Street work starts Sunday night...

Apr 30, 2015 by Keith Curtis

WAKEFIELD — Beginning Sunday night, May 3, nighttime roadway improvements will begin on the following roads: • North Avenue (Quannapowitt Avenue to Church Street) • Lowell Street (Rt. 129 Rotary to Walden Road) • Main Street (Lowell Street to Carriage Lane) • Minor cut ins to side streets along the three major routes According to DPW Director Richard Stinson, the night work being performed will include milling of the existing surface, repaving, traffic markings and miscellaneous items. The work will begin at 7:30 p.m. with the setup of roadway safety equipment. The actual milling, paving or traffic markings will begin around 9 p.m. The work will be completed by 5:30 a.m. the next morning. The first phase of the project is the milling of the roadway. Once the milling phase of the project is...

PHOTO: Jayhawks ready for a great season...

Apr 30, 2015 by Keith Curtis

Size matters

Apr 30, 2015 by Keith Curtis

Does size matter? Yes, it does. But if you’re a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals, there’s a limit to the number of hours you want to spend talking about it. Size is the biggest issue for many opponents of the Brightview Senior Living facility that Shelter Development is proposing to build on Crescent Street. They think that the 130-unit combined assisted-living, independent-living and memory care facility is just too big for the site. Shelter’s first proposal to build a 144-unit facility combined with a parking garage with public spaces easily passed Town Meeting but was later defeated at the polls. An attempt to resurrect the proposal at a subsequent Town Meeting failed to achieve the required two-thirds majority. So Shelter came back last fall with a new proposal for a 140-unit facility...

SPED relief funds more than anticipated...

Apr 30, 2015 by Keith Curtis

By GAIL LOWE WAKEFIELD — The school board heard good news from schools Business Administrator Michael Pfifferling at last night’s meeting — the relief request for Special Education (SPED) expenses will come in higher than what was anticipated from the state. Pfifferling said that he had just received word yesterday morning from officials at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. This means that less money than was expected will need to be withdrawn from the stabilization fund established in 2014 with the town for extraordinary SPED expenses. “We will transfer $150,000 from the stabilization fund to the SPED account,” said Pfifferling. The stabilization fund currently has a balance of $330,000, leaving $180,000 untouched. In the spring of 2014, school board members voted unanimously to accept a proposed Article concerning the creation of the...