Cover Stories of 2024

By Mark E. Vogler

The ongoing conflict between the town and WIN Waste Innovations over the future of the company’s ash landfill near its trash-to-energy incinerator on Route 107 made the front page of The Saugus Advocate 10 times during 2024 – dominating the local town news more than any other story. Coverage of a busy Town Meeting garnered seven front-page stories. The presidential and state primary elections made the cover four times. The town’s flooding problems – which were rated by one official as the worst he’s seen since the Blizzard of 1978 – the town’s effort to improve parks and playgrounds, and discussion of the proposed School Department budget were the subject of three front-page articles. A bullying incident and beating of a 13-year-old Middle School student, the hiring of a new Housing Authority Executive Director, major changes in the School Department administration, and Land Court decisions involving lawsuits, which have delayed progress of the retail marijuana business in Saugus, made the front page twice.

Here is a month-to-month review of the front-page stories that appeared in The Saugus Advocate over the past year.

JANUARY

Selectmen set their two top priority projects for 2024: They say the town will need to decide whether to invest in a third fire station and how to pay its share for the new Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational High School in Wakefield. Schools Superintendent Michael Hashem’s proposed FY 2025 spending plan is $2.7 million more than the current $31.6 million operating budget approved at last May’s Annual Town Meeting. Several Town officials said in the aftermath of last Saturday’s flooding that it’s the worst they’ve seen since the Blizzard of 1978. One of them – Precinct 10 Town Meeting Member Peter Manoogian – is calling on town leaders to do their part to help revive the Regional Saugus River Floodgate Project. Flooding has forced the owner of a multimillion-dollar elevator business to consider moving out of Saugus; Glenn Bowie says he regrets he may have to leave the Belair Street location where he’s been operating for 20 years because of the prevalence of flooding in the area.

FEBRUARY

The Town of Saugus passes the million-dollar mark after winning another Green Communities Competitive Grant from the state Department of Energy Resources to fund clean energy and energy-efficient projects. Selectmen have begun lobbying members of their state and federal delegation to fund “as soon as possible” a feasibility study of a floodgate project that was authorized by President Biden in late 2022 – but never funded. They declared it a “matter of critical importance.” The Saugus Housing Authority plans to negotiate a salary with Katelynn M. Lemieux, its top choice to succeed longtime veteran Executive Director Laura Glynn. A debate over how to fund a School Resource Officer (SRO) looms as a potential obstacle for the town’s decision makers in this year’s Annual Town Meeting. Town Meeting Members Matthew Parlante (Precinct 2) and Frank V. Federico (Precinct 7) sharply questioned how the School Committee could be committed to making the SRO a priority when it wasn’t funded within the proposed operating budget for the 2025 Fiscal Year. Meanwhile, Police Chief Michael Ricciardelli said an SRO working inside the Saugus Middle-High School “can only help make the school safer.”

MARCH

Town Manager Scott C. Crabtree has recommended $33.1 million for the School Department for the 2025 Fiscal Year that begins July 1 – an increase of $1.5 million over the Fiscal Year 2024 budget approved last spring by the Annual Town Meeting. But that’s still $1.2 million less than the proposed School Department budget recommended by Schools Superintendent Michael Hashem and approved by the School Committee.

A 13-year-old girl with a learning disability was bullied and beaten by another girl in a gym class at the Saugus Middle-High School while classmates cheered and videotaped the incident on their cell phones, according to the girl’s mother. Student cell phone use in school distracted from the learning environment and should end, town officials say in the wake of a bullying incident at the Saugus Middle School. The Finance Committee launches its review of the town’s FY 2025 budget with a look at the police and fire departments, which total a proposed $16.6 million – an increase of $624,529 over the current year. Finance Committee Vice Chair George DeDomenico says the public ought to know that the School Department actually gets close to $29 million more than what its operating budget shows during a review of the School Department budget.

APRIL

WIN Waste Innovations begins trucking ash to a company disposal site in Shrewsbury in an effort to prolong the life of the ash landfill near its trash-to-energy plant on Route 107. The company hopes to delay closure of the landfill and find a way to keep the landfill open for many more years. New Executive Director Katelynn Lemieux takes charge of the town’s public housing agency. A proposal to form a five-member Ash Landfill Closure Committee is among the articles that will be considered by the Annual Town Meeting. An article that would establish environmental performance standards to be enforced by the Board of Health in its oversight of the WIN Waste Innovations trash-to-energy plant is also on the warrant to be considered by Town Meeting members. A decline in enrollment of Saugus students at the Voke School concerns Town Manager Scott C. Crabtree as the Finance Committee reviews the Voke School budget.

MAY

A Special Town Meeting scheduled before this year’s Annual Town Meeting includes a vote on 10 financial articles totaling $18.4 million – funds that will focus on maintaining good fiscal management, capital improvements in the sewer system, investments in parks and playgrounds, addressing drainage problems, bridge safety and future costs of the Voke School construction. Town Meeting members will consider an article to use $500,000 from the Supplemental Student Support Reserve Fund for afterschool programs to help students hurt academically by COVID-19. The Annual Town Meeting members are nearly unanimous in approving an article that will create an Ash Landfill Closure Committee. The article passed by a margin of 44-0 with one abstention. The Annual Town Meeting approves an article introduced by Board of Selectmen Chair Debra Panetta designed to make the rail trail safer for runners and walkers – who worry about getting hit by motorized vehicles. The new bylaw, if enacted, includes a 15 mph speed limit for motorized vehicles. Several signs promoting WIN Waste Innovations’ landscaping at Saugus Town Hall have disappeared recently. WIN Waste says it is reevaluating the Town Hall landscaping project, while a company critic said WIN Waste is upset that the town manager won’t sign the host community agreement that would support expansion of the ash landfill in return for $20 million from the company over the next 20 years.

JUNE

During the final session of the 2024 Annual Town Meeting, members voted overwhelmingly in support of five zoning articles crafted by Selectman Michael Serino that would add more restrictions to the Route One Business Highway Sustainable Zoning District bylaw. The articles were designed to protect residents from Route 1 development. A state Land Court ruling paves the way for talks between the town and a company seeking to start a retail pot business in Saugus. A judge in the case dismissed part of a lawsuit that challenged the S-2 permit issued to Sanctuary Medicinals – the lone company out of seven applicants that obtained a special permit from selectmen to locate a retail marijuana dispensary in town. Saugus native and career educator Carla Scuzzarella – a 1976 Saugus High School graduate – returns to Saugus High School as Associate Principal. WIN Waste Innovations’ participation is still uncertain as the town’s newly created Ash Landfill Closure Committee begins its work.

JULY

Halfway through 2024, a majority of selectmen are proud of several accomplishments by the town. They cited the approval of another balanced budget by the Annual Town Meeting, which maintains the town’s fiscal stability, the issuance of two new liquor licenses to local restaurants and the appointment of several experienced professionals to volunteer boards. WIN Waste Innovations gives its official “no thank you” to an offer from the Ash Landfill Closure Committee to participate as a nonvoting member in the committee’s discussions about the future closure of the ash landfill

Town Manager Scott C. Crabtree briefs selectmen on priority projects he has high hopes of completing  by year’s end, including a plan to resurrect Anna Parker Playground with a state-of-the-art street hockey rink and six new pickleball courts. A recent Route 1 apartment proposal may help the town meet its 10 percent affordable housing requirement. Until that happens, the town will be virtually powerless to prevent the development of so-called 40B apartment projects.

AUGUST

The Town of Saugus continues its struggles to hire and keep Planning & Economic Development staff. Saugus Police have maintained a bicycle presence on the Northern Strand Community Trail for the second consecutive summer as they await approval from the state Attorney General’s Office on a new bylaw passed by Town Meeting that will empower them to fine people for operating unauthorized vehicles or speeding on the 2.5-mile segment of the trail that runs through Saugus. The three members of the state legislative delegation that represents Saugus have more than $160,000 in their campaign war chests available to spend on the fall state elections. But it appears they won’t need to spend anything because they lack opposition on the ballot for the Sept. 3 state primary and the Nov. 5 general election. Lawyers representing two nonprofit advocacy groups claim an admission policy approved by the Saugus School Committee a year ago constitutes an illegal barrier to immigrant students seeking to obtain an education. Next month’s state Primary Election results will determine which Republican candidate faces U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren in the Nov. 5 general election and whether Essex County Clerk of Courts Thomas Driscoll wins his fifth six-year term.

SEPTEMBER

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has increased the West Nile virus risk level to high in Saugus following the announcement of two more human cases of WNV in Massachusetts. Long-time town Educator Brendon Sullivan ends a 23-year career at Saugus Public Schools, stepping down from the principal’s job at the Saugus Middle-High School to accept an assistant principal’s position at Greater Lawrence Technical School. Dr. Carla Scuzzarella, a Saugus native who has spent more than three decades in the education profession, is named to replace Sullivan. Scuzzarella has been working as Associate Principal of the High School since July. Commercial development of the 235 acres that make up WIN Waste Innovation’s ash landfill on Route 107 near its trash-to-energy incinerator could produce up to $5.7 million a year in annual tax revenue, according to a report compiled by Selectman Michael Serino. Schools Superintendent Michael Hashem said he is optimistic about the direction in which Saugus Public Schools are headed following the recent release of the latest Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) test results, noting that the town is improving in the area of student growth.

OCTOBER

Members of a new Apartment Inspection Committee created by this year’s Annual Town Meeting have embarked on research to see how other communities in the region are making safer apartments for the public. Coyotes have attacked at least six dogs over the past three weeks, killing four of them, according to Saugus Canine Control Officer Darren McCullough. Two weeks of In-Person Early Voting for the Presidential Election begins at the Saugus Public Library. The Town Meeting-created Ash Landfill Closure Committee seeks a public conversation with WIN Waste Innovations CEO Daniel Mayo about the company’s future closure plans for the ash landfill on Route 107 near the trash-to-energy plant after local company officials have refused to participate in the committee’s meetings.

NOVEMBER

Out of control motor vehicles have crashed into a dozen Saugus businesses and homes over the past two years. Saugus voters back former President Donald Trump by a 54 percent margin, as the town joined the nation in returning Trump to the White House as the 47th president. Voters also leaned Republican, supporting challenger John Deaton in an unsuccessful bid to unseat incumbent U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren. A new state Department of Environmental Protection estimate says the ash landfill operated by WIN Waste Innovations could last four to five more years. The owner of an average single-family home in Saugus valued at $641,074 will pay $6,847 in taxes next year – $265.98 more than this year – while the tax bill for an average commercial property valued at $2.1 million will be $47,415 – a decrease of $490.35 over this year, as a result of new tax rates for the 2025 fiscal year approved by the Board of Selectmen. Selectmen give a favorable review to Plunge Boston Wellness & Recovery Studio for a Special Permit to open on Route 1, hailing the new business as an asset to the town.

DECEMBER

Cold weather doesn’t keep the crowds away from Anna Parker Playground as six new pickleball courts and a street hockey rink open, creating an intriguing generational phenomenon in Saugus. The playground becomes a popular destination for the senior crowd that wants to play pickleball while the street hockey rink draws kids as young as five years old. The state Attorney General backs a Town Meeting warrant article that creates environmental performance standards, empowering the Board of Health in its dealings with WIN Waste Innovations and its trash-to-energy plant on Route 107. A state Land Court judge rules selectmen must reconsider Uma Flowers LLC’s application for a special permit to operate a retail marijuana dispensary in Saugus. The judge ordered that the 3-1 vote – one vote short of the necessary four votes for a special permit – be annulled and the case be returned to selectmen for further proceedings.