Published in the May 10, 2018 edition.
By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — Reconsideration of Article 8, involving the $8 million rehab of the Public Safety Building, is now off the table as a motion to reconsider it at tonight’s session has been withdrawn. The third session of Town Meeting gets underway at 7 p.m. in the Galvin Middle School auditorium.
Article 8 passed at Monday’s Town Meeting session by a wide margin, 168-41, exceeding the required two-thirds majority. But Dennis M. Cloherty of Harvest Road took advantage of a provision in the town bylaws that allows any voter to file a motion with the Town Clerk’s Office for reconsideration of an article within 24 hours of adjournment of the Town Meeting session at which the vote occurred. On Tuesday, Cloherty filed such a motion for reconsideration on Article 8.
In a letter in Tuesday’s Item Forum headlined, “Why I filed for reconsideration of Article 8,” Cloherty called the proposed expansion of the Public Safety Building a “boondoggle” and suggested that legalizing drugs would greatly reduce the need for police and therefore the need for a larger building.
But early yesterday afternoon Cloherty withdrew his motion for reconsideration of Article 8. In a letter in today’s Item Forum on Page 4, Cloherty explains his reasons for withdrawing his motion.
“Under our form of government the people have the right to make mistakes,” Cloherty writes. “Even though I believe that if a fraction of the $8 million dollars being spent on the Police Palace could be better spent by an effective Board of Health to curb crime and keep your children alive, it is not up to me.”
According to Town Clerk Betsy Sheeran, the time has passed to request reconsideration of any article that was acted upon at Monday’s Town Meeting session. No one else may move for reconsideration of Article 8 either at the Town Clerk’s Office or from the floor at tonight’s Town Meeting session.
There are 13 articles remaining on the Annual Town Meeting warrant.
Highlights of the remaining articles include Article 14, which will seek $1.7 million for the collection and disposal of trash and recycling for FY 2019.
Article 15 seeks an additional $350,000 for roadway improvements and Article 16 will ask voters to approve $75,000 for new sidewalks.
Article 19 would authorize the town to enter into a 99-year lease with the MBTA for a proportion of an abandoned railroad bed to be used for a planned rail trail “for recreation purposes including walking, running, road and mountain bicycling, wheelchairs, accessible cycling equipment, inline skating, scooters, tricycles, rolling backpacks, strollers, cross country skiing, snow-shoeing, and other forms of active and passive recreation.”
Articles 21 to 25 involve changes to the town bylaws proposed by the Bylaw Review Committee.
