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Community Corner

New letter to the local papers:

Got Arrogance?

I was very touched by the concern that the unsigned editorialist (Apr. 29) showed for the residents at the head of the lake concerning the approved Cumberland Farms planned for 200 Lowell St. Yes, we should all be concerned I totally agree.
Could this have been another ANR (approval not required) shoved down the throats of home owners in Wakefield? Where is that concern for the residents and abutters in the Crescent Street neighborhood?

Is the Item purposely misrepresenting the Brightview, garage, and overlay issues or is it just that they are completely and totally out of touch?

I was one of those ‘same residents’ who collected signatures in the freezing cold in an effort to get a town wide vote on the garage. At no time did I hide the fact that I was against the entire project including an assisted living project in that location. I am still opposed to an assisted living project being built in that residential location. It is completely inappropriate.
I AM a senior citizen so why would I oppose any assisted living project planned on a reasonably sized piece of land that does not impact others in a negative way? I would not.

Some who collected signatures did not agree with my thinking but now they are being vilified as having had a ‘secret plan’ of some kind to undermine the entire project. That is not true. The Item's statement to that effect is completely false.

I was not one of the Excellent Eleven signers of the petition but I would have done so proudly. The signers are a courageous group who want only the best for Wakefield. There is no personal gain for any of them in trying to do the right thing.

What sadly IS true is that town officials will stop at nothing to get their pet project approved. How is it Mr. Town Administrator that you failed to get the overlay petition presented by the Excellent Eleven residents to the Planning Board in a timely fashion so that it could appear on the May 5 town meeting agenda? You received it on April 1. The Planning Board received it 2 weeks later. Why the delay?

It is interesting that a re-vote petition on the garage requested by a group of sore-losers and BACKED BY THE BOARD OF SELECTMEN managed to pass muster for the May 5 TM but the overlay petition did not. I thought the Town Administrator was supposed to work for ALL of us.

The sole purpose of collecting signatures in March was to get the issue of the garage on the April 1 ballot so that the entire town could vote on it. Period. End of story.

For years town officials have been playing their silly game of shoving things through at town meetings knowing full well that the TM is rarely well attended. They call out the troops, the sycophantic groupies, and 'yes men' to do their bidding. Town Meeting clearly no longer works for Wakefield. It is imperative that important issues (e.g. the garage and a monumental assisted living project in the downtown area) be put on the ballot so that the entire town can have a say. We can no longer trust the town officials to do the right thing for Wakefield. Overdevelopment is ruining Wakefield and town officials are the problem.

If the idea of a garage were so great why did so many vote it down? And it WAS voted down in every precinct! Did town officials really think that the people had been dumbed down enough to believe all of the ‘fuzzy math’they tirelessly promoted?
Perhaps they thought the slick oversize multiple mailings from Brightview did the trick. Then again there were the multiple big red lawn signs placed strategically on the main streets of town.
Stop insulting our intelligence! JUST STOP!

The garage is a loser idea in my eyes. A massive assisted living complex in a RESIDENTIAL area is a complete outrage. A behemoth building of that scale is an insult not only to home owners in the neighborhood but to the whole town. BUT then again perhaps town officials and their groupies are OKAY with it as long as it is not on their street or in their neighborhood.

STOP with the overdevelopment! We have had it! Wakefield is a town and not a city.

The NO votes were the real deal. That’s what town officials and evidently the Item fail to understand.

REVOTE NO on Article 2 at the Town Meeting May 5!

We are mad as hell and we are not going to take it anymore!

Maureen Howland

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