Countdown Till Saugus Town Meeting

Editor’s Note: The 2025 Annual Town Meeting convenes on Monday, May 5. As a special service to our readers and the registered voters of Saugus, we are reaching out to all 50 Town Meeting members, focusing on one precinct each week, in the weeks leading up to the start of Town Meeting, asking members about their expectations for the upcoming Town Meeting. This week we received responses from two of the five Town Meeting Members in Precinct 8. Town Meeting members who don’t respond in a given week are still invited to submit a response, which will be included in the next edition. For next week’s newspaper, we will reach out to the five Town Meeting Members from Precinct 9. The 2025 Annual Town Meeting convenes two weeks from Monday.

Question One: What do you consider the top priority for the town as you prepare for the opening of the 2025 Town Meeting session?

William E. Cross III: The top priority for the town has been a 3rd fire station. It’s the hot topic at every re-election cycle since I can remember. I am answering this question after responding to a 2nd alarm fire on Baker Hill (4/11/25) where we can see the direct benefit of proper apparatus staffing and location (Essex Street Station) and the impact it has on life, property, and firefighter safety. If this same fire is on the West side of town and if we trust in the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA), they tell us through scientific testing, that fire more than doubles in size every 30 seconds. The application of water by properly staffed fire apparatus in a timely fashion is necessary to have the results we had at this fire. We don’t have that response time to the west side. We are all (residents and firefighters), at a severe disadvantage when we respond. The 3rd station is long overdue and STAFFING MATTERS!

Arthur Grabowski: I believe that the top priority for the town is to create a stable and sustainable budget. Many of our residents and homeowners are senior citizens, and as such are on fixed incomes. Tax increases in the form of overrides and debt exclusions are killers when it comes to the quality of life that this group of residents have worked all their life to enjoy in the time they have left. Many have bought homes that they have paid off, raised children in Saugus and want to stay in the neighborhoods they have built and have come to feel comfortable in. They face astronomical increases in costs of heating their homes along with the rising cost of electricity. Health care costs are rising at a faster rate than the measly 2.5 percent cost of living adjustment they see in their Social Security checks. Many find the need to return to the workforce just to supplement their monthly incomes so that they may enjoy the kind of retirement they have come to expect. They face the added ignominy of being referred to as “LOG JAMMERS” when they voice concern over tax raises in the hundreds of dollars that sometimes force them out of the homes they have worked for all their lives.

My concern is not limited to just senior citizens….Saugus has traditionally been considered a “blue collar-middle class community”…these same pressures affect most of the residents in town whose incomes are under immense pressure every day to keep up with rising expenses that show no sign of abating soon.

As many residents are forced to live within their means, I expect the town to do so itself. The town should budget for extraordinary expenses and establish stabilization accounts to allow monies to be budgeted to cover future expenses. The town has done well in the past in that debt exclusions and general overrides have not reared their ugly heads as they have in surrounding communities…in many cases these have been voted down where the citizens have said enough is enough. In the private sector the slogan has been “do more with less!”

Question Two: What do you consider the top priority for residents in your precinct (Precinct 8) as you prepare for the opening of the 2025 Town Meeting session?

William E. Cross III: The top priority for members of my precinct is the conditions of our sidewalks. I have been approached more in the last six months concerning sidewalks than on any other subject other than the 3rd fire station. There is some work for all of us to do on this subject. I hope for some solutions to help Precinct 8.

Arthur Grabowski: In my precinct as well as the rest of town…..”quality of life” is the operative phrase…and this quality of life does not carry a high price tag. They want a clean community…trash and litter picked up…some of this falls on our residents themselves being more conscientious about disposal of trash and other items that are not picked up with our normal trash disposal. They want playgrounds that are usable and safe – we don’t have to spend thousands of dollars redoing the equipment. We just need proper maintenance and care given to keep the playgrounds and public areas clean and safe. How many times have we heard parents and grandparents complain of not being able to use the wonderful and expensive playground at the Veterans Memorial school because of the actions of a bunch of hooligans thinking they could take over the playgrounds. This is a big quality of life issue that is easily remedied by constant vigilance and enforcement to keep the riff raff at bay.

I think that another top priority for all town residents is that we have had enough “development” in town [–] over the past several years thousands of apartments have been built in town….almost every postage stamp parcel of land has been developed….what good are zoning requirements when variances are routinely granted much to the detriment of the residents. Town meeting votes zoning requirements, yet an unelected board routinely ignores the regulations and makes up their own. It’s time that the needs of the neighborhoods and residents trump any developers’ plans.

What have we as a community gained by all the apartments in town??? Only added stress on our infrastructure, our schools and most importantly traffic that at times creates gridlock throughout the whole town and it’s not just because of the schools.

Question Three: Are you working independently or in collaboration with other members on articles to be introduced for this year’s Town Meeting? Could you please elaborate? Summarize your article and what you hope to accomplish.

William E. Cross III: I am not collaborating on any articles right now.

Arthur Grabowski: [No response on this question]

Question Four: Please feel free to share any other views about the upcoming Town Meeting.

William E. Cross III: I am a Saugus guy and I love this town. I am looking forward to working with the administration and fellow Town Meeting members to conduct the business of the town. Thank you.

Arthur Grabowski: I understand that there is a move afoot to resurrect some form of charter change … this issue was soundly defeated at the last election – even the slate of candidates who were for the change were all defeated – and remember that that group was cited and fined by the state Office of Campaign Finance – and who paid the fine???? Why an operative of WIN .. so that shows you who is behind this and who wants to shape our town government to benefit their own selfish interests. My solution: tear down that polluting monstrosity and build a new state-of-the-art environmentally-sound trash-to-energy facility instead of making blood money donations at the behest of politicians who have aligned themselves with WIN for their own selfish, personal and political gain. Let’s put this to bed once and for all.

One last point – when it comes time in November to elect the five representatives of your precinct … please make informed decisions, support those who vote for the best interest of the neighborhoods and residents – not just because you are friends or like a certain person – but most importantly, check out their attendance records. Representative town government is the closest to each and every citizen. Don’t waste a vote on those who can’t be bothered to show up and do what they were elected to do.