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Community Corner

Trust but Verify

I attended Town Meeting February 6th, when the town leaders coolly reported that the current municipal lot will only accommodate 25 automobiles.  Furthermore, legal counsel for Brightview , the developer, discussed the deplorable conditions with his concerns for zoning requirements and whether the municipal lot was in violation of the Town of Wakefield zoning bylaws. 

 I respect professionally licensed attorneys, as I am a professionally licensed certified public accountant and trust our town leaders, however, I sensed that a civil engineer would provide the absolute correct answer.  So, on that note, I decided to engage an “independent” engineering firm, Kelly Engineering Group, Inc., of Braintree, to provide a parking lot plan for our community of Wakefield municipal lot.

 The attached conceptual layout exhibit reflects that there are actually 42 parking spaces and not the 25 parking spaces reported on many occasions; that is an increase of 17 parking spaces or an error factor of 68%.

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 Additionally, the same town leaders, as well as Brightview legal counsel, consistently reminded town’s people throughout town meeting that the value of the municipal parking lot was greatly diminished because of accessibility from Main Street.  As you can see, in the attached Kelly Engineering Group parking layout exhibit, there clearly is a 13.51 foot wide spur extending 84.33 feet from Main Street into the municipal parking lot, which is part of the fee interest in the town property; the town owns this frontage extending from Main Street all the way into the municipal parking lot and has granted others the non-exclusive right of access, including Wakefield Coop to their parking behind the Wakefield Coop building.

 I was fortunate enough to have graduated Austin Prep ’72 and Merrimack College ’77; the Augustinian brothers’ and priests’ cornerstone was community, solidly built upon with both truth and knowledge.  So, on that note, I ask that members of our community of Wakefield, a solid hard working town built upon that same cornerstone, implement your important tools of truth and knowledge, before next week’s town forum, and when you, your family and friends exercise your right to vote on April 1st.

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