Medeiros Farm Deserves to be Greenlit

My children are too young to vote, but old enough to have strong opinions — as any parent knows. Oftentimes I find myself telling them you have to wait for something great.
That’s why I’m asking Seekonk’s Select and Zoning boards to pump the brakes. It’s critically important that we get things right before pushing any formal traffic study based off an informal “master plan” from the Medeiros Farm Committee.

I’ve waited six long years for bucket swings to be installed at the playground behind Town Hall. We have cargo nets, a swinging rope bridge and parallel bars that drop you from a climbing tower two stories up. But to simply swing my toddler, I have to cross state lines into Pawtucket to visit Slater Park.

That’s why it excited me to hear about the proposed Medeiros Farm Project. Finally, a place I could bring my growing family in the heart of Seekonk that could cater to all ages and abilities. I enthusiastically voted at Town Meeting in 2021 that the Town purchase the Medeiros Farm property. The Medeiros family willingly sold it off, rejecting higher bids by private developers, to help preserve Seekonk’s historic character.

I left that meeting feeling hopeful. It’s easy to despair that our community (and our country at large) appears stuck, incapable of doing big things anymore. We’ve not had the necessary majorities to build a library, Department of Public Works facility nor a South End Fire Station for the modern era. Instead, we’re simply managing decay.

I left that meeting feeling hopeful. It’s easy to despair that our community (and our country at large) appears stuck, incapable of doing big things anymore. We’ve not had the necessary majorities to build a library, Department of Public Works facility nor a South End Fire Station for the modern era. Instead, we’re simply managing decay.

By comparison, the Medeiros Farm Project has won majorities at least five times across multiple Town Meetings years apart. We don’t agree on a lot. But five majorities says something.

Town Administrator Shawn Cadime has stated there by conducting a traffic study at the outset, there could be additional costs, as the design has yet to be finalized. He’s reiterated the “master plan” put forward by the Medeiros Farm Committee serves as a conceptual, guiding document. It’s not the schematic design for which Seekonk voters put up $825K.

I’m deeply concerned that by forging ahead with any formal traffic study based off the concepts of a plan, we’re putting the cart before the horse and wasting taxpayer dollars.

I ask that Select Boardman Bob Archambault, a direct abutter to the Medeiros Farm property, continue to recuse himself from future Medeiros Farm Project votes and abide by the April 15 legal advice Town Counsel put in writing, saying that, because of his financial interest as a direct abutter, “the law prohibits you from participating as a Select Board member in any matter regarding the Medeiros Farm property.”

I also ask the Select and Zoning boards carefully consider the implications of moving forward with their own traffic studies that exclude the Medeiros Farm Committee from the project they’ve oversaw since Day One.

Joseph Novinson