By DAN TOMASELLO

LYNNFIELD — Spring Town Meeting will take place on Monday, April 29, beginning at 7 p.m. in the Lynnfield Middle School auditorium.

A quorum of 175 voters is needed for Town Meeting to proceed.

The 15-article Spring Town Meeting warrant features mostly routine matters related to the fiscal year 2025 operating and capital budgets. There are no large capital projects or any proposed zoning changes that will be voted on at Spring Town Meeting.

“We have a very brief warrant for Spring Town Meeting,” said Assistant Town Administrator Bob Curtin during a recent Select Board meeting.

Spring Town Meeting will mark the first session that new Town Moderator Steven Walsh will be leading after being elected during the Town Election earlier this month. He has succeeded former Town Moderator Joe Markey.

Article 6, which pertains to the $69,882,770 operating budget for FY25, headlines the warrant. The $69,882,770 operating budget for FY25 represents a 4 percent increase over FY24’s $65,737,091.18 spending plan.

According to the warrant, Article 7 pertains to the $1,638,570 capital budget for the next fiscal year. The FY25 capital budget includes $300,000 for road construction, $120,000 for a Ford F-550 dump truck for the Department of Public Works, $60,000 for a police cruiser, $100,000 to have the seats at Lynnfield High School reupholstered and $125,000 for school technology.

The FY25 capital budget also includes $110,000 to raze the historic Danforth House that is located near the Reedy Meadow Golf Course. The capital budget also includes $180,00 for a fire alarm bucket truck, $30,000 for Pillings Pond algae treatment and $15,000 for a new phone system for the Lynnfield Public Library.

The Select Board unanimously voted to recommend Articles 6 and 7 during a recent meeting.

Additional warrant articles

Main Street resident Tom Manning submitted Article 15 as a citizens’ petition. Curtin said Article 15 seeks to create a Traffic Safety Advisory Committee (TSAC) that would be tasked with advising the Select Board on traffic-related issues.

“The TSAC is an advisory committee reporting to the Select Board,” states Article 15. “The purpose of the TSAC will be to evaluate public safety and nuisance issues involving traffic, roads and related infrastructure in the town. A monthly meeting forum will allow for townspeople to bring forward issues that will be heard and reviewed by the committee and conduct any business related to its function as described in this article. The TSAC’s primary function will be to facilitate issue resolution and communications between townspeople and the Select Board.”

If Spring Town Meeting approves Article 15, the TSAC will be required to give a monthly report about traffic issues as well as recommendations for “resolving each issue” to the Select Board. The TSAC would also be required to give a quarterly report about “the status of all issues” to the Select Board.

“The Select Board will appoint four members who are town employees or officials with responsibility for traffic, roads or related infrastructure and three resident members who are not employees or officials of the town of Lynnfield,” states Article 15. “The Select Board will exercise best efforts to select the three resident members from areas of town with higher incidence of traffic safety issues, as determined by the Select Board. The chair of the TSAC will be named by the Select Board and rotate every three years or otherwise and necessary to ensure successful operations of the committee.”

The Select Board unanimously voted to recommend Article 15.

Curtin said Article 1 will ask Town Meeting to approve the annual Town Report. Article 2 will choose all town officers “not required to be chosen by ballot,” which are three field drivers, one pound keeper and three wood measurers.

Article 3 will request Town Meeting to approve the salaries for the Board of Assessors and the Select Board, which are the only boards in town that get paid. Select Board Chair Dick Dalton will be receiving $850 while Select Board members Phil Crawford and Alexis Leahy will be getting $750 each. Board of Assessors Chair Donald Garrity will be receiving $4,150 and Board of Assessors members Bonnie Celi and Richard O’Neil will each be getting $3,550.

“Both boards receive a minimal stipend,” said Curtin.

Curtin said Article 4 will ask Spring Town Meeting to “vote to raise and appropriate or appropriate by transfer from available funds, sums of money to supplement certain accounts in the current 2024 fiscal year budget where balances are below projected expenditures for various reasons.”

Article 5 will request Spring Town Meeting to pay overdue bills from a prior fiscal year.

The Select Board will be making recommendations on Articles 4 and 5 during a meeting that will be held before Spring Town Meeting on Monday, April 29.

“We want to capture any of the overdue bills and all of the necessary transfers as they evolve,” said Curtin. “Town Accountant/Assistant Finance Director Julie McCarthy is still working on these articles.”

Article 8 will request Spring Town Meeting to appropriate $100,000 from Free Cash to the Stabilization Fund, which is the town’s rainy day fund. The Select Board voted to recommend Article 8.

According to the warrant, Article 9 will request Town Meeting to appropriate funds to the Emergency Medical Service Enterprise Fund’s budget. Article 10 will request Town Meeting to allocate funds from “Golf Enterprise receipts and/or Golf Enterprise Retained Earnings to pay expenses and contractual services required to operate the Reedy Meadow Golf Course and King Rail Golf Course.”

The Select Board voted to recommend Articles 9 and 10.

Curtin said Article 11 will set spending limits for the town’s revolving funds. The limit for the Council on Aging’s revolving fund totals $125,000. The Board of Health’s revolving fund’s limit is $15,000. The Lynnfield Public Library’s revolving fund limit totals $10,000. Lynnfield Recreation’s revolving fund limit equals $425,000. The DPW’s fields’ revolving fund limit totals $100,000. The DPW’s revolving fund limit for the Al Merritt Media and Cultural Center is $10,000, and the Tree Replacement Fund is $10,000. The Select Board voted to recommend Article 11.

Article 12 will ask Spring Town Meeting to accept provisions of the BRAVE Act by “addressing (the) compensation and benefits to town employees in the service of the armed forces of the commonwealth or a reserve component of the armed forces of the United States.”

“For any town employee called up for active duty, we would make up the difference of their base salary that the town would pay and what the employee is being paid for their military service,” said Curtin.

The Select Board voted to recommend Article 12.

Curtin said Article 13 would incorporate the town’s building fees into the General Bylaws. The Select Board voted to recommend Article 13.

The Select Board voted to recommend Article 14, which will accept Sagamore Place on upper Main Street as a public way.