A Letter to the Wakefield Fire Department
Please note: The NEMT project has set up the virtual meeting for a public forum primarily due to persistent letters from concerned citizens raising concerns about the lack of due diligence, public process, responsibility and accountability from the NEMT project team and Wakefield Town officials.
Please read below the letter from a concerned citizen to Deputy Chief Purcell from a concerned citizen.
Date: September 13, 2023 at 7:55:53 PM EDT
To: tpurcell@wakefield.ma.us
Subject: Northeast Metro Tech Project- request for blasting/safety forum
Dear Deputy Chief Purcell,
I forwarded a letter on blasting and the impacts on students and the public. I would like to reiterate safety issues raised about the site design. These create unnecessary and foreseeable risks that will create an additional strain on public safety resources. These issues are inherent in the site location and cannot be mitigated post-construction. I am puzzled why key design elements appear not to have been disclosed to the building committee or to the public prior to the building committee’s vote and the public’s vote. (See link below).
These design elements include the steep and winding 1,100 ' ramp and stair system as the only means of non-vehicular egress between student parking and new hilltop school; The 30-foot+ tall cliff running the length of the building that abuts the driveway loop on the western side; the proximity to Castle Hill and other cliff like features in Breakheart; the access road that is too steep for sidewalks (10%. grading) yet is the shortest route between upper and lower campus. It is simply not realistic to assume a sign will deter people from using that road.
When raised and discussed in the Wakefield Disability Commission meetings I expected safety concerns would be relayed to you promptly by our ADA Coordinator/ Town Engineer in the form of a letter*; not seemingly tabled until after site construction had begun.
When I described the campus design to a representative from Mass Office on Disability, she was most concerned about the feasibility of evacuating students, especially those with disabilities and young children** down a long narrow ramp in the event of a major emergency. She encouraged me to reach out to public safety officials. She further suggested involving an independent emergency preparedness safety consultant. The same should also apply to blasting which involves other public health issues. This should not be my job to raise these concerns and I am disheartened that they appear to have been downplayed by those involved in the project.
I encourage you to choose such consultants yourself and hold a public forum for transparency. At the very least, the forum should include abutters, and independent members of the community with public health and first responder expertise who do not have an affiliation with the school or work for the Town of Wakefield.
Sadly, I have lost confidence in our Town Administrator to be objective and represent the public interests in this matter. If this were truly a thoughtful and safe design for the new school, NEMT, the Town Administrator and the Building Committee would have described the site location in detail, and disclosed these features. If this were truly a good design, NEMT would not have to malign people for raising concerns and NEMT would not have to resort to banning a 75 year old senior citizen from its campus.