[Speaker 15] (0:00 - 1:55)
I'm going to give you a brief overview of what I'm going to be talking about today.

[Speaker 2] (12:49 - 13:30)
I've been informed by the town clerk we have a quorum present. Before we call the meeting officially to order, I have a few presentations and announcements for us all. And before we do any of that, I've been asked to let a true professional, Mr. Dulette, give a brief primer on microphone technique. I've been asked by several of you. So without further ado, your head of government, public, educational, TV. Hello everybody.

[Speaker 26] (13:31 - 13:59)
I just want everyone to know that the microphone works best when you're about this close to it. So this is for people on the tables as well. And you'll notice that as I back away, even about this much, you can't really hear me.

So try to be close. And if you need to use one of these microphones, you can tilt it. If it's really hard for you, I can run down and we can adjust it.

You can also, if you need to, take it off the microphone and hold it and then just slide it back in the holder. That's it. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Joe.

[Speaker 2] (14:01 - 14:28)
All of your fellow town meeting members, our guests, and the viewers at home will thank you for taking that note to heart. For our first presentation, I would like to welcome our representative to the general court elect, Ms. Jenny Armini, to say a few words to the meeting. I had her up front for a second and she decided to go all the way up back.

Ms. Armini.

[Speaker 7] (14:38 - 19:04)
Good evening, everyone. Thank you to the select board for inviting me this evening. Each member of the board and the town administrator, Sean Fitzgerald, have been incredibly welcoming, helpful, and genuine in their desire to partner with me and with state government for the good of Swamp Scout.

I look forward to our future conversations and our collaborations. As you all know, there are many, many critical issues that we need to be working on. I feel fortunate to be able to represent Swamp Scout in the house, and never more so than yesterday.

As many of you know, the town gathered at the corner of Danvers Road and Essex Street to dedicate a memorial to Army Specialist Jared Raymond, who was killed in Iraq 16 years ago. It was one of those bright, chilly New England days when everything seems right with the world, except we were there to honor the courage and spirit of someone who has gone too soon. Governor Baker spoke movingly about Jared and his exceptional mother, Jackie Raymond.

By the way, there are few more humbling experiences than being in the presence of Gold Star families. The governor talked about the beauty and the values of this community, and he made an interesting distinction. He said he was raised in Needham, but he grew up here.

To him, the formative experience of building a family, with all that entails, was the greatest period of personal growth. It's what bonded him to the people of this community. And I'd never thought about it like that, but that's exactly how I feel.

I'm a native New Yorker, raised on the Jersey Shore, but I grew up right here in the 8th Essex District. The relationships, the values, the priorities I've developed through the process of building my own family and a life, a real, honest, sometimes messy life, are what drive my work today. It's why I'm here, to make positive change for the people and the communities that have taught me so much.

I had the privilege of meeting with Senator Elizabeth Warren this morning. She pointed out that there's an inherent optimism in people who choose public service. You have to believe that change is possible, that you and I can be the change makers.

This is a representative town meeting. Just like the Massachusetts House, you are elected to make decisions on behalf of your community. It's a beautiful and inspiring act.

I consider you my colleagues, and I thank you for the support you've given me, and you will continue to give me, as I begin my term in January. Yes, I am from Marblehead. But a successful state representative isn't the product of one community or one spirit.

My job is to apply the best of all three communities in legislating and decision making, and to represent the interests of each community with equal energy, equal enthusiasm, and equal commitment. Swampscot's interests are my interests, and I can't wait to get to work. Thank you.

[Speaker 2] (19:05 - 19:26)
Thank you, Ms. Armini. I'm sure we'll look forward to having you back here on a regular basis. Thank you.

Now we have a brief presentation from the group SURE. Swampscot Unites, Respects, Embraces.

[Speaker 13] (19:27 - 20:31)
Hi. Thank you, Mike, Town Meeting, and Selectmen. We're here to talk about a new community project.

It actually started a few years ago, but then the pandemic came along. I'm Sue Burgess, Precinct 5, and this is Martha Curry, who's in Precinct 3. So next slide.

So we're here to introduce to you a project called Tell Us Your Story. But first of all, we'll tell you a little bit about SURE. We started it grassroots in 2016 when there was a lot of speech that we didn't find too welcoming.

So as you can see, this is our mission that we've come up with, our statements. Promote understanding of diversity. To provide opportunities to explore and experience diversity.

Encourage learning from each other. Promote a welcoming, nourishing, respectful, and inclusive community. And be allies to those in our community who are facing prejudice of any kind.

[Speaker 11] (20:33 - 20:34)
Next slide.

[Speaker 13] (20:35 - 20:59)
So some of our events that we've had. You might remember we did One Topic, One Town with the library. We also had a movie screening and discussion on intelligent lives, which had to do with intellectual bias.

And then we've also had a Village of Kindness. We've had that at Farmers Market and at our diversity festivals, which we sponsored on the Taun Hall lawn.

[Speaker 11] (21:00 - 23:43)
I rushed that next slide. Sorry. No, back up.

Sorry. We just wanted to share, and I'm not going to read through this if you want to look at this. Diversity, many people think, implies race and ethnicity.

But there's diversity in all aspects of life. And SURE likes to explore, with our community, all types of diversity. So Tell Us Your Story is really telling the story of your ancestors coming to America.

And I do want to call out that we're all immigrants, except for Indigenous people and people who are descendants of enslaved people who were brought here against their will. We're just asking for a story, up to 200 words. Actually, a little background of this is we partnered with the Swampscot Reporter to do something we called Coming to America.

And this was inspired by, at our festivals, we used to have a map where we asked people to put pins where their ancestors came from. And lots of conversations and stories. So we said, well, let's get some of these on paper.

So we kind of came up with this a couple years ago, and with the pandemic, stalled a little bit. So again, it's about 200 words. We'd like a photo either of your ancestor or current day.

We're collaborating with the library, and we're going to archive them, and the library might take a next step and do some podcasts. So we're very excited about it. We do have a table outside with forms.

There's also a website, ShoreDiversity.org, that you can get more information. We thought now we would just show you real quickly a couple of stories. So if we could have the next slide.

This is my grandfather, also known as Harry Berry. I don't really know when they came over. I think my ancestors were mostly famine Irish.

He worked for himself as a tinsmith in the West End, which was then demolished, and he actually was pretty older then, and then closed his business. But I did hear a new story when I was talking to some of my cousins that my great-grandfather walked from Canada with a wheelbarrow, and he brought a wheelbarrow so he could work for farms along the way. And bartered, you know, food and a place to stay for help on the farms.

And that's a great photo of my grandfather, probably taken around 1909, we think. And we have one more story, so you can share.

[Speaker 13] (23:44 - 24:44)
Okay, this is Sena Khatib's father came from Syria, and she wrote about him coming from Damascus. Their lineage dates back to 1500. Most of us couldn't do that.

And he came in the 1980s to attend college, and we're very lucky to have the Khatib family here in Swampscott. So Sena is their daughter who's out of college, I think, by two years. So that's our presentation.

I will just tell you, we have a lot of the forms. They're very simple, on our table out there, and they're going to be available at town hall, the library. We're going to try and spread the word, because we'd really like to have hundreds of them.

And it would be fun, you know, years and decades from here, for people to be able to go to the library in the Baldwin Room and look up people's stories. So I thank you for letting us come tonight. And our tagline is, Inspire family conversations by telling your story.

Thank you.

[Speaker 2] (24:45 - 24:58)
Thank you, Ms. Curry, Ms. Burgess. And I know Mr. Edwards was unable to be here tonight, but he's here in spirit. Okay, the Harbor Waterfront Advisory Committee has an update for us as well.

[Speaker 4] (25:07 - 29:19)
Good evening, everybody. My name is Jackson Schultz. I'm chair of the Harbor and Waterfront Advisory Committee.

I'd like to introduce Jay Borklin, who's been our consultant since the very beginning. He's actually one of the people who's instrumental in us actually being able to come up with this harbor plan that we developed. And this is Jay McAllister from McAllister Engineering, who's been contracted to help us with these two aspects of the plans that we've been working on.

I would also like to introduce, by name, the members of the committee, Scott McBurnie, Steve Sporenza, Ulf Westhoven, Ted Dooley, Amy Powell, Alan Van Arsdale, and everybody's favorite drummer, Whiskey Walensky. And I'd also like to thank our select board liaison, Katie Phelan, for participating. So thank you guys very much.

The last time Harbor and Advisory presented a town meeting was to ask a 20% match to a grant that we were awarded from Seaport Economic Council. We want to thank you for approving that, and we would now like to show you the work that we've done, where we are, and where we hope to go from here. Throughout this process, we've tried to keep our residents as informed as possible with public forums, select board presentations, information booths at the farmer's market, along with several waterfront and Earth Day festivals.

The plan and our progress thus far has been posted on the town's website. Our meetings are open, both in person and on Zoom, and we will be holding our meetings starting the second Thursday of every month. As you may know, the focus of our Harbor plan is storm resiliency.

To that end, we began to focus on two elements of the Harbor plan, the Living Reef and the town pier. We applied for two separate grants, one for the Living Reef to protect the Harbor and downtown from flooding, and the other for the pier project. Though the Living Reef project is still alive and well and very much in play, we only received funding for the pier project, which is what we're here to present to you tonight.

So let us begin. Next slide, please. Slide number two.

One back. There we go. Thank you.

As you can see, the pier was passed by town meeting in 1941, but it took 21, 20... That was amazing. 21, 23 years before it was even constructed.

So things in Swampscott tend to take time to happen, even back then. However, today the pier is beyond its life design. It's around 50 years is the life design for a pier, and this pier is 61, 62 years of age, so it doesn't have a much longer life expectancy.

Next slide, please. This slide pretty much speaks for itself. It's a little movie that we'll share with you if you could push play.

That is not a hurricane. That is a regular storm that we receive in Swampscott very often with the wind coming from the southeast, and that view was taken from the porch of the fish house where the Swampscott Yacht Club resides. Next slide, please.

Number four. Oh, we could do that again. That's fine.

[Speaker 31] (29:21 - 29:24)
I think we skipped another slide.

[Speaker 4] (29:26 - 29:48)
No? I think we're in the wrong version, but that's okay. Let's go two more.

One more. Yes. This slide just shows you some of the deterioration of the pilings that we're going to be dealing with, and I'm going to turn it over to some of our experts to tell you exactly what it is you're looking at.

[Speaker 10] (29:49 - 30:38)
Sure. I'll just point out very quickly. The picture on the left, you can see that the timber, it's kind of lost some of its shape.

It's much softer. You can see where the moisture has grown on it to soften some of it. But more importantly to show, it's at low tide.

You can see the pilings on the right. For one, they're deformed. They're not an even kind of taper that they would normally have on a typical piling.

And also the wrap that's on them should really be extended throughout the whole intertidal zone, and you can barely even see it on the top on the left and on the ones in the back that they just get so battered and beaten up. So those wraps that are supposed to protect the pilings aren't there, and they're not functioning as it was intended. But again, due to the age of the pier, that's not an uncommon situation.

[Speaker 17] (30:39 - 31:21)
And just to add to what John was saying, is a typical pier design and construction has a 50-year design life. And so we are approaching and are past the design life of this pier. So it's not unusual that we're seeing the kind of wear and tear that we're seeing with the storm that Jackson showed.

There's severe stress on the pier, and we can't predict exactly how many more of those storms it's going to take to really start to wreak havoc on the structure and the foundation of the pier, but it won't be too much longer before we really need to do something very serious here in town to be able to continue to use that pier.

[Speaker 4] (31:21 - 32:09)
Before we back up one slide, in terms of the design of the pier, the boards that go across that you walk on are supposed to be nailed down into the support structure underneath. Ours have been lag bolted. So whenever a wave comes in and pushes up, it's supposed to break the wood that you walk on away, but instead it pulls everything up out of the sand, because it's lag bolted in, if you understand what I'm trying to say.

So it's supposed to break away, but it doesn't. So there's issues with the design, and the design that we're dealing with does not help the longevity of that pier. So if we could back up one slide, I think.

What's been occurring? Yeah, thank you very much. You guys want to take this one?

[Speaker 10] (32:12 - 34:08)
Yeah, so as Jackson mentioned the last time he was here, the town had applied for a grant from the Seaport Economic Council from the state, and they were able to get some funding to do a feasibility study and to look into some activities. So that's what we've been doing in this past year. Some of the things that we did, we did a condition survey, both in the water and on the land to get the topography and the bathymetry in the area.

We did some borings to understand the geotechnical subsurface conditions for if a new pier needs to be designed, how to calculate the bearing capacity and all the structural assessment for it. And most notably we did an assessment of the eelgrass in the harbor over this past summer to document it. We'll go into that a little bit later about how the development of the eelgrass, because that has an implication on some of the permitting issues that will go forward.

We laid out, in some of our public meetings with the HWAC, we did some conceptual layouts for different options and kind of walked through the good and the bad of those, what we liked about it. We had presented seven different options and we've kind of narrowed it down to two now. We've worked with the regulators to go through some of the environmental issues.

There are some environmentally sensitive areas in there that will dictate how we approach certain things when work can get done and how we'll approach the pier. So we've been reaching out, working closely with the regulators on that to make sure that we're in step. And then, as Jackson mentioned, there's been a lot of public meetings.

The HWAC's been very up front and forward about presenting the project and trying to get it out there. And we have to get a report into the state at the end of the grant, at the end of the year, to close out the grant. So there's a summary coming up, but that will be available after it's gone into the state for folks to review.

It's a pretty thorough document to go through all the steps and the analysis that we've conducted for this project so far.

[Speaker 4] (34:10 - 34:20)
Next slide, please. And one more. There we go.

You can see on this map of the harbor different colored lines. And this outlines the eelgrass study that was done.

[Speaker 10] (34:21 - 34:48)
John, is it the orange line or the yellow line? It goes back all the way to 1995. It's kind of those smaller circles you'll see around the pier.

And then in 2001, it kind of waned a little bit. But then ever since 2001, they do about every five years there's been a study done, a documentation. You can see it's ever expanding over the years in this year.

You can see how much larger it has expanded.

[Speaker 4] (34:50 - 36:31)
Yeah, and mapping of the eelgrass species. Next slide, please. That's not the next slide.

Okay. This is one of the two designs that we came up with as one of the two designs we came up with out of the seven that we looked at. And in this one, you can see that the new pier is built parallel to the current pier.

The access to it comes right down to the current ramp that we have at the side so you would get access to the pier. The pier is wide enough to be able to accommodate emergency vehicles, which was one of the motivating factors for making it wide enough because I've had friends who've gotten into trouble out on the water and it took a long time for the emergency vehicles to take their cart all the way down at the end of the pier and then all the way back. We really need to grow up so that you can see that in this one, if we go with this design, on the left-hand side, there's a new boat ramp that would be built.

The current boat ramp isn't really serviceable except for one hour on either side of high tide so we would need to make a new pier. But in the axis of doing that, we would be losing a couple parking spaces that we needed. Good point.

[Speaker 17] (36:32 - 37:00)
And one of the reasons for building the pier next to the existing pier is so that the existing pier can continue to be used while the construction of the new pier is going on. Otherwise, we'd have to demolish the old pier and it would be unusable for however long it took to build a new pier, which could be a full season with that.

[Speaker 4] (37:01 - 38:59)
This one, the pier, is positioned on the cut between the end of the parking lot and the green where we have that sandy area now where there were some plantings put in place. It's actually attached to the green park so that you could have access walking right from the green park right on to the pier. So handicap accessibility would be a non-issue and you could have emergency access coming straight down the hill then right on to the pier and the fishermen or the emergency vehicles could also go through the parking lot, take a left-hand turn, go up the ramp, and they would be on the pier as well.

These are the two designs of the seven that we came up with that we thought were the best of the seven, best of two options out of the seven that we picked. You'll notice also in this drawing there's a berm in front of the fish house that's been put in place to protect the fish house from damaging storms. Okay.

So in closing, we recognize that the pier is an iconic part of the waterfront used and enjoyed by the residents of Swampscott. We want that tradition to continue and be improved for both pleasure and utility but also a design that can weather the storms, rising sea levels, and environmental changes. We now want to hear from the community.

Our meetings are open. We will be scheduling public meetings going forward just like we have in the past. But this is, we came up with the designs.

We now want to hear your thoughts on what you think of these and maybe some embellishments that you might have and thank you very much for your time.

[Speaker 2] (39:00 - 39:13)
Thank you, gentlemen. We have a brief discussion from the I believe it's called the Solid Waste Advisory Committee about a survey that they have going on.

[Speaker 19] (39:29 - 40:15)
Hi, good evening. Wayne Spritz, chair of the Solid Waste Advisory Committee, Precinct 3. I actually wasn't expecting to speak but just wanted to let you know that we have first of its kind trash survey for the community.

You can get to it from the main town webpage. And if you just type, if you don't see it on the front you can just type in trash survey or you can take that QR code and I have some extra little flyers I was handing around maybe you can share it with your neighbors. And we'd appreciate if you could take the survey.

There's 11 or 12 questions with whatever feedback you'd like to give. We're just trying to get kind of the pulse of the community and that way it allows us to actually help make good policy for the town. The trash.

[Speaker 2] (40:16 - 40:18)
When are you looking to close the survey by?

[Speaker 19] (40:18 - 40:24)
December 10th. It automatically closes. So, we'd appreciate your input.

[Speaker 2] (40:25 - 40:32)
Thank you, Mr. Spritz and the members of the Solid Waste Advisory Council. We have a presentation from the planning board.

[Speaker 3] (40:42 - 48:37)
Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Hi, everyone. I'm Angela Ippolito.

I'm the chair of the planning board. And we're presenting for a couple of minutes at the beginning of town meeting tonight just to talk about housing. Some sort of big housing things that are happening here in Swampscott.

Whether they be ongoing projects or initiatives and we want to make sure that everyone knows about them. First thing I'm going to mention to you is that we are updating our housing production plan. We initially created a housing production plan in 2016.

It was done in conjunction with the adoption of our master plan which we completed in 2015. And the housing production plans are required to be updated every five years. So we should have had it updated already but we had COVID and a few other delays and we're in the process of updating it now.

So using grant funding, a consultant was hired and with the assistance of working group comprised of town staff and volunteers and the consultant, we will prepare the updated housing production plan and include the following components in compliance with state law. So it will include comprehensive housing needs and demand assessment based on current census data, population trends, labor and workforce trends and regional growth factors including an analysis of the town's demographics, the housing stock, including our current MGL chapter 40B subsidized housing inventory units, housing affordability across a range of households and incomes, real estate trends and supply demand analysis. So we'll also review and update the 2016 production plan's visions and goals because obviously they may have changed since then. So please stay tuned for more information.

There will be a public meeting where we'll invite public participation and we'll hopefully get people involved in giving us their opinions of what their thoughts might be and any goals that they feel that we need to add. So what is a housing production plan anyway and what's the value of it? An approved housing production plan is required for the town to be able to seek housing choice designation capital grants.

This year there's over $10 million in state funding committed to that. The housing choice designation provides priority access to many commonwealth grants and capital funding programs including mass works, complete streets, mass dot, capital projects, land and park grants. So the housing production plan is a proactive strategy for planning and developing housing that meets community needs while making progress towards our 10% affordable housing target which is set for every community in Massachusetts.

We have already implemented several of the strategies recommended in our original plan including the adoption of an inclusionary zoning bylaw and the establishment of an affordable housing trust. So at three square miles and as a pretty old and built out community, it's questionable whether Swampscott will ever achieve its 10% target but with our housing production plan and plans throughout the town, we are hoping to make some progress and we have made progress. The school that was completed last year brought us to 4.3% of affordable housing inventory and there are several other big projects that are permitted. One of them is currently permitted and the other is in the pipeline. We have the project that many of you are familiar with. Those units will contribute 48 affordable units to be rented to eligible households, earning no more than 80% AMI and that particular development will bring us to 6.3%. We also have a proposed development on Pine Street that would bring in two more affordable units and we have the general Glover property that will bring us another 17 affordable units. So this is a perfect segue for me to bring up the general Glover project. As you may recall, last June, this body voted to adopt zoning, new zoning, an overlay for the general Glover property, 299 Salem Street. That property was zoned.

It was already a 40R project. We created an overlay district so that we could create high density development in that area. Marblehead is also developing their portion of it.

So it's about three acres altogether, roughly two acres in buildings. There will be 44 units in Marblehead and 96 units in Swamp Scott. We've already had three public meetings, and I have to say, with the importance and the impact of a project like this, I would hope that we would have more public participation, so I wanted to make sure I brought this up tonight.

We have another very important public hearing, which will be held next Monday, December 12th, here in this building at B129, where we will be meeting to review traffic among other issues, and this will obviously need a lot of participation from town and other experts in this, in the field of circulation and so forth. We also have some amazing historical artifacts that we are hoping to be able to preserve from this site. I know that a lot of you are familiar with the old General Glover House restaurant that was there.

Many of you aren't, and you drive by that site and you say, oh, it's just a big mess, but at one time it was really a fabulous restaurant there, and prior to that, it was actually General John Glover's home. It was given or awarded, partially awarded to him after his contribution in the Revolutionary War, and he lived there in the last years of his life. Most of the original house that he lived in is still on the property, sort of glommed onto, but we hope to be able to salvage some artifacts, if any, that still exist, and there's some great information about that that we've uploaded to our OneDrive.

There's more information you can look at on the Community Development website. If you have any questions about trying to sort out and find that information, you can contact Community Development, where you'll also be able to see a copy of our existing housing production plan. So lots of really great housing stuff for your reading pleasure, and I hope you'll all take part and enjoy that.

I am going to now introduce my colleague and vice chair of the Planning Board, Dave Zucker, who is going to talk about our MAPC zoning. I'm not MAPC. I always say that.

MBTA Community.

[Speaker 14] (48:43 - 50:50)
Thank you, Angela. I'm Dave Zucker, precinct 6, member of the Planning Board, and I'm going to take one minute tonight to introduce new state law regarding MBTA zoning and what it means for our town. So this new state law is essentially a mandate throughout the state that allows for and requires changes in zoning that allow for more housing, with the idea being that more housing means cheaper housing.

That's at its base the idea behind the law. So what we will be doing is creating an overlay that allows for multifamily housing in certain areas with close proximity to public transportation. What the law requires, we are defined as a rapid transit community, which requires that we need 20 acres in the district, 20 percent of which needs to be in the area of the train station.

And, again, that is what the law requires. Only that we have zoning. Not that we build anything specifically, but that we have zoning that allows multifamily use as of right in the 20 acres throughout town.

As I said, obviously, 20 percent of this needs to be around the train station, but the remainder can be in proximity to bus routes, doesn't all need to be just related to the train station. And the timeframe is that the zoning has to be in place by December 31, 2024. Originally there was a much quicker timeline on that, but I think the state recently expanded that out understanding it's going to take town some time to make these zoning changes.

We just, I think, today found out that we will be receiving a grant through the Massachusetts housing partnership to work with a consultant on this zoning, so we're excited about that. And essentially the plan is that right now we'll be reporting to the state in January on where we are in the process, which is just at the beginning, but we'll be holding some community meetings starting early next year, so that's what to look out for at this point as we'll be seeking community input on what the zoning changes should look like. Thank you.

[Speaker 3] (50:54 - 51:02)
And I'm going to introduce also Michael Procia, who is also a member of the planning board who's going to give you a brief update as well.

[Speaker 16] (51:05 - 52:54)
Hi everyone, I'm Michael Procia, a planning board member, precinct one, so I've been on the planning board since 2019 and we've been batting around updates to our current zoning bylaw on accessory dwelling units. Yes, accessory dwelling units are in our current bylaw. They exist only in existing buildings and within them, in the interior.

What is an ATU, right? So let's back up a second. We're looking to make an update to this bylaw, modernize it a little bit.

An ATU, an accessory dwelling unit, truly is accessory to the principal use, the principal house. Often times it has the same address. Often times it has the same utilities, the same trash.

So the benefit of these smaller accessory units within another house, it's not a two-family. It's not an Airbnb. It's a way for people to age in place potentially.

It's a way for young families to have a place where they can share a property with someone in an interesting way that we don't necessarily see a lot in single-family zoning. So the ATU is a flexible housing type, and it's, you know, we talked about big A affordable housing with Angela, but this is potentially small A affordable housing by offering housing choice within town. So we're looking to make that update, and we're looking for your feedback on that.

And the first community meeting is January 30, 2023, and we'll be holding community meetings throughout the spring with the intention to get this something before this body by the May 2023 town meeting. So look out for that. Really excited about it, and thank you for your time.

[Speaker 3] (52:58 - 53:23)
Thank you all very much for your time. I'm just going to make one more comment, which is with all this talk about multifamily housing and increasing units and zoning-free units, I really think it's important to point out the extraordinary efforts that the town leadership have gone through to acquire and maintain open space in this town. And I know there will be talk about this later in the meeting, but I do want to point that out.

There's a lot of balance going on.

[Speaker 2] (53:28 - 55:31)
Thank you very much. I appreciate everyone's eagerness to get on with the meeting. I hope these informational presentations were helpful.

There's one more thing I would like to share with the meeting. It's my unfortunate opportunity to recognize the passing of two long-time town meeting members, Henry Dombowski and Myron Stone, both of whom served for many, many years. Mr. Dombowski first elected in 1982, spent time all over this community helping with the gridiron club, helping with regional theater, participating as an election worker. He was a true Swanscot spirit aficionado. Similarly, Mr. Stone, who was active in the booster club and, as a matter of fact, attended the Swanscot Marblehead old-timers' dinner, which he had helped organize for a number of years the night before he passed away. I feel a personal connection to both of them.

Myron Stone was Mr. Dombowski's son, was coaching the football team when my sons were on it, and I worked with him on fundraising. And Mr. Stone's wife, Roz, once a long-time town meeting member, a long time ago, taught my kids to swim. And they're both part of the fabric of this community that will be missed.

And I want you all to take a moment to think about people who've served that long and what it means, what you're doing, sitting here tonight, serving your community. Turn to the person next to you, thank them, and let's have a moment of silence. And with that, I will call the meeting formally to order and ask the clerk to read the return on the warrant.

[Speaker 25] (55:37 - 55:52)
In accordance with Article 1, Section 2 of the Bylaws of the Town of Swampscott, town meeting members were mailed their warrant and copies were posted in at least two places in each precinct around town and in the vicinity of the train station.

[Speaker 2] (55:56 - 57:01)
Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Now, if you will those who care to, may rise and recite the pledge of allegiance to our flag with me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

One last bit of housekeeping. We've had a few new town meeting members take seats. Are there any here tonight who have not been sworn in?

Any new town meeting members who have not been sworn in? Okay. Then I feel comfortable proceeding.

That brings us to Article 1. Article 1, which amends the appropriation for the fiscal year 2023 operating budget. Mr. Hartman.

[Speaker 1] (57:06 - 57:28)
Good evening, Eric. I'm Eric Hartman, town meeting member of Precinct 1, chair of the Finance Committee. The Finance Committee recommends the town vote to amend the fiscal year 2023 departmental budget as shown in the printed warrant and further to raise and appropriate the sum of $31,603 for such purposes.

I move the recommendation of the Finance Committee.

[Speaker 2] (57:29 - 57:31)
Is there a second? Thank you. Mr. Hartman.

[Speaker 1] (57:34 - 1:00:09)
So the purpose of this article is really to handle a few different items, some of which were discussed in the town meeting in April or in the spring. The article proposes changes to both the general fund and to some enterprise funds. If we start with the changes to the general fund, the article proposes that we reallocate $130,050 of monies out of the salary reserve line item and into the appropriate line items as detailed in the warrant.

The use of the salary reserve dollars was discussed and voted on in the April town meeting and the general fund when we were dealing with funding some of the collective bargaining agreements that had been settled. The collective bargaining agreements needed $93,810 out of the salary reserve line item, and another $36,239 was needed to fund some other non-union cost items. So much of this article is really just housekeeping.

It's things we've already talked about and removing the dollars from a reserve account to the appropriate budget line items. In addition to this reallocation portion of the article, the article proposes to increase the 2023 budget for the regional vocational tech line item. This is because when we set the budget back in the spring, we had an estimate for what the cost of the school would cost, Swampscott, and we've now received the actual assessment, which is $31,603 higher than we had in the budget.

The town finance team reports that the expectation is that certain revenue amounts will be higher this year, so we expect to have enough revenue surplus to cover the $31,603 that's in this article. The article also has some other reductions to the water and sewer enterprise funds. These changes are also due to now having received actual assessments, whereas in the spring, when we set the budget, we had estimates.

This is good news for the town, as the assessment has come in lower from both the MWRA by about $200,000, and the MWRA water assessment came in lower than what was in our original budget by $190,095. So, as I said, these are both favorable to the town because the assessments are lower, and the intent is that we would let the benefit of these reduced assessments help with limiting any increase in our water and sewer rates.

[Speaker 2] (1:00:10 - 1:00:40)
Thank you, Mr. Hartman. Any discussions or comments? Seeing none, Mr. Hartman's motion for the recommendation of the Finance Committee. Seeing none, all those in favor of Mr. Hartman's motion, please raise your hand. All those opposed? The motion carries unanimously.

We come to Article 2, approving a transfer of monies to adjust tax rates or offset the levy, as the case may be. Mr. Hartman.

[Speaker 1] (1:00:40 - 1:01:04)
The Finance Committee recommends that the town vote to transfer $1,250,000 vote to transfer $1,250,000 from pre-cash, $1,000,000 from general stabilization, and $320,000 from capital stabilization to the account of current revenue to be used and applied by the Board of Assessors in the reduction of the tax levy for fiscal year 23. I move the recommendation of the Finance Committee.

[Speaker 2] (1:01:05 - 1:01:07)
Having a second? Please proceed.

[Speaker 1] (1:01:08 - 1:09:02)
So this article is a recurring article that we talk about every year, where we discuss how much free cash and or stabilization funds the town would like to use to help limit the increase in the tax rate. This year, we have to also consider the additional impact of the debt service on the new elementary school. But I just want to be clear when we start talking about this article, that we're talking about the total tax rate for the town.

We're not just talking about the school impact. So this article is everything. It's the impact of the school and the general increase in town government expenses.

I also wanted to take a minute just to mention that, while it's not uncommon for information that is needed to make decisions like this to kind of come at the last minute before when we're up against the town meeting, and that this meeting was really no exception to that rule. And as an example, even though our Town Finance Committee completed and filed our free cash certification with the state several weeks before the due date, we only received, the town only received the certification from the state last week. And also, as numbers over the last week or so, some people might have been listening in or watching the Select Board or Finance Committee meetings, and numbers were changing.

So it's kind of been, you know, reactive as numbers were double-checked and reviewed. I'm pointing this out really because there might be some numbers you might have remembered from meetings we talked about, and those numbers might be a little bit different than what you hear tonight. In fact, we actually had some slight changes to the Select Board meeting and then Finance Committee meeting that happened at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., respectively, tonight, before our meeting. So from a free cash perspective, as I said, the town recently received its free cash certification from the state. The good news is that it was certified at $3.63 million, which is, was kind of on the higher end of what we were expecting. And it's actually a couple hundred thousand dollars higher than the town's, what the town's financial guidelines would hope to carry.

Our general stabilization and capital stabilization reserves are also within the current town financial guidelines. So when the new school was voted on and approved as a debt exclusion by town meeting and the town, the models at the time anticipated that we would use reserves over the life of the bond to try to limit the maximum impact on the median single-family home tax bill to $300. The use of reserves is was always expected to be higher in early years, as the debt from the new high school and the police department would be reducing in future years.

But since those original models were developed, certainly a lot of things have happened in the global economic environment. The interest rates began to change. They've been rising all year and are expected to rise again in just a couple of weeks.

So in response to this, the town made the decision to issue the bonds for the school earlier than we had originally anticipated. This was in order to lock in a lower interest rate. And this action has saved the town approximately $10 million over the life of the bond.

So we took action, we floated the bonds early, this was beneficial. But what that did do is it did accelerate some of the debt service payments into the current year because we borrowed the money sooner. So we have to deal with that as well.

But as town meeting members will remember, over the last many years, the town has been focused on controlling our spending and the growth of the budget in order to help build up our reserves. And the reserves are really there to help offset some of the larger fiscal challenges that are facing the town, including the cost of financing the new school. So our free cash, general stabilization, and capital stabilizations are all currently sit either within or slightly higher than the financial guidelines that the town has set.

So this favorable reserve position really gives us options to help control the increase in the tax rate. As I said, this is an exercise we do every year, and it's a bit of a balancing act. I can't say there's a right answer, how much we decide to use, because we're trying to balance use of reserve with the increase in the tax rate, but not wanting to empty all of our reserve funds for the sake of one year.

So the finance committee reviewed multiple options that were put forth by town finance staff. We considered and debated several levels of reserve use. The first goal was to utilize reserves in a way that would limit the impact, specifically on the new elementary school debt, as I mentioned earlier, so that the impact to the median single family taxpayer would only be $300.

The second goal was to maintain acceptable levels of reserves in our reserve funds, heading into 2024 and beyond. So the finance committee's recommendation is to use 1.25 million of free cash, along with $1 million of stabilization reserve, and $320,000 of capital reserve, for a total of $2.57 million. We feel that the proposed use in this article achieves both of those objectives.

This impact brings the impact to the median single family home for the entire tax rate to $483, of which $300 of that increase is due to the debt service on the new school, and the remaining $183 relates to general government increases, the general operating plan increases. If we look, again, as I said, if we look at our reserves now, whereas earlier I said we started the, before we take action on this article, we were either well within, or in some cases ahead of our reserve levels, this brings every one of them right to the lower level of our range. So we thought it was prudent to do that, to not necessarily dip further into those reserves.

We certainly have the option to do that. But for this year, if we think about what happens in a typical year, we don't always have a new school, and the debt service coming from a new school. We always have some kind of tax increase to deal with, and we typically talk, do we have, are we in a position to use some reserves to limit that amount of money increase?

So for example, last year we used 1.25 million of free cash in an attempt to limit the tax rate increase. But this year, as I mentioned, we're gonna use 2.57 million, but two million of that is specifically for the school debt. So another way to look at it is that we're only using another 570,000 to mitigate the general operating fund increase.

So not as much as we did last year, which is in part why that number, the $183 that relates to general town government is higher than we might otherwise expect. So as I said, this was debated quite a bit by members of the finance team, and if anybody watched the select board meeting, there were similar debates and discussions. Do we know that it's the right answer?

I think it's a bit subjective. I mean, we could choose to put more, but we know there's a lot of unknowns. This is the first year of covering the debt for the new school with inflation and other things that are going on.

We felt that this was a good middle ground where we keep our reserves where they need to be, but also use a significant amount of money to limit the growth in the tax rate.

[Speaker 2] (1:09:03 - 1:09:31)
Thank you, Mr. Hartman. I do wanna particularly thank the town finance staff and finance committee, the select board, for working so hard over this weekend to come to a conclusion on this, especially given the late date of getting the numbers from the state. With that, discussion on Mr. Hartman's motion, the recommendation of the finance committee for the use of $2.57 million from various stabilization. Mr. Grant.

[Speaker 24] (1:09:35 - 1:09:48)
Ken Grant, Precinct Five. Excellent idea to have locked in our bond rate when we did. That presumably gave us an amount of cash that could be invested.

[Speaker 1] (1:09:48 - 1:09:49)
Yes.

[Speaker 24] (1:09:49 - 1:09:58)
That amount is being invested potentially equal to or greater than the interest rate that's being charged, and is that right? Is that the case?

[Speaker 1] (1:09:59 - 1:10:09)
So yes, we do have use of that money. It was invested, and we are having a much higher than anticipated investment income for the town. So yes, that's important.

[Speaker 24] (1:10:09 - 1:10:20)
Therefore, the logic of that is that that has improved our revenue, and therefore indirectly at least reduced our tax for next year.

[Speaker 1] (1:10:20 - 1:10:30)
That's correct. We've recognized about, we planned for about 200,000, and we've got about closer to a million dollars in expected revenues from the investment income. Correct.

[Speaker 2] (1:10:31 - 1:11:15)
Thank you, Mr. Grant. Other comments or questions for Mr. Hartman? Seeing none, the use of stabilization funds, whether they be general or capital, makes this a two-thirds vote.

So all of those in favor of Mr. Hartman's motion of the Finance Committee's recommendation to appropriate 1.25 million from free cash, one million from general stabilization, and 320,000 from capital stabilization, please raise your hand. All those opposed? The motion carries unanimously.

Moving now to Article III, Approving Transfer of Funds in Relation to Collective Bargaining Agreements. Mr. Hartman.

[Speaker 1] (1:11:19 - 1:15:11)
The Finance Committee recommends the town vote to transfer 59,965 from free cash to fund the cost of items contained in the first year of a collective bargaining agreement between the town of Swampscott and the International Association of Firefighters, Local 1459. I move the recommendation of the Finance Committee. Is there a second?

Mr. Hartman. So town meeting will recall that back at the annual town meeting in the spring, we voted to approve the use of free cash to fund some of the items in other collective bargaining agreements for the police union, library, and DPW, among others. At that time, the fire department negotiations were still ongoing, so there was no request at the annual town meeting.

But recently, the town and the fire department union executed a memorandum of understanding outlining a new three-year contract that would run retroactive to July 1st of 2022 through June 30th, 2025. Some key provisions of the contract include cost of living adjustments of 2.75% in year one and 2.5% in years two and three, a one-time payment of $4,500 that is in consideration of the firefighters' extraordinary service to the town during the pandemic, as well as in consideration of the settling of certain grievances that the union had filed against the town. It also includes a one-time $500 payment to each member who acted as a health agent during the pandemic.

It introduced a new hazardous materials stipend of $1,000 per member, which will increase to $1,500 per member in fiscal year 2024. It also provides for an additional holiday, as well as the creation of a civilian payroll clerk, which will eliminate a stipended role that firefighters used to do to handle work related to payroll. And lastly, it changed the maximum hiring range in the fire department to 35 years of age from 32.

Those are the highlights of the new contract. From what FinCom has been told, the negotiations have been long and challenging. They were already operating, the fire department was already operating on a one-year extension from their previously expired contract.

And there are some structural cost increases in this contract that will not only impact fiscal year 23 and the current requests that's in front of town meeting right now for free cash to help fund it, including the cost of living adjustments and the ongoing hazardous materials stipends that right now is gonna be, not just this year, but impact all the years as well. So for year number one in this contract, there's an additional $315,712 of costs that needs to be covered. Article three is requesting the use of $59,965 of free cash from town meeting.

The remaining funding sources would be $32,747, which we have monies in the salary reserve that can cover that, as well as the use of $223,000 of ARPA monies. So the Finance Committee's role to offer an opinion on this article is a bit challenging, as we're obviously not privy to the discussions and negotiations that happen at the bargaining table. And there are certainly costs that add recurring costs to the town's operating budget that gave a lot of us concern about this particular contract.

However, the cost of living adjustments in today's inflationary environment do not seem unreasonable. And the concern was that going back to the bargaining table would not necessarily in any way guarantee a more favorable outcome for the town.

[Speaker 2] (1:15:13 - 1:15:30)
Thank you, Mr. Hartman. Are there any comments or questions on Mr. Hartman's motion of the recommendation of the Finance Committee to use $59,965 of free cash to fund the cost of this contract? Mr. Hale.

[Speaker 22] (1:15:38 - 1:15:56)
Hi, Ryan Hale, Precinct Two. Maybe I missed a handout. Can you please explain what you said were the structural impact to the ongoing operating budget?

I heard you say $315,000 in year one. What percentage of the operating budget is that? And if that's not the right number, what are we signing up for here, please?

[Speaker 1] (1:15:57 - 1:16:27)
So what I mean from a structural perspective is that every year we try to limit the increase in our overall operating budget to 2% plus new growth. And this is a particular line item that's calling for a 2.75% increase just from the COLA. And then 2.5% in the other future years. So clearly those are gonna, in theory, take monies away from other areas in the budget in addition to the stipends. So that's gonna be a recurring cost that we don't have today at all. So that's just a new add that will cause structural issues in the other.

[Speaker 2] (1:16:30 - 1:17:04)
Thank you. Other comments or questions? All those in favor of Mr. Hartman's motion to appropriate $59,965 from free cash to fund this, the first year of the collective bargaining agreement, please raise your hand. Simple majority. All those opposed. The motion carries essentially unanimously.

Moving to Article Four. Establishing a compensated absence reserve fund. Mr. Hartman.

[Speaker 1] (1:17:04 - 1:17:45)
The Finance Committee recommends that the town vote to accept the provisions of General Law Chapter 40, Paragraph 13D to establish a compensated absence reserve fund for the future payment of accrued liabilities for compensated absences due to any employee or full-time officer of the town upon termination of employment and to designate the town administrator as a town official authorized to make payments from said fund. And further to transfer the sum of $150,000 from free cash to the compensated absences reserve fund established here under.

I move the recommendation of the Finance Committee.

[Speaker 2] (1:17:47 - 1:17:48)
Mr. Hartman.

[Speaker 1] (1:17:51 - 1:20:02)
So as the warrant language states, this article is to create a reserve fund that will be used to help smooth out the impact on the operating budget for costs associated with certain end of employment benefits that need to be paid when employees leave the service of the town. So when employees decide to retire, the town needs to have an operating expense in the years that the employee will retire to cover these employment benefits. And the benefits have in many cases been earned over many years.

So if many town employees decide to retire in one particular year, this expense can have a large impact on the overall annual operating budget, again, as we try to limit it to 2% plus new growth. So not having this fund can also limit the town's ability to encourage an early retirement when it might be financially beneficial for the town to do so, because the town would not have sufficient budget to cover these end of employment benefits. So the article requests the creation of a fund and an initial funding of $150,000 from free cash.

This is the only year that we would fund this from free cash, so going forward, the town administrator would take into account the balance in the reserve account, look into whatever crystal ball he has to determine who may be retiring that year and what kind of end of year benefits he may need, but it also gives us some flexibility. So not every year, if we have a large wave of retirements, does all of that expense have to flow through the current year budget. We discussed how much this should be.

FinCom initially went with the town administrator's original recommendation of $250,000, again, coming from free cash. When the select board met today, they discussed and agreed to knock the number down to $150,000, and FinCom was in agreement with that. We weren't strongly feeling about the $250,000.

That was just a result of what the administrator had recommended. The other thing I should mention is certainly these numbers, this $150,000 and the other free cash I mentioned before are already taken into account when I mentioned that we'll still be at the bottom level of our reserve levels for free cash and all of our reserves.

[Speaker 2] (1:20:03 - 1:20:06)
Bottom level, meaning inside the recommended band.

[Speaker 1] (1:20:07 - 1:20:08)
Right, lower end of the band.

[Speaker 2] (1:20:08 - 1:20:14)
Lower end of the band. Thank you, Mr. Hartman. Any questions or comments?

Yes, Ms. O'Connor.

[Speaker 29] (1:20:18 - 1:20:27)
Amy O'Connor, Precinct Six, also a member of the school committee. I'm wondering if it's fair to assume that this town employees includes our school employees.

[Speaker 2] (1:20:30 - 1:20:35)
I will defer to the town administrator. Hang on, one minute.

[Speaker 20] (1:20:39 - 1:21:32)
You can't hear me? Yeah, go ahead. Sorry.

There it is. Amy, right now it doesn't include the school employees. I do hope to have conversations with the superintendent about sharing some of these financial tools.

Ultimately, there are a lot of ongoing conversations that I'm having with the superintendent about shared town and school costs. So this is just an opportunity for us to really continue to share some of those dialogues. But at this point, after discussing this with the select board, this will be just for the town employees.

And again, these are huge structural costs in a small town budget. If we have a retirement, it could be 30, $40,000. And again, many of our small departments have programs that really would be impacted if we were in a tight fiscal year.

[Speaker 2] (1:21:34 - 1:21:37)
Thank you, Mr. Town Administrator. Yes, Ms. Harrell.

[Speaker 18] (1:21:38 - 1:22:04)
I do just wanna clarify for everyone that the end of employment costs for school employees is still covered in the regular operating budget of the town. This does not shift that burden onto the school. It just currently precludes them from being able to use the reserve funds.

But in the regular budget cycle, we will still be working with the school for known retirements and funding those in the general fund. So that does not shift anything onto the school operating budget.

[Speaker 2] (1:22:05 - 1:22:14)
Thank you, Ms. Harrell. Sir, I can't make you out back there. Is that Mr. Ehrlich?

[Speaker 30] (1:22:15 - 1:22:24)
No, I'm an Ehrlich, Precinct Six. I'd just like someone to explain what the end of employment benefits are. So we know what we're voting on.

[Speaker 2] (1:22:24 - 1:22:34)
Sure, thank you, Ms. Harrell, great question. I don't see the Town Administrator, Assistant Town Administrator, Head of HR, but I believe Ms. Harrell can ably answer.

[Speaker 18] (1:22:35 - 1:22:56)
So our end of employment cost is typically referred to as a sick leave buyback. It's a percentage of the employees accrued sick leave that they had over the lifetime of their employment, depending on which bargaining unit they're a part of, is tasked at either a dollar amount or a number of days, and a percentage of their pay, typically about 20% of their pay.

[Speaker 2] (1:23:00 - 1:23:03)
Thank you, Ms. Harrell. Mr. Pastor.

[Speaker 21] (1:23:08 - 1:23:51)
Good evening, Glenn Pastor, Precinct Two, Chair of the School Committee. I'd like to make a motion to indefinitely postpone this article. I agree with the Town Administrator that ongoing conversations should happen with the school department.

It seems at this point, we may not be ready to roll this out. Since the school department is the largest employer of the town, and the retirements probably have the biggest impact, that I think we should indefinitely postpone until the administrator and the superintendent have an opportunity to talk, and maybe raise this compensation from 150 to 250. It just doesn't seem it's ready for prime time at this point.

[Speaker 2] (1:23:53 - 1:24:10)
Thank you, Mr. Pastor. I'm not gonna recognize the motion to amend to indefinitely postpone. It's much simpler for everyone to follow here.

If we just defeat this motion, there will be no active action taken. Thank you. Thank you.

Any further discussion? Yes, sir, Mr. Pielot.

[Speaker 27] (1:24:16 - 1:24:39)
Hi, Dennis Pielot, Precinct Four. Do we have any estimates over the last three years, five years, or whatever, of how much this has cost us? Again, the drop from 250 to 150 just seems pretty significant.

And then, is there any, some businesses have a cap, have a cap of just like 2,000 sick hours or whatever. Are there any caps like that that exist for us, or has there been any discussion around capping that?

[Speaker 2] (1:24:39 - 1:24:44)
Sure, obviously that would come as part of the collective bargaining agreement, but Ms. Herr, I think you have some estimates.

[Speaker 18] (1:24:44 - 1:25:10)
So, the average over the last five years has been $149,648, so the 150 does cover us. As for the collective bargaining agreements, each of them has their own cap. So, we have some that are capped at 250 days, 200 days.

We also have some that are capped at dollar amounts, such as $8,500. All of them are stated at 20% of their daily rate of pay, up to those caps.

[Speaker 2] (1:25:12 - 1:25:14)
Thank you, Ms. Serra. Mr. Spellios?

[Speaker 6] (1:25:23 - 1:27:34)
Good evening, Peter Spellios, member of the Select Board, Precinct 3. On behalf of the Select Board, I'm here tonight to express the Select Board's support for the motion made by the Finance Committee for this article. This raises some really interesting topics, and I hope town meeting has the opportunity to spend more time talking about it, to understand the inherent costs of contracts.

When we stand up here and we talk about contracts, there's so much to it, and I think there isn't a Select Board member, a Finance Committee member, or even a town meeting member who has gotten schooled in these things that isn't surprised when they look into it, not because people don't deserve good contracts, just because of the complicated nature of these contracts. And those of us in the private sector who think our business savviness really works well when you come to the public sector, well, it's different, and there are different rules, and one of the things that we should take a look at is the complexity of these contracts, including buybacks. It is an enormous amount of money that the town, at times, unforeseeably needs to pay.

Absent a fund like this, you pay it from other programs. That's just the simple answer of it. What the town administrator's trying to say is help us with that lumpiness.

In those years, in those periods, we have a greater amount of retirements, or we have some unforeseen retirements. Instead of punishing the operating budget and taking away from other programming or other needs in their town, create this reserve fund to do it. I appreciate the chair of the school committee expressing his opinion in opposition to this, that it should wait.

Well, I don't think it should wait. The town is ready to move forward here. I think it's necessary.

The town budget, which is a smaller portion compared to the school budget, so therefore, and all those expenses happen to be on the town side currently, when a police officer or a firefighter or a DPW worker that's been here for 30 years retires with a big lead bank or sick bank to cash in, it's very punitive on a budget. I agree, conversations should go forward, and I'm really excited that the head of finance, Amy Sorrow, had such a great working relationship with the most recent business manager for the school, and we're excited for the new business manager of the school to pick up those conversations and continue those, but in the interim, it's in the best interest of the town to pass this. Thank you.

[Speaker 2] (1:27:35 - 1:28:31)
Thank you, Mr. Spillios. Further comments or questions? All those in favor of Mr. Hartman's motion, the recommendation of the Finance Committee to accept this provision and establish a compensated, I'm sorry. No, I'm recognizing that motion. If you wish to indefinitely postpone this, just vote against this motion. All those in favor of accepting the provisions, establishing the fund, and transferring the sum of $150,000 for free cash, please raise your hand.

All those opposed? It is close to unanimous. Coming to Article Five.

General bylaws regarding our revolving funds. Ms. McNerney.

[Speaker 5] (1:28:32 - 1:29:25)
Senator McNerney, precinct four town meeting member and member of the town finance committee. The Finance Committee recommends that the town vote to amend general laws, general bylaws, article 21, section two, to establish the annual spending limit for the recreation department revolving fund in accordance with general laws chapter 44, section 53E and a half, with such updated expenditure limit to be applicable for each fiscal year until such time as town meeting votes prior to July one in any year, to increase the same for the ensuing fiscal year, provided however that at the request of the entity authorized to expend such funds, the select board with the approval of the Finance Committee may increase such limit for that fiscal year only, all as set forth in the printed warrant. I move the recommendation of the Finance Committee.

[Speaker 2] (1:29:25 - 1:29:27)
Your second? Thank you, Ms. McNerney.

[Speaker 5] (1:29:28 - 1:31:20)
You'll notice on page four of the warrant, Article Five, shows the program that we're talking about here, the recreation revolving fund, the limit on spending for the recreation revolving fund was previously set at $300,000, and this article is asking to increase the amount for the recreation revolving fund to $500,000 as the spending limit going forward. And the reason why the motion, this motion is being made to increase the limit is because the recreation department, revolving fund rather, at this point, spent close to that limit in fiscal 22, it spent $266,000, but it's actually sitting on a reserve position of excess revenue that's come in over the years of $288,000 that it can't spend when it's already up against its cap. You'll notice this is tied to Article Six.

In Article Six, I'll just mention right now that there's a recreation sailboats and standup paddleboard amount of $40,641, which in that article, we're gonna recommend taking it out so that in Article Five, this $288,000 reserve position that the revolving fund is sitting on, a portion of that could be used to buy that capital itself. And if in fact the program allows the revolving fund to be set at $500,000, then the programs can be expanded the way they have been, they also can pay their own way with regard to certain other kinds of things, including capital going forward. So that's the reasoning for it, and it will change Article Six if in fact we vote favorably, which we're recommending on Article Five.

[Speaker 2] (1:31:21 - 1:31:58)
Thank you, Ms. McNerney. Are there questions about Ms. McNerney's motion for the Finance Committee's recommendation increasing the rec department's ability to spend the fees and monies it receives in its revolving account? All those in favor of Ms. McNerney's motion?

All those opposed? It's unanimous. Now as previewed by Ms. McNerney, Article Six, the capital projects. Ms. McNerney. This is gonna be a long one, hang in guys.

[Speaker 5] (1:32:02 - 1:32:04)
Am I expected to read all of this?

[Speaker 2] (1:32:05 - 1:32:06)
I need you to, I'm sorry.

[Speaker 5] (1:32:07 - 1:32:14)
Okay. Sorry. Last time I read it, I don't think anybody wanted me to read it that long.

[Speaker 2] (1:32:14 - 1:32:16)
I will do my best to summarize afterward.

[Speaker 5] (1:32:16 - 1:32:24)
To see if the town will vote to raise an appropriate transfer from available funds or borrow the necessary funds to pay costs of various capital projects.

[Speaker 2] (1:32:26 - 1:32:27)
Oh, you showed them.

[Speaker 5] (1:32:28 - 1:32:32)
Oh, yes, sorry, sorry. Oh, it's even worse.

[Speaker 2] (1:32:33 - 1:32:34)
Yes, yes it is.

[Speaker 5] (1:32:35 - 1:34:16)
It's really bad. All right, the Finance Committee recommends that the town vote to A, appropriate the sum of $208,885 for the purpose of designing, improving, renovating, and equipping Abbott Playground located on Paradise Road in Swampscott. Project number one, including all costs incidental or related thereto, and that to meet this appropriation, the treasurer with the approval of the select board is authorized to borrow $208,885 under Mass.

General Laws Chapter 44 or any other enabling authority and to issue bonds and notes of the town therefore, provided, however, that no funds shall be expended until the town has received a grant commitment or allocation for a portion of such costs under the park grant program and or under any federal and or other state program to undertake the foregoing project number one, B, to transfer the care, custody, and control of Abbott Playground to the select board for and to dedicate said park to park and active recreation purposes under the provisions of General Law Chapter 45 Section 3, and C, to authorize the select board and or its designee to apply for and accept on behalf of the town funds granted under the park grant program and or other, any other funds, gifts, grants under any federal and or other state program in any way connected with the scope of this article and to enter into all agreements and execute any and all instruments as may be necessary or convenient to effectuate the project on behalf of the town.

[Speaker 2] (1:34:17 - 1:34:19)
And hang in there, that was project one.

[Speaker 5] (1:34:21 - 1:35:23)
And further, with respect to projects two and three as shown in the warrant, to appropriate $264,000 for the purposes and in the amounts identified in article six of the printed warrant as shown under the column heading finance committee recommended in said article six, including all costs incidental or related thereto, and to meet this appropriation, the treasurer with the approval of the select board is authorized to borrow $264,000 under Chapter 44 of the General Laws or pursuant to any other enabling authority and issue bonds or notes of the town therefore, and that the select board is authorized to take any other action necessary to carry out these projects. Said appropriation, which totals $472,885, will be offset by grant funding in the anticipated amount of $100,000 for project number one and in the anticipated amount of $164,000 for project number three. I move the recommendation of the finance committee.

[Speaker 2] (1:35:23 - 1:35:36)
Is there a second? Well done, well done indeed. So I just wanna make sure you're clear, there is one motion and it deals with projects one, two, and three.

Ms. McNerney.

[Speaker 5] (1:35:39 - 1:36:24)
Well, the table in article six shows what I was just talking about authorizing. It authorizes the rehab of Abbott Park, repairs to Town Hall Garage, and lead service investigation throughout the town. We are making a recommendation to exclude the $40,641 that I talked about in the prior article that would be paid for out of the reserve position of the Recreation Revolving Fund.

You can see from this far right column on page four how much would be paid for by grants, how much would be paid for by general fund borrowing, which is bonds, and how much other would come in in general fund grant money.

[Speaker 2] (1:36:24 - 1:36:35)
Thank you, Ms. McNerney. Mr. Hale or other member of the Capital Improvements Committee, could you just share with the body your recommendations, although they're printed in the warrant?

[Speaker 22] (1:36:38 - 1:36:57)
Hi, this is Ryan Hale, Precinct Two and Capital Improvement Committee. We met and reviewed the request for funding with the department heads who requested them, and I think we've given them a thorough review and support the amounts that were just shown to you, so the Capital Improvement Committee supports the warrant.

[Speaker 2] (1:36:57 - 1:38:03)
Thank you, Mr. Hale. Any questions or comments on Ms. McNerney's motion, lengthy though it may be, of the Capital Improvement, Capital Projects Recommended? Seeing none.

This is a two-thirds vote. All those in favor of Ms. McNerney's excellent motion? All those opposed?

It is unanimous. We will come now to Article Seven regarding the new school, but before I get there, I am urged to remind you that in five days we will hit the 20th anniversary of the vote to build the school you are now standing in, so take a moment and think about that. As a sitting member of the School Building Committee, I am going to recuse myself from this vote and ask Ms. Sullivan, former member of the Finance Committee, Select Board, Planning Board, too many other things to mention. Would you please be sworn in by the clerk, and she will take you through Article Seven.

[Speaker 25] (1:38:03 - 1:38:08)
If you can raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, state your name.

[Speaker 28] (1:38:08 - 1:38:08)
I, Bill Sullivan.

[Speaker 25] (1:38:09 - 1:38:10)
Solemnly swear.

[Speaker 28] (1:38:10 - 1:38:16)
Solemnly swear. That I will faithfully and impartially perform. That I will faithfully and impartially perform.

[Speaker 25] (1:38:16 - 1:38:17)
All the duties imposed upon me.

[Speaker 28] (1:38:18 - 1:38:19)
All the duties imposed upon me.

[Speaker 25] (1:38:19 - 1:38:20)
By my appointment as.

[Speaker 28] (1:38:20 - 1:38:22)
By my appointment as.

[Speaker 25] (1:38:23 - 1:38:25)
In term, in moderate, yeah.

[Speaker 28] (1:38:26 - 1:38:29)
According to the laws of the commonwealth. According to the laws of the town I love.

[Speaker 25] (1:38:29 - 1:38:31)
In the bylaws of the town of Swampstock.

[Speaker 28] (1:38:31 - 1:38:31)
In the bylaws.

[Speaker 23] (1:38:38 - 1:38:49)
I'm glad there's a little platform here for us, height challenged, us height challenged. We now come to Article Seven, appropriation for a new elementary school. Ms. Dreeben.

[Speaker 8] (1:38:49 - 1:42:54)
Thank you, Ms. Moderator. Naomi Dreeben, precinct three, town meeting member and finance committee. The finance committee recommends that the town vote to appropriate the sum of $2,909,983 for the purpose of paying costs of the design, construction, and equipping of the new elementary school, commonly referred to as the new elementary school, located at 10 Whitman Road, Swampscott, Mass., including the acquisition of easements and the payment of all costs incidental or related thereto the project. And including all costs incidental or related thereto which school facility shall have an anticipated useful life as an educational facility for the instruction of school children for at least 50 years and for which the town may be eligible for a school construction grant from the Massachusetts School Building Authority, that is the MSBA.

Said amount to be expended under the direction of the School Building Committee and to meet this appropriation, the treasurer with the approval of the select board is authorized to borrow said amount under Mass. General Law Chapter 44 or pursuant to any other enabling authority. The town acknowledges that the MSBA's grant program is a non-entitlement discretionary program based on need as determined by the MSBA and any project cost the town incurs in excess of any grant approved by and received from the MSBA shall be the sole responsibility of the town.

Provided further that any grant the town may receive from the MSBA for the project shall not exceed the lesser of 1.48 and 9.10% of eligible approved project costs as determined by the MSBA or to the total maximum grant amount determined by the MSBA and that the amount of borrowing authorized pursuant to this vote shall be reduced by any grant amount set forth in the project funding agreement that may be executed between the town and the MSBA. I move the recommendation of the Finance Committee.

Do I have a second? Ms. Raven. Mm-hmm.

So that article was written by the MSBA. So I'll just explain a couple of basic points. The budget for the new school building is $97,800,000 basically.

60 million of that is already bonded. 35% of the construction cost is funded by the MSBA. So 5% of the construction cost is a contingency that was originally planned for this building, right?

That's a best practice. You have a contingency when you do a construction project. The thing is due to the inflationary environment that we're in right now, the cost estimates came out a little bit higher than the original estimates which were given prior to the inflation.

So to meet our budgetary needs, we just need to replenish the contingency fund of 5% of the cost. That is what this 2.9 million request is. It's to replenish that contingency.

Now the contingency does not have to be spent and it would not be bonded unless it was needed. It is just a contingency. So that is the request.

That because the costs are more, although they're within the budget, we wanna use a best practice and have the 5% in that contingency account so that should costs run over a little bit, we don't have to stop work on the project.

[Speaker 23] (1:42:56 - 1:43:07)
Thank you. Do I have any discussion on Ms. Dreeben's motion? In back, yep.

[Speaker 12] (1:43:14 - 1:43:52)
My name is Kenneth Schutzer, Precinct Six. I just have a question with regard to the motion itself. It indicates the acquisition of easements which is a question that I found intriguing because I wasn't sure what the status was regarding the easement that is proposed to go across the UCC Church property and what that might be.

Is it fair to assume that this amount, since the article directs itself to the acquisition of easements, that that has yet to have a defined number? If it is, is that a number that can be shared with town meeting?

[Speaker 23] (1:43:56 - 1:43:57)
Peter, Mr. Spellio.

[Speaker 6] (1:44:03 - 1:44:46)
Hi, Peter Spellio, Precinct Three. I'm a member of the select board, also a member of the school building committee. The MSBA is where this language comes from.

All the funding because of the grant that we have from the MSBA, the MSBA controls the language that's before you here tonight. That being said, Ms. Dreeben correctly articulated that the funds that you're being asked for tonight are for contingency to restore the project contingency to a 5% level so that there will not be any delay in the project. And just to repeat what Mr. Dreeben said as well, this authorization is merely that an authorization. The hope is that the project never requires the money because we do not need to use the contingency. And in which case, the treasurer will never issue these bonds.

[Speaker 12] (1:44:54 - 1:44:56)
I'm not sure that the question was answered.

[Speaker 6] (1:45:00 - 1:45:03)
Mr. Schutzer, if you repeat the question, that'd be great.

[Speaker 12] (1:45:09 - 1:46:20)
It would be my pleasure to repeat the question because- Thank you. I understand the response to my initial question was in the form of indicating that this is boilerplate and therefore it's meaningless. But it includes language which was concerning to me because it indicated the acquisition of easements.

And I knew that was, as far as I knew anyway, was an undefined number because it was in fact part of ongoing litigation. I may be incorrect, but am I to assume, and is town meeting to assume because town meeting is being asked to allocate these funds, that it does not include or it does include a defined figure for the acquisition? And if it is, can that number be shared with town meeting?

Because we're continually willing, because everybody is willing and everybody wants to see the project through, but everyone wants to know the exposure of the town. And I think if town meeting does nothing else, its finite purpose is to define allocation of funds. And I'm being asked to define it, I'm being asked to vote on it, and if I want more importantly to know what I'm voting on.

Is that clear?

[Speaker 6] (1:46:20 - 1:46:24)
This $2.9 million being requested does not include a defined amount for easements.

[Speaker 12] (1:46:25 - 1:46:46)
So it does not? Correct. Is it inappropriate to ask, and maybe this is through the moderator, to ask where we stand with regard and what that potential exposure may be, or is it at this point part of the executive session, part of litigation, and therefore it's really not, it's beyond town meeting to know the answer to those questions?

[Speaker 6] (1:46:46 - 1:47:24)
Yeah, so I'm happy to give you a response. It's the latter of what you said, Mr. Schutzer, which is just for those that may not be aware, the town did acquire easements over the UU church property necessary for an egress and for pedestrian access to the property. The UU church did file a suit against the town, which is their legal right to do so, challenging the amount of compensation.

That is currently in litigation, so for the reasons Mr. Schutzer just articulated, we're not in a position to discuss publicly that. The select board and town administration still remains very confident in our assessment of what the compensation was, but that is ending in litigation.

[Speaker 12] (1:47:28 - 1:47:45)
Just one very brief follow-up. Do you feel confident, based on your knowledge, which you need not share with us, that the vote that we're taking tonight should be sufficient to cover these costs or do you anticipate we'll be coming back again for a further allocation of funds?

[Speaker 6] (1:47:46 - 1:48:50)
Well, I appreciate the question. The question's about contingency. The inherent nature of the contingency is the unknown.

What I will tell you is, I believe 5% to be an industry standard contingency that any project, especially a project of this size, should have. Where do I think the biggest risk is, if you were asking me, I'll tell you where the biggest risk is and it's the same for almost any project. It's in the ground.

Until you get out of the ground and know what your subgrade situation is, that's the risk of every project here. So in most projects, not all projects, but in most projects, the greatest amount of contingency is used to deal with unforeseen things in the ground. For example, if the ledge is more than was estimated, if the soil needs to be disposed at a premium because it has some contamination or something in it more so than we estimated, that's typically where the risks are in a project.

Once you're out of the ground, it's more like an erector set. It's much more predictable. So I believe the 5% is completely appropriate, but in terms of where I think the risk is, again, this project and any project is, getting out of the ground and making sure we don't have any subsurface issues.

[Speaker 23] (1:48:54 - 1:49:19)
Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none, all those in favor of Ms. Dreeben's motion and the Finance Committee's recommendation that the town vote to borrow the sum of $2,909,983 for expenses relating to the new school project. All opposed?

Motion is unanimous.

[Speaker 2] (1:49:32 - 1:49:50)
Thank you, Ms. Sullivan. That brings us now to Article VIII. Article VIII deals with the acceptance of a public way, specifically Supreme Court, which is up off of Forest Ave. Mr. Hartman.

[Speaker 1] (1:49:51 - 1:49:58)
The Finance Committee recommends the town vote to approve Article VIII as printed in the warrant. I move the recommendation of the Finance Committee.

[Speaker 2] (1:49:58 - 1:50:00)
Is there a second? Mr. Hartman.

[Speaker 1] (1:50:01 - 1:50:43)
This article will accept the public way known as Supreme Court, which will allow the town to assume responsibility for maintenance and snow removal, among other things. While the Finance Committee does not have any kind of quantitative analysis as to what the additional cost may be to the town, as there will be some additional costs, but this is actually an action we've already voted on. It was voted on at a previous town meeting, and for certain reasons, it didn't get fully accepted.

And in the meantime, the town had requested that certain improvements be made, both to the lighting and to the roadway on Supreme Court to bring them up to a status of good repair, and I'm told these improvements have been made and have been accepted by the DPW.

[Speaker 2] (1:50:44 - 1:50:56)
Thank you, Mr. Hartman. It's my understanding from town council and the town administration that this matter was properly noticed and voted by the Select Board. I do need to hear from the Planning Board.

Ms. Ippolito.

[Speaker 3] (1:51:01 - 1:53:21)
Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Angela Ippolito, Chair of the Planning Board, Precinct 5. The Planning Board did hear this request from the residents of Supreme Court to have their road accepted.

This was passed on to us from the Select Board who had voted to lay out the road. The Planning Board met on November the 14th. We discussed all of the specifications of the roadway, which was permitted through a subdivision control back in, I guess it was the late 80s.

According to subdivision control, the roadway has to comply with all the zoning regulations in terms of width and grade and so forth. We checked the as-built plans, which matched the subdivision plans. We conferred with the Department of Public Works, who reassured us that indeed the road was built to spec.

And then we reviewed all of the criteria that had to be met by the residents. Back in May of 2021, the Select Board requested that the residents upgrade the lighting on the street and also correct some sidewalk, make some sidewalk improvements relating to the sidewalk trees. In addition, the town administrator asked that the residents also repave the road, which was also done.

All of this was done at the expense of the residents. We got confirmation from the Public Works Department that everything was done to their satisfaction, that the road is in excellent condition, and that the only thing we were waiting for, the Planning Board did vote unanimously to recommend to the Select Board that Supreme Court become a public way subject to the receipt of waivers from each of the residents waiving their interest in the road, which I am in possession of and town council is also in possession of. So having received all of those, we see no reason why not to accept this road.

[Speaker 2] (1:53:21 - 1:53:45)
Thank you, Ms. Zeppelito. Questions or comments on Mr. Hartman's motion? All those in favor of Mr. Hartman's motion on the Finance Committee recommendation to accept Supreme Court as printed in the warrant?

All those opposed? Motion carries unanimously. We'll bring us to Article 9.

Mr. Duffy.

[Speaker 9] (1:53:55 - 1:54:05)
Thank you, Neil Duffy, Select Board and Precinct 3 town meeting member. Mr. Moderator, I move to join Articles 9 and 10.

[Speaker 2] (1:54:06 - 1:54:44)
And a motion to take up Articles 9 and 10 at the same time would seem in order to me. Let me confer with council for a moment. Yes, I do feel that would be in order since they both deal with the same essential purpose.

All those in favor of, sorry, do I have a second on that motion to combine? All those in favor of Mr. Duffy's motion to combine the two? All those opposed?

The motion carries. We are now considering both Articles 9 and 10. Mr. Duffy.

[Speaker 9] (1:54:45 - 1:54:52)
Thank you, Mr. Moderator. The Select Board recommends that the town vote to approve Articles 9 and 10 as printed in the warrant. I move the recommendation of the Select Board.

[Speaker 2] (1:54:53 - 1:54:55)
Is there a second? Thank you, Mr. Duffy.

[Speaker 9] (1:54:55 - 1:58:57)
All right, before speaking to Articles 9 and 10, I wanna provide a very brief emphasis on brief update on all three of the land acquisitions approved by town meeting. At our June 14th, 2022 special town meeting, namely the Hawthorne property and the two open space acquisitions in the Archer Street and Foster Road neighborhood. Next slide, please.

First on the Hawthorne property, I am incredibly excited to share with you that we anticipate closing on the Hawthorne as early as the end of this week. Thanks to your votes. Thank you.

Thanks to your vote and support and a lot of hard work from many. This incredible piece of property will belong to the residents of Swanscot in a matter of days. Next slide, please.

So now what? Now, as a community, it's time to start the conversation about what we wanna see here. You may recall that when town meeting approved this acquisition that the final purpose and use of the property will ultimately be decided by you, town meeting.

I wanna reemphasize what was said in June and throughout the process, and that is that an overwhelming majority of the select board feel strongly that open space be a primary focus for this property, but we also feel very strongly that there be a robust community process for everyone to have the opportunity to bring their ideas to the table. We'll be kicking that process off with a town-wide idea exchange on Saturday, January 28th. It'll be similar format to the idea exchange that we had in 2018 that many of you probably attended, where hundreds of community members gather to share their vision and ideas for our town.

The town is engaged with HDR, an architecture, engineering, and design firm to help us facilitate this conversation and help us transform our ideas, vision, and imagination into feasible next steps and actions. This kickoff event will not be the only opportunity for community members to contribute, but the beginning of an engaging process throughout the winter, spring, and summer to discuss the amazing possibilities for this signature parcel and our collective vision for Swampscott. Next slide, please.

As to the Archer Street open space parcels, Archer Street parcel 7-1-0, seen in yellow on this slide, the town closed on this property on November 4th, the most significant open space acquisition in Swampscott in decades. For the 0 Archer Street parcel, seen in red, the town remains in discussions with the owners and the select board anticipates a resolution, coming to a resolution by the end of the year. Work has already begun to prepare a conservation restriction for all of this land, ensuring that these approximately 10 acres, about half of the remaining undeveloped, developable land in our town remains undeveloped forever.

Next slide, please. So, to Articles 9 and 10. Article 9 is asking town meeting to authorize the town to accept as a gift an approximate third of an acre of land adjacent to the open space acquisition I was just referring to, seen here in Appendix A of your warrant and in your warrant in red.

Article 10, as it states in the warrant, is to address an oversight from the vote town meeting took on June 14th, that vote did not include one small parcel, that blue sliver you see in your warrant and on the screen, and this article is meant to correct that oversight.

[Speaker 2] (1:58:59 - 1:59:39)
Thank you, Mr. Duffy. Are there questions or comments for Mr. Duffy's motion of the recommendation of the select board? Seeing none, all those in favor of Mr. Duffy's motion?

All those opposed? Motion carries unanimously. It would now be my pleasure to accept a motion to dissolve this special town meeting.

Is there a second? All in favor? All right, thank you very much, everyone.

Have a pleasant set of holidays and I hope that's it for special town meetings this year, but we never know.