Swampscott Special Town Meeting To Include New School, Free Cash Votes

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Swampscott town meeting members will be asked to vote on a transfer of free cash to mitigate property tax increases, approve land and capital equipment purchases and appropriate an additional $3 million for the new elementary school at the Special Town Meeting scheduled for Monday night.

The Special Town Meeting warrant includes 10 articles, which include five financial articles, two capital expenditure articles and three articles related to land purchases or zoning bylaws.

The meeting will be held at Swampscott High School at 7 p.m.

The Select Board and Finance Committee spend several days leading up to the Special Town Meeting trying to nail down the final specifics and recommendations for support of some of the financials involved with the votes. The Select Board is scheduled for a 5 p.m. meeting on Monday night, with the Financial Committee slated for a 6 p.m. meeting, ahead of the full Special Town Meeting.

The Select Board was still discussing the proposed free cash allotment at its meeting on Wednesday with both the Select Board and Finance Committee set to report on the article at the town meeting itself. In the past, Swampscott has used budget surpluses to help mitigate property tax increases for homeowners during the next year.

Article 3 involves transferring free cash to fund provisions of the new firefighter collective bargaining agreement that the Select Board voted 4-1 to approve at Wednesday's meeting.

Article 5 would increase the revolving fund of the Recreation Department from $300,000 to $500,000 — allowing the department to fund more of its own capital purchases, such as new boards and boats, without those items having to be included in town general fund purchases.

Article 7 would authorize an additional $3 million in allocated spending for the new elementary school above what had previously been appropriated. This is due to bids for the project all coming in higher than expected at the time of last September's vote to approve a debt exclusion to fund the project.

The Select Board voted to recommend Article 7 while the Finance Committee is set to report on the article at the town meeting.

Votes will also be taken to accept Supreme Court as a public way, accept donated land at Park Square, and acquire a lot of land off Cushing Avenue that was intended to be included in the land acquisition vote to purchase Archer Street properties for use as open space in June.

The full warrant can be found here.

(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.)