Published in the May 23, 2018 edition
By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — It’s not over until it’s over, as they say.
The vote on Article 8 at Annual Town Meeting to fund an $8 million rehab and expansion of the Public Safety Building will now be going to a Special Election. A group of residents has collected the required 200 signatures to force a Special Election on whether the town should go forward with the Public Safety Building project. Article 8 passed at Town Meeting 168-41.
According to Town Clerk Betsy Sheeran, Robert McLaughlin of Water Street dropped off 30 pages of signatures yesterday morning on a petition calling for a Special Election on Article 8. Robert Mitchell of Spaulding Street later picked up copies of the certified signatures, Sheeran said. McLaughlin and Mitchell were seen collecting the signatures in front of the Post Office and at other locations around town last weekend.
Under the Town Charter, the signatures would have to have been turned it at the Town Clerk’s Office within 10 business days of the dissolution of Town Meeting, which would have given them until June 1. But Sheeran said this morning that 204 signatures had already been officially certified by her office.
After two and a half hours of discussion at the May 7 Town Meeting session, an overwhelming majority of Town Meeting voters were convinced that the needs at the Public Safety Building were sufficient to warrant an $8 million building project under Article 8 to rectify those deficiencies.
At the May 7 Town Meeting session, Police Chief Rick Smith presented the case for approving the project. Smith said that, while the building was renovated in 2004, the bulk of the $10 million spent on that rehab was spent on the Fire department side of the building, with less that $2 million spent on the police side.
Smith stressed in his Town Meeting presentation that, despite the 2004 renovation, the current Police Station was originally built in 1950. He said that the police force has almost doubled in the number of officers since that time but the space has remained the same.
Smith said that when he was hired as Chief, shortly after completion of the last renovation of the Public Safety Building, he knew the space was too small for modern police needs and said so at the time. He insisted that the foremost deficiency that needs to be addressed is insufficient space.
Another big problem, according to Chief Smith, is the location of dispatch on the second floor, leaving the lobby manned only six hours a day during business hours by the public records officer. During unmanned hours, walk-ins currently need to pick up a phone in the lobby to reach an officer.
The renovation and expansion proposed under Article 8 at Town Meeting would have addressed the space problems by extending the building’s footprint on the Union Street side and reconfiguring space within the building. The plan would also relocate dispatch to the lobby area, making an officer available 24 hours a day for those walking in to the Police Station.
Article 8 required a two-thirds majority at Town Meeting and the 168-41 vote cleared that hurdle with room to spare.
Town Administrator Stephen P. Maio explained this morning that according to the provisions of the Town Charter, once the Town Clerk certifies the required number of signatures calling for a Town Meeting article to be submitted to the voters, the petition goes to the Town Council, which must schedule an election within 35 days. The Town Council next meets on May 31. Maio said that he expects that the Town Council will set the Special Election for Tuesday, June 26.
According to the Town Charter, “Any question so submitted shall be stated on the ballot in substantially the same language and form in which it was stated when presented by the Moderator to the Town Meeting.”
Maio pointed out that the Town Meeting vote in favor of the Public Safety Building rehab was “overwhelming” and that both the Town Council and the Finance Committee had unanimously supported the project, which would be financed within the tax levy and would not require an override or a debt exclusion.
Town Clerk Betsy Sheeran estimated that the Special Election will cost the town between $12,000 and $15,000.
