Town Meeting Preview: Consent Agenda, Special Warrant, The Rest

WILMINGTON, MA — Wilmington residents will attend annual town meeting Saturday to make decisions about the town's business and governance for the year to come.

Much of the warrant handles budgetary and zoning matters, but other articles deal with renamings, general bylaws and other topics.

The 2021 annual town meeting begins at 9 a.m. Saturday in the Shriners Auditorium. The Shriners are allowing the town to use the facility for free. It is larger than the high school and allows for more social distancing.

The 2021 town meeting warrant is 64 articles, plus three special town meeting articles.

Previously on Patch

• Town Meeting Preview: Proposed Half-Percent Budget Increase
• Wilmington Town Meeting Preview: Zoning Articles

Consent Agenda

Nine articles are grouped under the "consent agenda" of routine matters that are usually not controversial. One vote will be taken for all nine articles, although voters will have to approve the use of the consent agenda. Attendees can also move to take specific articles out of the consent agenda.

The consent agenda is articles 2, 4, 7, 26, 36, 37, 38, 39 and 40. Article two is committee reports, article four allows the town's treasurer to use banking services, article seven approves the purchase of eight voting machines and article 26 appropriates $7,929.70 from the Transportation Infrastructure Receipts Reserve Account for Roadway Surface Crack Sealing.

Articles 36 through 40 approve funds for things including the Fourth of July celebration and the public access television channels.

Special Town Meeting Warrant

A three-article special town meeting will take place during the annual town meeting. Any one of the three articles passing would allow the petitioner Walter Varey to serve as a firefighter despite a state law setting 32 as the maximum age for original appointment.

Other issues

Article 42 would name the intersection of Federal Street and Liberty Street "Edward J. Gillis Memorial Center" in honor of Edward J. Gillis, a Navy Seabee veteran and longtime resident who was injured at Iwo Jima. Gillis passed away in 2019 at 93.

Article 43 allows members of permit-granting boards to vote on permits after they missed a single session if they certify in writing that they examine the evidence they missed, like the recorded meeting.

Article 44 fixes a clerical error in the traveling animal act bylaw passed at last year's town meeting.

Article 45 names the first-floor meeting room at the library the "Barbara Johnson Room."

Article 51 waives the firefighter age regulation for petitioner Kristopher Sokes.

Article 53 renames the soccer field behind North Intermediate in honor of Frank S. Lentine, "the teacher and coach who in 1964 developed the first soccer program for Wilmington High School."

The Planning Board and Finance Committee discussed the zoning articles in a meeting available here from WCTV. The warrant with their recommendations is available here.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.