Swampscott rec programs proving to be a success

SWAMPSCOTT – Recreation Director Danielle Strauss said that the department’s programs have been so successful that she will have to reduce her hours to half time until the last week of June in order to comply with the spending limit allocated by Town Meeting.”It will have no bearing on getting the summer programs started,” Strauss said after announcing the change at the Recreation Commission’s Tuesday night meeting. “We went through the budget quicker than usual because of the growth of the program.”The recreation department is funded through a revolving account, meaning it pays for its program by charging fees. While this makes the programs self-sustaining – and Strauss emphasized that the department has not overspent – it also makes the department subject to a spending cap set by Town Meeting.Town Meeting set the cap for this year’s budget at $175,000. Unfortunately, approximately $150,000 of that has been spent, Strauss explained. She attributed this sooner-than-anticipated spending to new winter programs including ice skating and middle and high school ski trips. Town Meeting allocated a $225,000 spending cap for next year’s budget.Town Administrator Andrew Maylor agreed with Strauss that temporarily reducing her position to half time reflected the programs’ success. He noted that if a program produces revenue, then it should be grown to produce more profits.”Ideally we wish we had set the number (to be spent) higher,” he said after the meeting. “But I don’t look at it as a concern. I just see it as we have to stop before July 1 (the end of the fiscal year) so we avoid hitting the limit? It’s really more of an accounting thing and complying with statute.”Strauss said that the most important thing – the department’s summer programs, which have been expanded to include a jewelry club for tweens and teens, an adult tennis program and a Wacky Lab Week – will nevertheless continue as planned. She added that she usually reduces her hours in the spring and she will be back at full-time when the department’s 50 employees arrive for work.Next year, however, she said she’ll organize more accounting spreadsheets.