New Swampscott board forming opinions on fate of buildings

SWAMPSCOTT – The new Town Building Oversight Committee has met several times and is working to develop recommendations to present at a special Town Meeting this fall.Selectman Jill Sullivan, chairman of the Town Building Oversight Committee, said the new committee did not want to reinvent the wheel so it picked up where the former committee left off.”We met with members of the prior committee to give us their thoughts on the work they had done,” she said. “The previous committee did an amazing amount of work in a short period of time. We came away from that meeting with a new and more complete understanding of the buildings and sites.”Other members of the committee are vice-chairman Michael McClung, who is also on the Finance Committee. Other members include Capital Improvements Committee representative Joe Markarian, Martin Grasso, Gail Rosenberg, Carl Christie and William O’Brien.The properties being looked at by the committee are the former middle school on Greenwood Avenue, the former senior center on Burrill Street, the former Temple Israel on Humphrey Street and the Phillips Avenue fire station.Sullivan said the prior committee recommended selling three of the four properties and keeping the former senior center.”Town Meeting decided it didn’t have enough information to make a decision on whether the town should sell those properties,” she said. “Our job is to look at those four buildings and provide enough information at the special Town Meeting Nov. 15 to allow members to make an informed decision.””We’re working on everything that would guide development on the sites,” she said. “We’re looking for a good economic outcome for town and will take neighborhood considerations seriously.”Sullivan said the committee would establish a set of criteria for each site, which includes zoning, design requirements and other criteria.”The next thing on our agenda is to meet with town counsel,” she said. “We want to talk over issues of zoning and procurement of Request For Proposals. Our goal is not to just come up with a recommendation to sell or not. If the town decides to sell the property, we would need to have a set of criteria for the RFP so we get a product we want and one that benefits the town.”Sullivan said she is confident the committee would have its recommendations ready prior to the special Town Meeting.”We’re working on a timeline to ensure we complete all our work on time,” she said.