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The front page of last Friday’s Wakefield Item featured an article, “Does the town need a planner,” which stated that Town Councilors Anne Danehy, Michael McLane, and Robert Vincent support hiring a Town Planner. Other Councilors are in favor of doing an analysis of the idea. (We have not had a town planner since Paul Reavis retired several years ago.)
According to Danehy, “the position would look at all development together as part of a planned-growth strategy for the town,” and the position “would have a role in preserving the town’s natural, historical and cultural resources.” She also said that “We are at a critical juncture in town and we need someone to lead all the changes we will be seeing.”
I’m not sure what “changes” Anne Danehy is referring to, but the biggest change to our town is about to happen and there has been a complete and baffling silence from all our Town Councilors. Have they not noticed that our most valuable natural resource, the NEMT forest, is about to be blown out of existence to build a new Metro Tech? What natural resource in town are they trying to preserve, if not this one?
While most consider Lake Quannapowitt to be our most valuable natural resource, its environmental importance is not even close to that of the NEMT forest. While the lake is a beautiful and defining feature of Wakefield, the forest is home to endangered species and pristine wetlands and is designated as one of the state’s forests least impacted by development (i.e., “forest core habitat”).
Why this deafening silence from our town leaders? Perhaps they have bought into the idea, promoted by Metro Tech Supervisor-Director David DiBarri, that the Metro Tech land is private. A simple google search shows that only individuals or corporations can privately own land. The Metro Tech is a school district and school districts are public. It’s also clear that if the construction bill is being paid entirely by taxpayers’ money, the property is public.
Or maybe the Town Councilors see this decision as solely the responsibility of the NEMT School Building Committee and don’t want to “step out of their lane.” This is the position that State Senator Jason Lewis has taken, much to the dismay of many. However, this project is too big and too consequential to be left in the hands of a single committee. (Note that all members of the NEMT School BUILDING Committee are also members of the NEMT School Committee, which raises a question about the independence of the Building Committee.) The group “Save the Forest and Build the Voke” has many legitimate questions about why the Building Committee, in choosing the hilltop forest, did not follow the siting recommendation of the pre-feasibility study to build on the existing playing fields (which would be replaced once the old school is razed).
Do we know the Building Committee’s longer-term plans for the lower 30 acres? Are they envisioning expanded sports fields and facilities (e.g., a skating rink?) that have not been adequately discussed publicly? Why did they reject an excellent and less costly option to build on one of the developed areas (sites C-1 or C-2), an option which many towns have chosen and that would preserve the forest?
Town Councilors are supposed to be in touch with the sentiments and desires of the community. Are they unaware that many, and probably most, people did not understand that a vote for the new school (a resounding yes!) was also a stealth vote to destroy the forest? As an indication of this, so far, 5,400 residents have signed a “Save the Forest and Build the Voke” petition. Does the fact that their community has been deceived into losing their most valuable natural resource not bother our Town Councilors? Was the public process really transparent if this is the result?
I urge our Town Councilors to end their silence on this unfolding, preventable disaster.
Alison Simcox, PhD
Environmental Engineer
Wakefield, MA
