Select Board to take up water, sewer and trash fees tonight

← All news · July 20, 2026

The board is scheduled to set FY27 water and sewer rates, decide trash fees before automated carts roll out next week, continue the Hawthorne RFP scoring discussion, and review executive-session minutes in private.

The Select Board meets tonight to settle money questions it held over two weeks ago, decisions that will reach many households within weeks: next year’s water and sewer rates, and trash fees that take effect as automated carts roll out next week.

The board is also scheduled to continue work on what the town will ask developers to propose for the Hawthorne property and to decide, in executive session, how much of five years of closed-door minutes the public gets to see.

The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. at Swampscott High School, Room B129, and streams on Microsoft Teams. Public comment, item D, comes before the votes, so residents can speak before the board takes up the rates, fees, Hawthorne or the minutes.

All five members are expected: Chair Katie Phelan, Vice Chair Danielle Leonard, Mary Ellen Fletcher, Ted Dooley and Wayne Spritz, with Town Administrator Nick Connors. Phelan was out for the July 7 preview, so Leonard chaired that night. The caption of that meeting carries no speaker labels, so the account below attributes July 7 remarks by role where the record does not pin the speaker.

Water and sewer: proposed 4% sewer, 3% water increase

Finance Director Patrick Luddy has proposed raising the sewer rate 4 percent and the water rate 3 percent for FY27. The change would add roughly $52 a year to the average combined bill and first appear on the August 15 statement. Luddy called the increase “significantly less” than last year’s increase of about 18 percent.

The increase would push the enterprise funds’ retained earnings to a projected 32 percent on the sewer side and 48 percent on the water side, well above the town’s 20 percent policy floor. Luddy’s case for that cushion is that it pre-funds about $5.7 million in sewer and $6.25 million in water capital work over five years, and avoids a future “17 percent jump.”

The board did not accept the number on July 7. The acting chair pushed back, saying, “I would like to see a number lower than the 4%,” and citing resident complaints about bills. The board asked Luddy to model retained-earnings scenarios at 15, 18 and 20 percent.

Tonight’s agenda lists the item for “discussion and possible vote,” so the rate could still change before it is set. The deadline is firm: the number the board sets will appear on the August 15 bill.

Trash: proposed $180 second barrel

The trash item has the tightest deadline. Automated collection begins the week of July 27, six days from tonight, and residents cannot price a second barrel until the board sets the fee.

The Republic Services contract itself is settled. The board authorized final review and signature on July 7, unanimous among the four present with Phelan absent, with Spritz checking the pricing and Phelan expected to review the legal terms. What remains tonight is the fee schedule.

Two numbers matter to households. The blue overflow bag would rise from $3 to $3.50, its first change since 2020, while trash costs have climbed roughly 50 percent. The second 35-gallon trash barrel would cost a proposed $180 a year.

Spritz laid out how the town arrived at $180, built with input from town staff and the Solid Waste Advisory Committee, including its chair, Emily Westhoven: about $126.45 a ton in tipping fees, rising 5 percent a year; roughly $12 for the barrel; and about $42 as a share of the marginal cost of the extra service. The figure is just under the cost of buying one bag a week: 52 bags at $3.50 comes to $182.

That $180 is not final. On July 7 the acting chair argued for $150, saying, “I would rather charge people less and then potentially have to raise it.” Spritz defended charging heavier users for the service their extra barrel costs. One member warned that a “smaller family is subsidizing a larger family’s trash,” an argument for pricing the barrel higher, not lower. Dooley worked the arithmetic somewhere in between. Connors told the public to expect a fee “in the 130 to $200 range” and to “plan on at least 150.”

One recycling decision is already made. On July 7 the board voted, 3-1 with Leonard opposed, to move recycling to every-other-week collection starting a projected January 1. Staff estimates the change saves about $168,000 a year, roughly the cost of a full-time employee. Leonard objected to the timing, saying it did not make sense “to institute in the middle of the winter.” Under that schedule a second 96-gallon recycling barrel would cost $100; if recycling stayed weekly, $200.

Executive-session minutes: 2023-25 batches return

The board tabled three years of executive-session minutes on July 7 and takes them up tonight in executive session.

On July 7, it approved the 2021 and 2022 batches, finalizing the disposition that keeps six 2022 land-use sessions sealed. Those are the closed meetings around the town’s June 2022 vote to buy Hawthorne (July 8 coverage).

The board tabled the 2023, 2024 and 2025 batches, 24, 34 and three sessions, after a member flagged “a problem with one of the items… I have to talk to Katie.”

Those batches return tonight under the Open Meeting Law provisions that let a board review its own executive-session minutes in private. The review follows a standing pressure: former Water and Sewer advisory chair Liz Smith, now a Finance Committee member, filed an Open Meeting Law complaint in May 2025, and Phelan has pledged to review the sealed minutes twice a year.

Hawthorne: five RFP scoring topics still open

The board is also working through what the town will ask developers to propose for the town-owned Hawthorne parcel at 153 Humphrey Street. This is not a site plan. It is the scoring rubric, the nine questions the board chose June 17 that bids will be judged against (June 23 coverage). July 7 was the board’s first topic-by-topic straw poll of those questions, a sorting discussion rather than a set of formal votes.

Tonight’s revised agenda strikes four topics as covered and keeps five live: residential use, the open-space and community-use share, walkability, streetscape, and synergy with the hotel and commercial corridor.

Two of the struck topics were resolved on July 7. The board reached consensus to lease the property and keep ownership “in perpetuity,” with a 36- or 99-year term and “no desire to sell.” It also agreed to leave environmental standards out of the rubric, noting instead in the narrative that Swampscott adopted the specialized stretch code in 2024.

The other two strikethroughs are less clear. The agenda marks municipal parking and building reuse-versus-demolition “covered,” but the board’s own July 7 wrap-up listed both among items to revisit.

On the live topics, residential use drew the sharpest split. Fletcher was against residential entirely, on parking and crowding grounds. Another member called it “absolutely against” the intent of the purchase. A third was open to a small residential share if it helped finance a strong plan.

On synergy, members framed the parcel as complementary to the whole corridor, including the hotel and, as one member put it, “the nine other restaurants on Humphrey Street.” Members also debated a function-hall or ballroom idea. Open space and walkability were held in part because they trace to Phelan’s input and she was absent to make the case.

Also on the agenda

The consent agenda returns the June 17 and June 27 meeting minutes, seats Regan Walker on the Solid Waste Advisory Committee, and recognizes retiring Aging Services director Heidi Whear. The board also appoints Whear to the Swampscott for All Ages Committee.

Walker had asked at the June 15 forum whether she could buy a second barrel. The board is also expected to discuss parking enforcement and appoint a registrar.

Sources