Swampscott petition will force special Town Meeting

SWAMPSCOTT – A petition forced selectmen to call a special Town Meeting to determine whether the town would appropriate $450,000 to fund the design of a new police station.
The selectmen voted April 7 to remove an article regarding funding the design of a new police station from the Town Meeting warrant. The article, which was recommended by the Capital Improvement Committee, would have allowed Town Meeting to vote on whether to borrow money to fund the design of a new police station. Despite the recommendation of the Capital Improvement Committee, selectmen voted unanimously to pull the article. At the time the selectmen said they were being fiscally responsible and now is not the right time to borrow money to design or build a new police station.
The annual Town Meeting begins May 4 but the special Town Meeting cannot be held until May 6 because the law stipulates a special town meeting must be held within 45 days after a petition is presented but no less than 14 days after the meeting is posted.
Town Meeting member and former selectman Paul Levenson was one of the people circulating the petition because he said Town Meeting members should be allowed a chance to debate whether the town should allocate money to design a new police station.
?The issue is really simple,” he said. “The decision is not whether to build or when to build. The issue is this is something that needs to be debated at Town Meeting. Public construction is the grist of the Town Meeting mill.”
Levenson said almost 300 residents signed the petition in favor of having the issue go to Town Meeting.
?There was a lot of enthusiasm and support for sending this to Town Meeting,” he said.
If passed, a second article on the special Town Meeting warrant would restrict any input selectmen would have in appointing a Police Station Building Committee. Selectmen approved an annual Town Meeting article to appoint a “Police Station Building Committee” consisting of the police chief, three members appointed by selectmen and three members appointed by Town Moderator Martin Goldman. But the second article on the special Town Meeting warrant, which was also submitted by petition, would replace that committee with a committee made up of Police Chief Ronald Madigan and six members appointed by Goldman.
The Capital Improvements Committee recommended proceeding with the design processto build anew police station at the town-owned pumping station on Humphrey Street. The committee said it would cost approximately $6.5 million to build a new station and it recommended borrowing $450,000 to design the new station.