Published in the September 16, 2016 edition.

By MARK SARDELLA

WAKEFIELD — The changes underway to the area of North Avenue and Armory Street will now include fewer utility poles, after the Board of Selectmen approved a request from the Maggiore Companies and Verizon to place some of the wires and cables on those streets underground.

The request was part of the Maggiore Companies’ plan to construct a five-story, mixed-use, residential-above-retail condominium building, which will have 60 residential units on the upper four floors and commercial space on the ground floor. The old, one-story factory building that stood on the site on North Avenue between West Water Street and Armory Street has already been torn down.

The poles in question are owned by Verizon.

Flanked by his client Matt Maggiore and Verizon representative Everett Bryant, attorney Brian McGrail reminded the selectmen that the development was made possible by a zoning change approved by Town Meeting that encourages this type of mixed-use project.
He also reminded the board that his client, the Maggiore Companies, was the same firm the converted the Franklin School building on Nahant Street into a condo complex.

Leaving the poles and wires where they are now would have a detrimental effect on the project, McGrail said, both aesthetically and practically.

He said that the plan was to remove two utility poles in front of the property on North Avenue and place the wires underground. They will also take two poles presently on the north side of Armory Street and move them across to the south side. In addition, a pole that currently sits in front of a home on Armory Street will be relocated in front of a parking area associated with the Maggiore project.

Two other poles on the other side of the project on West Water Street will be replaced with new poles in the same locations.

McGrail said that his client will provide the necessary easements to run the wires under his property. The work will be done entirely at the expense of the Maggiore Companies, McGrail said. He also noted that the Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department will simultaneously be making some of its own improvements on North Avenue, including moving poles and wires from the Galvin Middle School side of the street to the opposite side.

—–

In other business this week, the Board of Selectmen:

• Set the Regular Town Meeting date for Nov. 7, 2016 and opened the warrant.

• Set the Oct. 6 as the closing date for the Nov. 7, 2016 Regular Town Meeting warrant.

• Approved a recommendation from the Traffic Advisory Committee (TAC) that the intersection of Pleasant Street and Wave Avenue be made into a four-way Stop for both the northbound and southbound traffic and to also install stop warning signs in advance of the “Stop” signs in each direction.

• Approved a TAC recommendation to improve the area of sidewalk that abuts the property on Wakefield Avenue with a finish coat of asphalt and a curb and that the sidewalk on the east side of Wakefield Avenue be posted “No Parking” approximately 60 feet north of the intersection with Richardson Street.

• Approved a TAC recommendation that a crosswalk be installed at the intersection on the north side of Greenwood Street and Hickory Hill Road from the southeast corner of Hickory Hill Road across Greenwood Street to the northwest corner of Myrtle Avenue and that there should be advance pedestrian crossing warning signs on both the east and west Greenwood Street approaches to the crosswalk with standard crosswalk signs placed on the same post on the northwest corner of Greenwood Street and Myrtle Avenue.

• Approved a TAC recommendation that the south side Audubon Road be posed with signs that read “No Stopping, No Standing” from the driveway at 360 Audubon Road and extending east for approximately one hundred yards. The north side of Audubon Road be posted with the same signage from the driveway of 107 Audubon Road and extending west to the beginning of the cul-de-sac. Also four parking spaces for
tractor trailer units be painted on the north side of the cul-de-sac and clearly marked for tractor trailer parking only with hash-marked area painted to prohibit additional units from parking in the cul-de-sac.

• Approved a request from Sharon Gilley, Director of the Lucius Beebe Memorial Library, to accept and expend a gift or gifts to the Library in the amount of $5,127.05 from various donors.

• Approved a request from Sharon Gilley Director of the Lucius Beebe Memorial Library to donate network printers to the the Boys and Girls Club of Stoneham and Wakefield.

• Approved a request from Sharon Gilley Director of the Lucius Beebe Memorial Library to declare plastic security cases for DVD’s as surplus.

• Signed an extension of an Inter-Municipal Agreement between the towns of Wakefield and Lynnfield regarding the sharing of a Plumbing Inspector and an Electrical Inspector.

• Appointed John B. Murray, Jr., 497 Lowell Street, to the Commission on Disabilities.

• Approved a one-day liquor License for the Rotary Club of Wakefield for a Wine Tasting at the Civic Center on Nov. 4, 2016 from 7 p.m. until 10 p.m.

• Approved a one-day liquor License for the Hartshorne House for a Wine Tasting at the Hartshorne House on Oct. 1, 2016 from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m.