Town Meeting approves public safety requests

SWAMPSCOTT – The capital improvement budget was passed intact at Town Meeting Monday, despite two public safety items that were almost nixed from the list.The Finance Committee was not in favor of the fire rescue boat and recommended that it be struck from the budget. Finance Committee Chairman Don Pinkerton said his committee agreed the boat was a redundant use when considering the harbormaster boat, that there were not enough water rescue calls to the department enough to use to the boat, and that the boat ramp would not be of use during low tide.Fire Chief Kevin Breen stood and made his case for the boat, for which the Capital Improvement Committee recommended the town appropriate $48,301. Breen said the current 15-foot whaler had barely enough room for a victim on a backboard with two rescuers. He said the 19-foot boat the department wanted would have a modified trailer that would make it easier to use the boat during low tide, and, therefore, the boat would be useful in all but 4.3 percent of tides.As for the usage, Breen said his department gets more calls to use the boat than other expensive firefighter equipment, including the Jaws of Life. “When we need it, we do need it,” he said. “Please make our job safer for my staff members and for the public we serve.”After Breen?s presentation, the Town Meeting members voted to ignore the Finance Committee?s recommendation, and the rescue boat passed with the rest of the article.The $20,945 automated license plate reader for the police department was an item that was met with opposition by some Town Meeting members and was so slimly supported that 91 members supported an amendment to strike it from the list, versus 131 who voted to keep it.Town Meeting member Alice Griffin said she had been “stalked” by police because her plate was red-flagged as a stolen plate, and she worried further that police departments would not destroy information that it picked up with the reader. Griffin said she didn?t believe the readers were necessary in Swampscott.In standing to respond to Griffin, Capital Improvement Committee Chairman Ray Patalano said her experience was “unfortunate,” but was more of an error by the Registry of Motor Vehicles than of the plate readers. Patalano supported the plate readers, citing the 141 unregistered, unlicensed, uninsured drivers who were pulled over on Swampscott roads last year.?These are not the people you want driving next to your families,” said Patalano.Patalano continued that more of that group of drivers would have been discovered if Swampscott police had the readers when they first requested them about three years ago.?This isn?t NSA bogeyman stuff,” finished Patalano.Town Meeting got through 18 articles in its first night and adjourned at 10:30 p.m. to be continued tonight beginning at 7 p.m.