Page 2 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FriDAy, JAnUAry 3, 2025 COVER STORIES | FROM PAGE 1 jor changes in the School Department administration, and Land Court decisions involving lawsuits, which have delayed progress of the retail marijuana business in Saugus, made the front page twice. Here is a month-to-month review of the front-page stories that appeared in The Saugus Advocate over the past year. JANUARY Selectmen set their two top priority projects for 2024: They say the town will need to decide whether to invest in a third fire station and how to pay its share for the new Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational High School in Wakefield. Schools Superintendent Michael Hashem’s proposed FY 2025 spending plan is $2.7 million more than the current $31.6 million operating budget approved at last May’s Annual Town Meeting. Several Town officials said in the aftermath of last Saturday’s flooding that it’s the worst they’ve seen since the Blizzard of 1978. One of them – Precinct 10 Town Meeting Member Peter Manoogian – is calling on town leaders to do their part to help revive the Regional Saugus River Floodgate Project. Flooding has forced the owner of a multimillion-dollar elevator business to consider moving out of Saugus; Glenn Bowie says he regrets he may have to leave the Belair Street location where he’s been operating for Lawrence A. Simeone Jr. Attorney-at-Law ~ Since 1989 ~ * Corporate Litigation * Criminal/Civil * MCAD * Zoning/Land Court * Wetlands Litigation * Workmen’s Compensation * Landlord/Tenant Litigation * Real Estate Law * Construction Litigation * Tax Lien * Personal Injury * Bankruptcy * Wrongful Death * Zoning/Permitting Litigation 300 Broadway, Suite 1, Revere * 781-286-1560 lsimeonejr@simeonelaw.net 20 years because of the prevalence of flooding in the area. FEBRUARY The Town of Saugus passes the million-dollar mark after winning another Green Communities Competitive Grant from the state Department of Energy Resources to fund clean energy and energy-efficient projects. Selectmen have begun lobbying members of their state and federal delegation to fund “as soon as possible” a feasibility study of a floodgate project that was authorized by President Biden in late 2022 – but never funded. They declared it a “matter of critical importance.” The Saugus Housing Authority plans to negotiate a salary with Katelynn M. Lemieux, its top choice to succeed longtime veteran Executive Director Laura Glynn. A debate over how to fund a School Resource Officer (SRO) looms as a potential obstacle for the town’s decision makers in this year’s Annual Town Meeting. Town Meeting Members Matthew Parlante (Precinct 2) and Frank V. Federico (Precinct 7) sharply questioned how the School Committee could be committed to making the SRO a priority when it wasn’t funded within the proposed operating budget for the 2025 Fiscal Year. Meanwhile, Police Chief Michael Ricciardelli said an SRO working inside the Saugus Middle-High School “can only help make the school safer.” MARCH Town Manager Scott C. Crabtree has recommended $33.1 million for the School Department for the 2025 Fiscal Year that begins July 1 – an increase of $1.5 million over the Fiscal Year 2024 budget approved last spring by the Annual Town Meeting. But that’s still $1.2 million less than the proposed School Department budget recommended by Schools Superintendent Michael Hashem and approved by the School Committee. A 13-year-old girl with a learning disability was bullied and beaten by another girl in a gym class at the Saugus Middle-High School while classmates cheered and videotaped the incident on their cell phones, according to the girl’s mother. Student cell phone use in school distracted from the learning environment and should end, town officials say in the wake of a bullying incident at the Saugus Middle School. The Finance Committee launches its review of the town’s FY 2025 budget with a look at the police and fire departments, which total a proposed $16.6 million – an increase of $624,529 over the current year. Finance Committee Vice Chair George DeDomenico says the public ought to know that the School Department actually gets close to $29 million more than what its operating budget shows during a review of the School Department budget. APRIL WIN Waste Innovations begins trucking ash to a company disposal site in Shrewsbury in an effort to prolong the life of the ash landfill near its trash-to-energy plant on Route 107. The company hopes to delay closure of the landfill and find a way to keep the landfill open for many more years. New Executive Director Katelynn Lemieux takes charge of the town’s public housing agency. A proposal to form a five-member Ash Landfill Closure Committee is among the articles that will be considered by the Annual Town Meeting. An article that would establish environmental performance standards to be enforced by the Board of Health in its oversight of the WIN Waste Innovations trash-to-energy plant is also on the warrant to be considered by Town Meeting members. A decline in enrollment of Saugus students at the Voke School concerns Town Manager Scott C. Crabtree as the Finance Committee reviews the Voke School budget. MAY A Special Town Meeting scheduled before this year’s Annual Town Meeting includes a vote on 10 financial articles totaling $18.4 million – funds that will focus on maintaining good fiscal management, capital improvements in the sewer system, investments in parks and playgrounds, addressing drainage problems, bridge safety and future costs of the Voke School construction. Town Meeting members will consider an article to use $500,000 from the Supplemental Student Support Reserve Fund for afterschool programs to help students hurt academically by COVID-19. The Annual Town Meeting members are nearly unanimous in approving an article that will create an Ash Landfill Closure Committee. The article passed by a marCOVER STORIES | SEE PAGE 9
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