Wakefield News

By MARK SARDELLA

WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield Police unions have agreed to three-year contracts with the town covering the period from July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2017. Town Administrator Stephen P. Maio announced the deal at last Monday’s meeting of the Board of Selectmen.

Maio said that the terms of the deal were the…

WAKEFIELD — A 22-year-old Peabody driver faced several charges this morning after she took an early righthand turn at the bottom of Forest Street and got hung up on MBTA commuter rail tracks in Greenwood early Sunday morning.

Natasha R. Farren, 1 Griffin Rd., Peabody was traveling east on Forest Street around 12:40 a.m. when…

WAKEFIELD — The Scholarship Foundation of Wakefield, Inc. is pleased to announce the establishment of the Bisacre Family Scholarship Fund. This fund was established in loving memory of Ethel Lillian Bisacre.

Ethel was born on July 28, 1937 and was a life-long resident of Wakefield until her death on March 19, 2015. She was a…

Firefighters extinguished a small fire in a second floor bathroom of a duplex at 40 Lake St. yesterday afternoon.

A plumber working on some copper fittings inadvertently let some fire get into a chase and notified the Fire Department at 1:45 p.m. Firefighters were on scene for about a half hour, opening up walls and…

By MARK SARDELLA

WAKEFIELD — The annual budget process continued last night as the Finance Committee scrutinized more FY 2016 departmental budgets, including the Police Department, DPW and Group Insurance budgets.

With Police Chief Rick Smith alongside, Town Accountant Kevin Gill presented the numbers for the $4,633,285 Police budget, which he said overall was down…

WAKEFIELD — The April 28 municipal election ballot is set and there are two contested races this year: for a three-year term on the School Committee and for a five-year seat on the Planning Board.

Robert A.E. Tiro of Collette Road, currently a student at The College of the Holy Cross, will run against incumbents…

By MARK SARDELLA

WAKEFIELD — It appears that Dollar Tree will be able to meet its goal of a May 1 opening for its downtown Wakefield store in the former CVS building at 376-378 Main St.

The Zoning Board of Appeals agreed last night to allow building owner Robert Santonelli to proceed with upgrades to…

WAKEFIELD — A very minor incident involving a threat to some Galvin Middle School mates yesterday morning prompted a cautious Supt. Dr. Stephen K. Zrike and Police Chief Rick Smith to make parents throughout the entire district aware that it happened.

In an e-mailed message to families, Zrike writes, “We wanted to make you aware…

Colleagues disappointed as Evan Kenney dissents in 6-1 vote

By MARK SARDELLA

WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield School Committee last night voted to bring to Annual Town Meeting a $34,787,085 FY 2016 School Department budget, including a $3,558,357 (11.4 percent) increase over the current year’s budget.

But the vote was not unanimous, a fact that…

NORTH ANDOVER — A Wakefield native, Rev. James McFadden Andrew Wenzel, OSA, had the…