LYNNFIELD — Both ballot questions were voted down in Monday’s special election to decide on whether the town would fund the Lynnfield Library expansion project and the 10-year roadway improvement initiative.
In total, 1,373 Lynnfield residents voted in the election, with 539 voting yes and 833 voting no on the first question while 580 voted yes and 789 voted no for the second question.
This result deviates from how participants in November’s town meeting voted to approve progressing these two major projects to a ballot election by a two-thirds majority.
Proponents for the library renovations cited a need in the town for spaces that were not offered at the current building, especially for teens and children, and emphasized the importance of a library in a community.
Similarly, residents at the town meeting spoke on the disrepair of Lynnfield’s roadways as reasoning for passing the decade-long project that was calculated to eventually improve road quality drastically.
However, the large number attached to these projects turned out to be too much for voters who went to the polls yesterday, as the library would have cost $18.3 million and the roadway improvement program would have cost $12.85 million.
The Lynnfield Finance Committee was in agreement with the sentiment that this was simply too much spending at the town meeting as they did not recommend passing this budget.
“It’s not that I wouldn’t love to have a new library. Fiscally, it’s just not responsible at this time. I’d look at other options,” FinCom member Stephen Riley said at the town meeting with regards to the library renovation.
For the roadway program, a 10-Year Capital Debt Exclusion Borrowing equal to $1,285,000 per year for 10 years would have resulted in a tax increase equal to $258 per year over the coming decade for the average assessed home in Lynnfield.
With these two undertakings now being refused the funding needed, it seems likely that the heavy cost was too much for voters to overcome.
