Swampscott Resident Beach Sticker Fees On The Rise For Summer 2024

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Swampscott residents — including its senior citizens — will be paying more to park at the beach this summer after the Select Board voted to accept recommendations for increased fees on Wednesday night.

The increase in fees, which have stayed steady in recent years, were said to be necessary because of $6,000 in increased charges from the third-party online seller, as well as the increased cost of maintenance and beach-related services such as lifeguards.

Recreation Director Danielle Strauss told the Select Board on Wednesday that the going rate for lifeguard pay on the North Shore is $25 per hour for 16-year-old employees.

The new fees are an increase from $20 to $25 for residents purchasing in person and from $20 to $30 for residents purchasing online. Senior citizens fees will rise from $7 to $10 when stickers are bought at town hall, and from $7 to $15 when bought online.

"It's helpful to look at where we stand with other peer communities," Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald said. "It does help the town generate a little bit of revenue. We have to maintain these beaches. It is costly. We do have a lot of folks that bring stuff to the beach. We want to be a carry-in, carry-out. But we constantly have to send DPW down there (to clean them). Sometimes it's overtime.

"Just generating a little bit of extra revenue can help us offset those additional costs."

Strauss said a comparison with some of those "peer" communities on the South Shore and Cape Cod show that most charge residents in the $40 to $50 range for parking passes — with some towns like Duxbury charging up to $200.

Fitzgerald said the in-person sales will mostly be done using senior tax-abatement employees with town staff oversight.

As part of the vote to authorize the increase, MaryEllen Fletcher added a stipulation that the practice of giving beach parking stickers away to town employees be revisited. According to Strauss, there were 210 stickers given away in 2023 — including 151 school employees — although she said many of them were not actually used.

Fitzgerald began the practice of giving town employees passes in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I do like the idea that town employees are not simply the help," Fitzgerald said. "They are part of the community. Employees do use that sticker for a sense of belonging and for a sense of identity. I don't think that's the real challenge."

Fletcher said she agrees with the idea that parking stickers should be made available to the town employees but that it might be time for them to purchase them in the same way residents do.

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