Swampscott, vets group near deal in building sale

SWAMPSCOTT – After a more than two-year impasse, town officials and a veterans group are close to reaching an agreement that would allow the town to sell the former senior center and for veterans to get a substantial donation to their scholarship fund.Town Administrator Andrew Maylor said he had a cordial conversation on Wednesday with Leon E. Abbott American Legion Post No. 57 Commander William Wollerscheid. Maylor said both parties understand where the other is coming from and in good faith the town has offered an olive branch and wants to make a donation to the scholarship fund.”It was a very productive conversation,” Maylor said. “It was a positive dialogue. It could lead to a resolution that would be positive for all parties involved and could help get ownership of the building transferred.”The town has wanted to dispose of the surplus property, located at 89 Burrill St., since the fall of 2007 when a new senior center opened in the new high school on Essex Street.The town declared the property surplus and attempted to put it on the market when a dispute arose with the Leon E. Abbott American Legion Post No. 57 about whether the town had the right to sell the parcel because it did not have the deed to it.The property was deeded to the Leon E. Abbott American Legion Post No. 57 back in the 1920s. Wollerscheid said the town does not have title to the property and does not have the right to dispose of it without reaching an agreement.Wollerscheid said the property served as an American Legion Post until 1980 when membership started to decline.”It was too expensive for us to maintain the building and the seniors needed a place,” he said. “When the town tried to sell it, we started researching the title. The title is in the name of the American Legion.”Wollerscheid said there was back-door dealing between the selectmen, attorneys and Post representatives, who brokered the original deal decades ago.”One of the attorneys was disbarred,” Wollerscheid said. “It was a mess and the deed was never transferred.”Maylor explained the deed is in the name of the American Legion but he attributed that to a decades-old oversight and a difference in interpretation of an article that was on the 1980 Town Meeting warrant transferring the property to the town. Maylor said the article directed selectmen to grant the Council on Aging use of the building as a senior citizen drop-in center for a year and during that time the COA was to conduct a study to see if it was feasible as a senior citizen center going forward.The article stipulated if the property was not feasible for use as a senior center, the town would sell it to the highest bidder and the first $10,000 would go to the Swampscott War Memorial Scholarship Fund. The scholarship fund was established in 1950 by a vote of Town Meeting. Since its inception, the Swampscott War Memorial Scholarship Fund has awarded more than $117,000 in scholarships.