$2.3 Million North Shore Skipper Expansion In Federal Spending Package

SALEM, MA — A $2.3 million expansion of the Salem Skipper municipal ride-sharing program to serve Beverly, Danvers and Peabody was part of nearly $16.9 million in earmarks ticketed for the North Shore in the $1.7 trillion federal government funding bill signed last week.

Earmarks for U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton's 6th Congressional District also included $1 million for geothermal HVAC updates at the Beverly Public Library, $1 million for the Peabody Riverwalk project and $1 million for the redevelopment of the Lifebridge/Salem Mission campuses in Beverly and Salem.

"Every day across the Sixth District — and across Massachusetts — our dedicated communities work on ways to improve life for everybody," Moulton said. "The funding included in this year's omnibus will further those efforts, supporting everything from better healthcare and senior
services to economic mobility and environmental resilience."

"Although the vote was down to the wire, what matters is that this critical funding has been secured and that over $16 million will be put to good use on the North Shore next year."

The Consolidated Appropriations Act 2023 — or the so-called "omnibus bill" — includes the $2.3 million to expand the Skipper system outside of the Witch City to include key connections to the commuter rail, evening and Saturday service to Essex Tech and North Shore Community College, as well as service to the Cherry Hill Industrial Park.

The expansion is designed to provide affordable, inclusive micro-transit to more of the North Shore and expand North Shore career mobility opportunities.

The Salem Skipper has made 112,527 total trips, serving 5,052 unique riders, including 2,773 unique riders in 2022, since it began two years ago.

Salem launched the municipal ride-sharing program aimed at providing low-cost, ride-sharing for residents to ease parking concerns and make the city more of a "car-light" community in 2020. The city said earlier this month that 52 percent of the trips included more than one rider, with an average of 3.7 riders per trip — a number affected by reduced capacity during COVID-19 restrictions.

The city estimates that the ride-sharing has saved 137,853 individual vehicle trips in Salem, adding up to 122,781 in carbon dioxide emissions.

The funding bill also includes $1 million toward Beverly's sustainability mission, which includes replacing the aged HVAC system at the Beverly Public Library with a geothermal heat pump system that utilizes a Ground Heat Exchanger to move heat throughout the building and support heating and cooling in a way that reduces the city's greenhouse emissions.

The $1 million for Lifebridge/Salem Mission Incorporated will go toward redeveloping its Beverly and Salem campuses to serve the housing insecure of the North Shore. The project is set to renovate aging facilities to meet the increased demand for services in the wake of the COVID-19 health crisis.

The $1 million for the Peabody Riverwalk will support the project to improve resilience against climate change, create a public access park and provide a new pedestrian corridor around the North River Canal.

The bill has $800 billion in non-defense funding and $858 in defense funding, including about $45 billion in Ukrainian aid amid the Russian invasion.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)