Swampscott board restarts police station project

SWAMPSCOTT – The Police Station Building Committee approved $25,500 from their construction budget to restart and finalize the design phase of the proposed police station, despite uncertainty whether the project would be approved by voters.”It’s an unbelievable climate for building and we want to take advantage of that opportunity before it changes,” said committee member Gail Rosenberg in explaining the primary reason why the committee voted unanimously at their meeting Monday night to restart the process.But the decision came after long debate.”Should we stop and wait to see if we’re really going to build this building?” asked committee member Phil Merkle during the discussion.The project’s plans were essentially shelved after voters rejected a $6 million debt-exclusion to fund the project last April, Architect Greg Carell explained to the committee, and now the plans have to be updated to reflect changes in the state building code.Committee members said that they wanted to have information about these changes before two crucial upcoming votes. The April 26 town election asks voters to approve a $3.35 million debt exclusion to construct the project and Town Meeting on May 2 will ask members to approve funding the project with either the debt-exclusion (if it passes the town election) or money in future operating budgets. Town Meeting could also reject both options.But to gain this information and to promptly begin construction should it be approved, the committee needed to authorize funds to restart the project. The architect will need to present revised and mostly finalized plans to solicit bid proposals from construction companies. The project also must go through the permitting process before various boards.And while it may be a great time for building, the political uncertainty over the project – the debt-exclusion vote failed by just over 200 votes at last year’s election, according to Town Clerk Sue Duplin – makes it a difficult time to authorize the money to fund the next steps.After the meeting, Rosenberg explained that if the committee voted negatively, they might miss the favorable building climate and not be able to answer questions about the project at Town Meeting. Or if they approved moving forward, some could say the committee was “jumping the gun.”But Carell expressed a thought likely shared by all townspeople concerned with the project.”I’ll be watching Town Meeting very carefully,” he said.