BCAT News

After two hours of debate, Town Meeting on Monday approved a $4.77 million project to renovate the lower brush field at Marshall Simonds Middle School, including installing turf, ADA-accessible ramps, seating and lighting. 

It was an amended motion that separated out only the lower brush field, exempting the current tuft field and track from a plan that originally would have cost the town $6.7 million. When the School Committee voted the week before Town Meeting to remove it from the warrant due to a lack of support from the Ways and Means Committee and the Capital Budget Committee, the received a barrage of emails from members of the community asking them to prioritize the project, so they voted 3-2 last week to rescind their earlier vote and keep the item on the warrant. 

Some in the community, including Ways and Means Committee Chair John Iler, argued that while the project was clearly needed, it hadn’t gone through the proper channels of financial planning and should therefore be tabled for the time being. “Departments and boards work with administration and Ways and Means to propose things that are necessary or desirable, and therefore, since there’s a lot of negotiation involved, Ways and Means almost always votes for the projects,” Iler said. “But here we didn’t go through that process, and as a result Ways and Means found a number of issues with the project and voted against it 8-4.”

But some, including members of the public who came with their children to support the item, said it was important enough to forego the typical planning processes. 

“We made an exception to planning bc it’s a long standing desire, or a need or a priority,” said Ed Parsons, a Ways and Means committee members presenting the minority report in favor of the project. “It’s supported by both the school and Recreation. We know there are tons of our residents who use this field. There’s a demonstrable need: Kids are practicing late, after dark on Varsity Field in late spring because grass fields are not desirable to use.” 

In the article as passed, the School Committee will bond the $4.77 million and aim to finish construction on the renovated brush field by summer of 2025; there is no timeline for repairing or upgrading the upper turf field at Marshall Simonds, which is also nearing the end of its serviceable life, according to analyses by the school district. 

Town Meeting on Monday also approved a new stabilization fund for Shawsheen Valley Technical High School to give the regional vocational school a larger cushion in its budget; the establishment of the fund is contingent on the votes of four of the five towns in the school’s service area, and does not require Burlington to put up any additional funds. 

And Town Meeting approved a five-year bus contract for the district at a 17-percent increase over the previous five-year contract. 

Still on the agenda is the town’s plan to comply with the MBTA Communities Act and an article to change the Town Clerk position from an elected to an appointed role. Town Meeting will reconvene at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 22 to resume its business.