Wakefield Town Council Notes - June 8, 2026

Here's a brief summary of our Town Council meeting on Monday, June 8:

• The Town Council approved water and sewer rates for the fiscal year beginning on July 1, 2026.For the average residential ratepayer, the quarterly bill will increase by approximately 5%. The Council asked to review data on the tiered rate structure adopted several years ago to evaluate whether any changes should be considered at next year's rate hearing.

• The Council received updates from the Affordable Housing Trust and the Economic Development Council on the spending of allocated federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. The Affordable Housing Trust has spent 90% of the $200,000 it received, primarily on the Wakefield Rental Assistance Program. It expects to spend down the remaining funds in the next calendar quarter. The Economic Development Council has spent 55% of the $1 million it received on a variety of initiatives including Project Pop-Up, the Façade and Sign Program, creative arts and special events, and a digital marketing campaign to attract new businesses to Wakefield (MakeItWakefield.com). The remaining funds will be spent by December 31st.

• We approved an intermunicipal agreement with the Town of Reading and several other communities to participate in the Metro North Regional Housing Services Office. This partnership will assist in the administrative management of Wakefield's affordable housing stock, including maintenance and updating of Wakefield's Subsidized Housing Inventory (SHI). Maintaining an accurate SHI is important as it affects whether developers can bypass local zoning requirements under the Commonwealth's affordable housing law, Chapter 40B.

• The Council approved several licenses, including an entertainment license for the Beebe Library for this summer's Plaza Jazz series. Please join us at the library on Thursday evenings this summer for great music and entertainment!

• The Town Council approved several minor updates to Wakefield's Bench and Structure Policy. In addition, we discussed some potential revisions to our Public Participation Policy and our policy governing the use of the Lake Quannapowitt shoreline for public events. Updated drafts of both policies will be considered by the Council at a future meeting.

• We appointed Willy Chung to the Environmental Sustainability Committee, and Isabella Melo, Marlene Veldwisch, Jillian Arcari, and Laila Atoui to the Human Rights Commission. We also named Health and Human Services Director Anthony Chui as Wakefield's Temporary Animal Control Officer pending the recruitment of a permanent replacement.

Our next meeting will be on Monday, June 22, beginning at 7:00 PM. We also will be scheduling the Town Council's annual planning retreat for a date later in June or July.