring Tom Brady to Wakefield?’
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Tags: Bob Kraft, Boston, Brian Fox, champions, Facebook, Fourth of July, Fox25 News, Instagram, Jimmy Pedro, July 4th, Kathryn Burcham, Kayla Harrison, marching bands, Mark Sardella, MarketStreet, Massachusetts, new england patriots, Parade, Patriots Cheerleaders, Rom Brady, social media, Super Bowl, TB12, Television, Terry O'Reilly, Tim Wakefield, Travis Stevens, Twitter, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Independence Day Parade, Wakefield MA, WIDC
Parking garage redux
So you thought that the idea of a parking garage on the town-owned lot between and behind the Cooperative Bank and Jeffrey’s Package Store was as dead as Parke Snow’s or The Armory?
Think again.
The Selectmen at their last meeting talked about reviving the possibility, noting that parking hasn’t gotten any easier in the downtown since the original plan to build a garage went down in flames. Several of them say that they’ve been hearing from residents who wonder if the parking garage proposal might be revived in some form.
The first parking garage idea came out of Shelter Development’s original proposal to build a Brightview Senior Living assisted living/memory care facility on Crescent Street. The town wanted the project to include independent living units, in hopes it would help with downtown economic development. The town offered to convey to Shelter an unused lot behind The Savings Bank’s ATM kiosk if Shelter would agree to include independent living as part of their project and build, at their own expense, a parking garage with spaces for public use.
Continue reading ‘Parking garage redux’
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Tags: Assisted Living, Brightview Senior Living, building, construction, downtown, elderly, housing, Jeffrey's Package Store, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, memory care, Opinion, parking, parking grarage, Politics, Shelter Development, The Savings Bank, Wakefield Co-operative Bank, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Mark Sardella 