Developer will pay $500,000 to town over five years
The Town of Wakefield, Massachusetts has settled its lawsuit concerning the Millbrook Estates affordable housing project.
Under the agreement, the town has agreed to drop its pending lawsuit and the developers in return will pay the town $500,000 over five years, Town Counsel Thomas Mullen announced at last night’s meeting of the Wakefield Board of Selectmen.
Continue reading ‘Town of Wakefield Settles 40B Lawsuit Against Millbrook Estates’
Filed under: News, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: 40B, affordable housing, Anderson and Kreiger LLP, Chapter 40B, comprehensive permit, Falite Bros, lawsuit, lawyer, lawyers, MA, Massachusetts Inspector General, Millbrook Estates, Ray Falite, Raymond Falite, Ron Falite, Ronald Falite, settlement, Stephen D. Anderson, Thomas Mullen, Wakefield, Wakefield Board of Selectmen, Wakefield Massachusetts
My Lawn is Greener Than Yours
I recently reduced my carbon footprint.
Did I buy a Prius? No. I could never afford the sticker price.
Did I inflate my tires to the proper pressure? The answer is a flat no.
Did I install a clothesline in my back yard? Sure – strung between my two windmills.
Did I buy a bunch of those squiggly light bulbs? No way. Did you know that those things contain mercury and if you break one they have to send a hazmat team to tear down your house? It’s true. I read it on Wikipedia.
So how did I save the polar bears?
Continue reading ‘My Lawn is Greener Than Yours’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, Opinion, Politics | 2 Comments
Tags: Al Gore, carbon credit, carbon footprint, Climate Change, compact fluorescent, Daily Item, energy conservation, Global Warming, lawn mower, lawn mowers, polar bears, Prius, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, windmills
Arsenic and Old Lake
For the town of Wakefield, Massachusetts, news that the dredging of Lake Quannapowitt’s Hartshorne Cove has been completed is certainly welcome.
The recent cleanup was ordered following the discovery in 1999 that arsenic, lead and petroleum contaminants had seeped into the sand, mud, peat and gravel on the Lake’s bottom in the area behind the Hartshorne House and Vet’s Field.
The contaminants came from the old coal gasification plant on North Avenue, approximately where the MGLD building is now. In Ancient Times (the late 19th and early 20th centuries), gas manufactured from coal was used to light the town’s street lamps. The process produced a coal tar by-product that was stored in underground wells and eventually found its way into the Lake bottom.
Continue reading ‘Arsenic and Old Lake’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, Opinion, Wakefield | 4 Comments
Tags: arsenic, coal gas, DEP, EPA, Hartshorne Cove, lake, lake cleanup, Lake Quannapowitt, lakes, Massachusetts, pollution, Quannapowitt, Veteran's Field, Wakefield, Wakefield MA
Information Pleas?
In the wake of the May 27 Referendum Election that reversed the higher-than-recommended School Department budget passed by Annual Town Meeting, we’ve been hearing that there is a lack of information available to the residents of Wakefield, Massachusetts.
The most recent of those assertions came at a June 17 public input forum of the Town Charter Review Committee. Override Mom Laurie Hunt suggested at that forum that many local voters didn’t even know about the May 27 Referendum Election. After the April Town Meeting vote that passed the $27.4 million School Department budget, Hunt wrote a letter to the Daily Item.
“We did an amazing thing as a community on Monday night by voting in the school budget,” Hunt wrote.
Then, after the Referendum vote nixed that School budget by a nearly 60-40 margin, Hunt claimed that people didn’t know about the election.
Continue reading ‘Information Pleas?’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: cable TV. Cable television, Carmen Urbonas, Daily Item, election, elections, information, Item, Laurie Hunt, local cable, Mark Sardella, municipal budget, municipal budgets, Override Mom, Override Moms, Prop 2 1/2, Proposition 2 1/2, public access television, referendum, school, school budget, School Committee, schools, Town Meeting, vote, voters, voting, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Massachusetts, Wakefield Resident Information Group, Wakefield School Committee, Wakefield Town Meeting, WCAT, WRIG
For those who had clamored since before April’s Annual Town Meeting for a three-way meeting of the Selectmen, Finance Committee and School Committee to look at the town’s finances, the first public meeting of the Tri-Board on June 11 must have been something of a disappointment.
The residents of the town of Wakefield, Massachusetts who advocated for a Tri-Board Summit were by and large the same group that led the charge at Annual Town Meeting to “send a message” and pass higher-than-recommended budgets for the School Department, Police, Fire, DPW and library. Even after the May 27 referendum reality check, their actions still left the town with an $850,000 overall budget deficit for FY09.
Continue reading ‘The Long & Winding Road to a Balanced Budget’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Alfred Palmerino, balanced budget, Betsy Sheeran, budget, Carmen Urbonas, Finance Committee, School Committee, selectmen, Town Meeting, Tri-Board, Wakefield, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Massachusetts, Wakefield Resident Information Group, Wakefield School Committee, WRIG
Just Say ‘No’ on May 27
Vote NO on Wakefield, MA school budget
In next Tuesday’s referendum election on the $27.4 million School Department budget, the only vote that make sense is a “No” vote.
This conclusion has nothing to do with the value of education, the needs of the Wakefield School Department or the sincerity of the School Committee. It has everything to do with arithmetic. The town of Wakefield, Massachusetts simply doesn’t have the money to fund the school budget at this level, and those who support this amount have not come forward to tell us where they think the town is going to get the money.
Continue reading ‘Just Say ‘No’ on May 27’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: budget, Daily Item, education, election, municipal budget, override, overrides, Prop 2 1/2, Proposition 2 1/2, referendum, school budget, school budgets, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield Massachusetts. Wakefield MA, Wakefield School Committee, Wakefield School Department, Wakefield Schools
Sentimental comedy about seniors at Stoneham Theatre
It doesn’t hurt that playwright/director Jack Neary’s sentimental comedy about senior citizens is set in a working-class eastern Massachusetts neighborhood and features five characters who, to those who grew up in this area, will be as familiar as their own neighbors. But “The Porch” is also a very funny play that draws you into the lives of these characters and makes you care about what happens to them next, thanks in large part to top-notch performances from all five actors in the Stoneham Theatre cast.
Continue reading ‘A Warm, Funny Evening on ‘The Porch’’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, Family, Feature stories, Humor, Reviews, theater | Leave a Comment
Tags: Cheryl McMahon, comedy, drama, Ellen Colton, Humor, Jack Neary, John Davin, Massachusetts, play, Porch, Richard Snee, senior citizens. seniors, Sheriden Thomas, Stoneham, Stoneham MA, Stoneham Theatre, The Porch
The History of Route 128
“Route 128 is the road we all love to hate,” David Kruh told the audience at last night’s Sweetser Lecture 2008 season opener at the Wakefield-Lynnfield United Methodist Church. Kruh then proceeded to deliver a fascinating photographic history of the highway that runs around Boston, from Cape Ann to the South Shore.
Kruh was making his third Sweetser appearance, having previously given talks on Scollay Square and the Big Dig. Currently a full-time marketing manager for Analog Devices, during his varied career Kruh has worked as a copywriter, a computer programmer, a radio producer/engineer and a spokesman for the Big Dig. He has also dabbled in acting, stand up comedy and playwriting. His play, “Curse of the Bambino,” premiered on Boston’s Lyric Stage in 2001.
Continue reading ‘The History of Route 128’
Filed under: Feature stories, Profiles, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Daily Item, David Kruh, highway, highway construction, highways, road, roads, Route 128, Route 95, Sweetser Lecture, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Massachusetts, William Callahan
As far as the Zaccone family knew, the beautifully engraved watch was lost forever.
It had been awarded to Guy Zaccone of Wakefield back in 1958 by the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts – the oldest military organization in the Western Hemisphere. Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company members served on every battlefield from Bunker Hill to Yorktown, the War of 1812 and the Civil War, both World Wars, Korea, Vietnam and Desert Storm.
John Zaccone, Sr., Guy’s son, grew up in Wakefield and now lives in New Hampshire. He hadn’t seen the watch since before his father died in 1986, and for the last 22 years he had no reason to believe he’d ever see it again.
Continue reading ‘Long Lost Watch Becomes Symbol of Values, Kindness’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, Feature stories, Profiles, Wakefield | 3 Comments
Tags: Add new tag, Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusett, Daily Item, Families, Family, Francis Zoda, Frank Zoda, Guy Zaccone, John Zaccone, military, Movado, Pat Zoda, Patricia Moff, Patricia Zoda, Sorenson's, timepiece, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield Massachusetts, watch, watches, World War II, Zaccone, Zoda
Mark Sardella 