Lime Rickey's Extends Lease Through 2016

At their meeting Wednesday night, the town's Board of Selectmen approved a lease extension for 's through November 2016.

Appearing before the board was Assistant Town Counsel Marc J. Miller, Lime Rickey's proprietor Paul Petersiel and the town-owned food stand's manager, Erica Petersiel.

Before board members unanimously approved the extension, Judith Jacobi inquired as to why so many of the food stand's menu items had increased in price since Petersiel was awarded his first five-year lease in 2006.

"We are a seaside, very seasonal operation and we try to offer our menu at the best possible prices," Paul Petersiel said, adding that he feels the biggest challenge facing restaurant owners today is "keeping prices reasonable given how much the price of our products have gone up."

Jacobi also voiced a concern regarding the amount of the stand's trash that ends up packed into town barrels on and around .

Paul Petersiel, owner of Red Rock Bistro & Bar in Swampscott, admitted that overflowing trash barrels have been a problem in the past and he agreed to encourage his customers to use the stand's trash barrels rather than the barrels on the beach.

Erica Petersiel said she has been sending her employees out to clean up trash from the beach's parking lot toward the end of their shifts and has been working closely with the town's to ensure that trash generated from the stand doesn't become a problem.

Some of the steps Petersiel has taken to limit the amount of trash that ends up in town barrels, she said, include using a larger dumpster and increasing the number of times the barrels are emptied during summer weekends.

"We found that the trash was being emptied once a day in the morning and that was just not enough," she said, adding, "they increased it to include a morning and an evening pick up for the town barrels and I haven’t seen any issues since that started."

Wednesday night's five-year lease extension requires that Lime Rickey's pay the town $38,427 a year, payable quarterly.