Wakefield Town Council Notes -- September 22, 2025

Here's what we covered at our Town Council meeting on Monday, September 22:

• The Town Council received an update on the portion of the Envision Wakefield Downtown Revitalization project covering Main Street between the Common and Water Street. We are in the process of completing the 25% design phase in an effort to secure state transportation funding for construction. While the construction schedule will not be determined until and unless state funding is approved, we will have two public hearings on the project this November and in the spring of 2026.

• The Council approved a recommendation from the Traffic Advisory Committee to install "No Parking Here to Corner" signs on Melrose Avenue. We also received an update on the planned reconfiguration of the Oak Street/Green Street/Greenwood Avenue intersection, and approved the temporary installation of flex posts and line painting to test the new configuration before permanent construction begins.

• The Council referred a proposed recodification of Wakefield's zoning bylaws to the Planning Board for a public hearing prior to this November's Town Meeting. We also approved changing the name of Edgewater Place Drive to Edgewater Place as of February 1, 2026.

• In an effort to address clerical errors related to the sale of a small parcel of land on Water Street to Cataldo Ambulance several years ago, the Town Council approved a confirmatory deed for the parcel purchased by Cataldo Ambulance, as well as a release of deed for the parcel retained by the Town of Wakefield.

• The Council referred two Open Meeting Law complaints from resident Scot McCauley to Town Counsel Tom Mullen for research and response.

• We received an update on the environmental remediation for a parcel of Town-owned land off Butler Avenue that is contaminated with asbestos. Fortunately, the expected clean-up costs are coming in about $1 million less than the borrowing approved by Town Meeting this spring, which means that the Town will not have to bond the full amount approved. The clean-up is expected to be completed in May 2026.

• We received an update on the work of Wakefield's Community and Economic Development department, and met Wakefield's new Town Planner, Marissa Meaney. I'm excited about the department's new pop-up site located on North Avenue, where a rotating lineup of new businesses will be testing out a bricks-and-mortar location in Wakefield over the next several months. I also was glad to hear that an updated version of Wakefield's new master plan will be available for review later this year.

• Public Works Director Joe Conway reported that the labor strike affecting Wakefield's trash collection vendor, Republic Services, has been resolved. Director Conway will be providing more information on the costs incurred by the Town over the last several months as our staff collected trash in lieu of our contractor, as well as our strategy to recover these costs from Republic. I'm incredibly grateful to our entire Public Works staff for stepping up this summer to collect Wakefield's trash. They didn't miss a single day of pick-ups, and they did an excellent job.

Our next meeting will be on Monday. October 6 at 7:00 PM at Wakefield Community Access TV and on Zoom. We'll be joined by our new Town Administrator, Denise Casey, who will be sworn in earlier that day. Please tune in to help us welcome Denise to Wakefield!