Five Things Lynnfield Wants Under Its Tree

As part of their Holiday 2011 coverage, area Patch websites are taking a look at some of the things their respective towns would like to find under the collective tree. In Lynnfield, this would include several important projects that are in their early stages.

Recreation Center: The Stacee L. Monkiewicz Foundation was established this year in memory of the late Lynnfield recreation director, who passed away at Christmastime, 2010. The foundation works to give back to the community of Lynnfield and to eventually realize Stacee's goal of establishing a recreation center in town.

Bike Trail: Somewhere in the semi-foreseeable future, Lynnfield is expected to have a bike trail running from the Wakefield to the Peabody line on old rail beds. The project is still in the very early stages of design, and it will be noteworthy in that it will likely use old surplus flatbed rail cars for people to ride over in the most swampy and water-prone areas of Reedy Meadow.

Commercial Revenues The town is expected to see a sizeable upswing in commercial revenues once the Meadow Walk project has tenants in place and paying taxes. That is still at least one fiscal year away however. Until then, even last year's money-saving deal with municipal workers on health insurance isn't enough to create the kind of budget flexibility one might be wishing for.

New Business Tenants: Meadow Walk is one thing when it comes to the town's bottom line, but there is also another potential issue to keep an eye on - empty storefronts in the town's existing commercial spaces, from Route 1 to Center Court. With innovation and entrepreneurship, there's some possibilities sitting vacant in Lynnfield right now.

Dog Park: Back in August, this website .

Athletic Fields: Town officials have indicated they would like to do more to maintain and upgrade the various athletic fields in Lynnfield, but this is another area that is affected by the current budget climate. At the town budget summit earlier in December, DPW Chair Dennis Roy indicated that another goal of his department's in the longer term is to create an athletic field master plan.