Melrose Arts & Crafts Society members create teddy bears for MelroseWakefi eld Hospital A t each monthly meeting, members of the Melrose Arts & Crafts Society cut, sew and stuff teddy bears for donation. A longtime member of the Melrose Arts & Crafts Society, Helen Chisholm, delivered 30 teddy bears to the Emergency Department at MelroseWakefi eld Hospital. Operations Manager Toni Reyes, Clinical Manager Melissa O’Connor-Iudice and Jerry McCullough, RN gladly accepted them. Helen also delivered 30 teddy bears and 30 blankets to Administrative THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FriDAy, JAnUAry 6, 2023 BOARD| FROM PAGE 2 Assistant Vincenza Sullivan, Jenn Wallace, RN and Thea Vo, RN of the Mother/Baby unit of the hospital, and they were also appreciated. Members will be working on completing more teddy bears at the next monthly meeting, which is on January 23, 2023, at First Baptist Church (561 Main St., Melrose) from 9:00 a.m. to approximately 1:00 p.m. If you are interested, please call Dorothy Iudice at 781-662-2434. Hope to see you soon. edge, communication, and good business sense, Saugus worked its way out of fi nancial turmoil. He earned the respect of the Finance Committee, Town Meeting, and most importantly, the residents of our Town. Today, we have an AA+ bond rating from Standard and Poor’s. Because of this outstanding rating, we were able to borrow money for the new Middle/High school at a lower interest rate, saving Taxpayers millions of dollars. With that said, he led the charge for the new Middle/High school, where over 70% of the voters voted for the construction of the new school and a restructuring of the entire district. By working with the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), our town was awarded a $63.8 million grant to construct the building. We have built beautiful new parks and playgrounds under Scott’s leadership. We have received millions of dollars in grant money because of our Town Manager. So, when I read in the paper that the Chair wants to change our Town of Saugus into a city, and then he wants to run for Mayor, it is disconcerting. Cicolini has “mixed feelings” about plan I continue to have mixed feelings about the posPage 5 sibility of Saugus becoming a city. There are rumors swirling around town about how if we were to become a city, Saugus would get millions more dollars from the state, that unfortunately is not a guarantee. There are many criteria that come into play in determining the aid amounts provided to communities and some of the key factors such as density and demographics do not necessarily work in Saugus’ favor. The average surrounding city has a population of 60,000 or more people. Melrose is an example of one of few smaller cities with 30,000 people but it is more of an outlier as Lynn, Malden, Everett, Revere, Chelsea all have populations in excess of 50,000 and a couple over 60,000. Saugus’ population of 28,000 pales in comparison to most cities that surround it. My parents were involved in the most recent past attempts to change our charter. My father chaired the charter commission in the 80s and my mom served on the most recent commission. It takes a lot of time, energy and effort to create a charter that encompasses enough change and still provides the proper checks and balances while allowing our community to maintain its unique identity. The idea of an elected mayor instead of a town manager and a city council in lieu of a board of selectmen and town meeting has many elements that need to be taken into account. The Town Manager is the chief procurement offi cer but reports to the board of selectmen and cannot spend a dollar without the approval of town meeting as the appropriating body who receives recommendations from the fi nance committee. A Mayor has signifi - cantly more control over the day to day and fi nancial operations in a community given the board of selectmen and 50 member town meeting (all of whom are elected by the people) would be replaced by a much smaller city council. I feel the residents are hesitant to adopt such a radical change in fear of the unknown and knowing that once it happens there is no turning back. I am interested to read what the proposal, if any, will be. As I always do, I will take each and every fact into account before I decide whether I will or will not support the change from a town to a city. 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