By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — The town’s department heads outlined their objectives for fiscal year 2026 and provided updates on their current spending plans during the Finance Committee’s recent Budget Summit.
Chief/Emergency Management Director Glenn Davis said the EMT staffing crisis “has not improved” and it has continued being a challenge for the Fire Department.
“There is a great shortage of EMTs out there, so we can continue to run mutual aid,” said Davis. “As this meeting started, we were both in Wakefield and Saugus for mutual aid because they had no ambulances available.”
Davis recalled that the town’s FY25 operating budget funded two full-time career firefighter positions to improve responses to overnight calls. He also said the Fire Department was recently awarded a $1,199,469.08 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant Program from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). He said the SAFER Grant will be used to hire four additional career firefighters and will pay the full cost of salaries and benefits of these positions for the next three years.
“That is a highly competitive grant,” said Davis. “We have been submitting applications for that for the past five years, but we were unsuccessful. We were one of four departments in Massachusetts to receive the grant, and one of 15 nationwide. That impacts our staffing greatly. That will allow me to get six firefighters on duty at night. It’s a very large step forward for the town of Lynnfield. It has probably been needed for more than a decade.”
Davis said the Fire Department has interviewed 11 candidates for the four positions.
“We have some great candidates,” said Davis. “It looks like this is going to be the first time that the Lynnfield Fire Department has hired anybody from outside of our Call Fire Department. They should be starting the fire academy in March and they will graduate in May. They will be ready to go.”
Finance Committee Chair Tom Kayola asked what is Davis’ plan for when the town has to absorb the cost of the four additional firefighters that will be funded by the SAFER Grant.
Davis said he has begun discussing funding the four additional firefighters with Town Administrator Rob Dolan and retiring Town Accountant/Assistant Finance Director Julie McCarthy.
Chief Nick Secatore said the Police Department’s current FY25 operating budget is “on track in every category except for overtime.” He said the Police Department’s overtime costs have increased due to a police officer transferring and another being on long-term medical leave.
“Those two positions are 8 percent of the department, and that is all filled on overtime,” said Secatore. “Currently, we are $225,000 over this year. I anticipate that going higher. A major area to address is the staffing of the department and the structure of the department, which has been a need for many years. Over the last 10 years, the average transfer into the overtime budget of the department is $220,000. We are no longer talking about saving money by not putting that into the annual budget. We know it’s going to happen. We haven’t had a year under $100,000 in over 15 years. Those are things that I think are worth looking at.”
Department of Public Works Director John Scenna noted that a number of large capital projects have been completed the last several years. He said the DPW’s goal for FY26 is to “really create a sustainable budget that starts to maintain a lot of what we built.” He said the DPW’s next spending plan also needs to ensure that the town’s facilities and infrastructure are maintained, and that trash and recycling are collected.
“All of those things have to happen,” said Scenna.
Scenna said a five-year capital improvement plan (CIP) for the town is currently being developed. He said different department heads gave presentations about their departments’ capital needs to the CIP Working Group.
“We are going to categorize them into groups that we can try to fund when our new accountant starts in January,” said Scenna. “We then can put a financial plan around some of these projects.”
Director Jimmy Olsen said Lynnfield Recreation’s budget is primary funded by user fees paid for by residents for different programs and trips. While he said busing costs for trips are “very expensive,” Olsen said Lynnfield Recreation’s programming has increased.
“Our revenue growth in the year we are in right now is $349,642,” said Olsen. “That is up from $333,000 last year. Last summer was my first summer, and we hired 56 staff. We had 361 kids at Recreation Station last summer and 50 kids at Rec. Jr., which is for the incoming kindergartners. If anyone has any ideas for activities, I will look at them. If we can do it and keep it low-cost, it is something I am interested in doing.”
Town Clerk Amanda Haggstrom recalled that the VOTES Act was signed into law in 2022, which she said has increased demands on the Town Clerk’s Office. In order to keep costs down, she said 15 Lynnfield High School students received community service hours while volunteering during the state primary last September and the presidential election last November.
“We saved a lot of money partnering by partnering with the schools for that,” said Haggstrom.
Haggstrom said the Town Clerk’s Office will be requesting Spring Town Meeting to approve transfers in order to cover the cost of the elections’ line item going over budget. She said the Town Clerk’s Office needs to address its staffing during years where there are multiple elections.
“Our operations run on a four-year election cycle,” said Haggstrom. “In year one, if there are no special elections, we have one Town Election. In year two, we have a Town Election, a state primary and a state election. In year three, there is just a Town Election. And in year four, we have a presidential primary, a Town Election, a state primary and a state election. Every type of election has completely different regulations, demands and workloads associated with it. The staffing we have now is sufficient for a year one. We have myself, my assistant and a part-timer, but on a year two or year four, it is not sustainable. Our part-time employee worked 35 hours most weeks this year when we had budgeted around 10 or 15 hours for her. We also called in multiple poll workers daily for months and months at a time to handle all of the laborious tasks like stuffing envelops, labeling and organizing the applications. This ad hoc approach is neither sustainable nor efficient. We need to develop a creative staffing plan that matches the workload and all of these new mandates from the state. Most of these are unfunded mandates, so we are working closely with the Auditor’s Office to make sure we are getting as much money back as we can.”
Historical Commission Chair Kirk Mansfield said the town’s historic cemeteries “are in pretty rough shape.” He said the FY25 state budget awarded the town a $25,000 earmark that will be used begin the process of preserving historic headstones.
“To do each cemetery is about $110,000,” said Mansfield. “This is going to be a project that is going to take many, many years to do. We are identifying the worst headstones first and moving from there.”
Mansfield said there were 174 rentals of the Meeting House last year.
“We brought in $24,650,” said Mansfield. “We paid out $977 in electric and $6,269 in heating, so we brought in a profit of $17,479.94. That goes into a general account. The only thing that I am going to ask the town to put on their radar is the exterior of the Meeting House is starting to peel. Some sides are okay and some sides are coming down faster than others. My suggestion is that we find a painting company that would work on one side and then next year do the other one.”
A Healthy Lynnfield Program Coordinator Diana DeLeo said the substance use prevention coalition is “100 percent grant funded, including salaries and benefits.”
“Our new grant cycle just started on Oct. 1, so we are into year one of a five-year federal grant and year one of a four-year federal grant,” said DeLeo. “There shouldn’t be any hiccups for the next four to five years.”
Dolan noted that A Healthy Lynnfield “almost lost” all of its grant funding, but said DeLeo and retired Program Director Diana DeLeo “were able to recoup almost all of that money” by securing new grants.
Senior Center Director Linda Naccara said she will be requesting new carpeting in the town’s FY26 capital budget.
“It is worn down,” said Naccara.
Treasurer/Tax Collector Susan Mistretta said her department’s FY26 budget will be similar to previous years.
Veterans Services Officer Bruce Siegel recalled that the new Veterans Memorial was completed this year, and thanked the town for supporting the project. He also said four residents receive Chapter 115 Benefits from the state.
“Of those benefits that the town pays those residents, the state reimburses us 75 percent,” said Siegel. “It is very little cost to the town.”
Lynnfield Golf Director Donnie Lyons said both courses are funded by an enterprise fund.
“Our revenue is fantastic,” said Lyons. “We are over $1 million so far this fiscal year. This has been a great year for golf. It didn’t rain at all.”
Building Inspector Joe O’Callaghan said the Building Department has implemented a new permitting system this year, which he said will “help with the office work immensely.”
“With that being said, we may need an in-house tech person,” said O’Callaghan. “We are still discussing how that may work.”
Assistant Library Director Marita Klements said the library’s current budget is “running as expected.”
“For next year’s budget, we are not expecting any significant changes,” said Klements. “The union contract is up, so negotiations will begin soon and staff salaries will change.”
Dolan said the spending plans for the Health Department and the Planning and Conservation Department are both on track.
Kayola thanked the department heads for discussing their budget priorities for FY26 as well as giving an update on their current spending plans for the current fiscal year.
“I want to thank you for everything that you and your departments do to make Lynnfield such a great town,” said Kayola. “I also want to thank you for keeping an eye on expenses and making sure that when we are asking the taxpayers for increases coming out of their wallet that they are needs and not wants, and we are using those tax dollars as efficiently as possible.”
