Municipal Matters: Your Town in Motion from Ballots to Bulldozers

This story is featured in the 2025 Summer Buzz Magazine, your guide to having the best time this season. You can read our magazine now or purchase your very own print edition.

Election update: Town Clerk stays Elected, voters Reject Reconsidering Marijuana Ban

Burlington voters have spoken on two important issues to the future of the town.

The Town Clerk role, which has historically been an elected position, will remain elected after a question that would have converted the Clerkship to an appointed role failed at this April’s election. Only 46% of voters said they’d like to move to an appointment; 50% opposed the move, and the rest either abstained or selected both options.

The Town Clerk serves as the official record-keeper and the Chief Elections Officer for the town, ensuring records such as marriage, birth, anddeath certificates are maintained and accessible and elections are run in accordance with state law. Burlington’s long-time Town Clerk, Amy Warfield, was retiring at the end of April, and some town officials thought it would be a good time to put to the public a question that had been percolating at the municipal level for quite some time: Should the role of Town Clerk be elected or appointed?

An appointed Town Clerk would be easier to supervise, job responsibilities would be easier to establish, and evaluation would be more straightforward, said those in favor of the change. In addition, the applicant pool could be expanded to include nonresidents.

Opponents said an appointed Town Clerk could potentially be subject to undue influence from the appointing body, namely Town Administration and/or the Select Board. Opponents also said the requirement for a Town Clerk to be elected, and therefore a resident of the town, means the Clerk will have more of a stake in the community.

The best course of action was not cut and dried, and the town was split on the question, but in the end the Clerk will remain an elected role. That means that new Town Clerk, Jennifer Priest, who was sworn in just after the election by Warfield, will need to run for a new term in just a year.

The other ballot question asked whether or not the town should think about rescinding the ban on recreational cannabis sales.

In 2016, Burlington residents voted against legalizing recreational marijuana on a statewide ballot. After that vote, Town Meeting established a ban on recreational cannabis sales locally, as allowed by the state/ Many officials and Town Meeting members at that time said they wanted to see how legalization played out elsewhere in the state.

Now that the dust has settled, one community member made moves to try and rescind that ban. Will Seagaard, who works in the cannabis sales industry, collaborated with a Town Meeting sponsor, as well as with his own attorney and the town’s attorney, to craft general and zoning bylaw amendments that were presented first to local boards and commissions and, after many false starts, to Town Meeting in January 2025.

Those articles were voted down in anticipation of hearing from voters on this ballot question, but a future involving recreational dispensaries in Burlington is unlikely following a decisive defeat at the ballot box. Only 40% of voters in April said they’d like the town to rethink the ban; 58% said no, and 86 voters didn’t vote on this question.

Ryan, Harrington Fill Big Shoes on Planning Board

April saw Burlington’s annual town election and, while the composition of many elected Boards and Commissions stayed the same, Town Meeting saw a bit of a shakeup in one precinct, and the Planning Board now has two new members out of seven total.

More than half of voters had already cast their votes by time the election was held on April 5, either in person during early voting or via mail-in ballot. Despite rain and cold weather, a good number of candidates and proponents, and around 1,500 voters, came out on Election Day.

Among the uncontested races were Select Board (Nick Priest and Mike Espejo retained their seats) and School Committee (Christine Monaco and Melissa Massardo also got another three years). Bill Beyer will enjoy another year as Town Moderator. Also continuing in their terms are Library Trustees Janice Cohen and Rob Neufeld, Constables Dennis Otis and William Pepicelli, Assessor Cathy O’Neil, Recreation Commissioner Steve Nelson, and members of the Board of Health, Gayle DaMore and Ed Weiner.

Long-time Town Meeting Member and member of the Zoning Bylaw Review Committee, Greg Ryan, won a seat on the Planning Board next to Jeremy Harrington, who has spent time in Town Meeting and on the Zoning Board of Appeals. Harrington and Ryan differed by just 123 votes, while Jack Kelly, who served on the Planning Board for 17 years before resigning in 2019, fell short by a little over 300 votes. The two new members will be taking the seats of Ernie Covino and Bill Gaffney, though neither expects to be able to fill his predecessor’s shoes right away. Combined, Covino and Gaffney have served for nearly 50 years, said Ryan. He and Harrington expect a steep but worthwhile learning curve.

Down the ballot, most Town Meeting seats didn’t shift, but in Precinct 6, two candidates who engaged in a significant amount of voter outreach won out over incumbents. Anthony Clark and Matt Denaro both sent letters to the homes of their constituents, and Denaro went so far as to deliver some by hand. Denaro took the precinct, earning 382 votes in a precinct with 604 voters. William Trelegan and Darrell Interess lost their seats.

Road Repair, Water Projects Continue to make progress

There aren’t many guarantees in life, but one thing’s for certain: Summer in New England might as well be known as Road Work Season.

With moratoriums on opening the roadway from November through April, all the road and utility work that needs to get done, has to be squeezed into the spring, summer, and early fall months.

This summer, two major projects will impact some of the most heavily trafficked roadways in Burlington.

First, the much-discussed, long-awaited Route 3A repaving will be taking place from May through July. The state has heard mixed reviews of their plans for the area from Cook Street in Billerica to Burlington High School at 123 Cambridge Street, but with this project they plan to finally answer the question that’s plagued the town for decades: Is Cambridge Street one lane or two?

'The answer is complicated, as evidenced by the state’s plan to stripe the road as one lane in some places and two in others. From Skilton Ln. to Bedford St., the road will be two lanes, while other areas will be striped as one lane with a bike lane to the side. When the bike lane ends, cyclists can ride on the sidewalk or on the side of the road next to the two full lanes of traffic in the Town Center.

The state aims to button up this project, which also includes curb, sidewalk, and intersection repairs, by the end of July, and most of the actual work will be done at night. As far as the impact of the clarified lane markings on drive times, that won’t be clear until the project is complete and traffic on the road is at full capacity.

On the other side of town, the water main that brings Burlington water from the Quabbin Reservoir through Lexington and other towns will be extended down Middlesex Turnpike, take a turn down Mall Road, and end at Great Meadow Road. This work, which will also be completed overnight, will mark the end of the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority (MWRA) cross-connection project that the town has been working on, along with the state and the town of Lexington, for the last several years. When this project is finalized in late 2025 or early 2026, Burlington will have access to 6.5 million gallons of drinking water each day, ensuring the town’s needs are more than met even if the town’s main water source, Mill Pond, has a dry year.

One more thing: A traffic light will be installed this summer on Winn Street at Mountain Road.

Building Projects Continue Making Progress

A number of building and infrastructure projects are in stages varying from ideation to completion in Burlington. Here’s your update:

Police Station

Work is expected to start this fall on a new police station. The Police Department will relocate for around two years while the old station is torn down and a new one is built in its place. The Sculpture Park will also be relocated as a “sculpture walk” along the Town Common and the municipal campus on Center St.

Fox Hill Elementary School

The new Fox Hill will go to bid in late 2025, and shovels are expected to go into the ground in 2026. The new school will be built over two years on a different part of the same property where Fox Hill currently stands.

Burlington High School

The BHS Building Committee has selected a preferred option for a new high school. The plan includes building a new academic wing as well as renovating the existing gyms and auditorium, and the design team is currently working on the schematic design for this project.

Town Meeting will need to approve funding for the new school in a vote that is expected in September. After that, a debt exclusion vote will be needed for the town to be able to pay for the project.

Marshall Simonds Fields

The project to replace the back grass field with two turf fields hit a snag when wetland flagging revealed the fields wouldn’t fit in the space as planned. The Building Committee has approved reconfigured plans, which feature a full-size field and a U10 field.

Funding to replace the turf and resurface the track at MSMS’s Brush Field passed Town Meeting this May.

Wildmere Park

Located at 19 Wildmere Avenue, this park on the eastern side of town, was renovated this springand now has updated equipment and enhanced accessibility.

Overlook Park

Parks & Recreation is overhauling this park, which sits atop the hill at Edgemere Ave on the eastern side of town. This $2.3-million project is subsidized by $1 million from the Land & Water Conservation Fund and will feature enhanced accessibility and public benefit features.

Systems Improvements

Town Hall and the Town Hall Annex will get upgraded HVAC with funds approved at Town Meeting, replacing a system that is nearing three decades old.Electric

Substation (Eversource)

A new electricity substation and associated infrastructure will soon be built in Burlington to serve Burlington and surrounding towns. This will supplement the town’s current substation on Middlesex Turnpike and will not interrupt service to customers; construction is expected to begin in 2027.

Looking to the Future

The town has an eye on improving Middlesex Turnpike for safety and multimodal transportation. Nothing is set in stone, but be on the lookout for updates!