SWAMPSCOTT — The question of overdevelopment sparked the most intense debate during Thursday night’s candidates’ forum at the high school sponsored by the Democratic and Republican town committees.
Meanwhile, the three candidates for school committee, in an earlier debate sponsored by the same organizations, all agreed that there is a critical need for a new elementary school to take the place of the aging buildings in the town and that a tax override may be needed to fund it.
Although the candidates for selectmen were in agreement on several of the town’s issues, there were some pronounced differences of opinion.
“This is like Dickens’ ‘A Tale of Two Cities,'” said Don Hause, the lone incumbent running for re-election in the April 30 election. “I’m hearing about two Swampscotts. I’m hearing that we’re not diversified enough. And that we’re in a fiscal crisis.
“This is not the Swampscott I know,” Hause said. “We are in better shape than we’ve been in a long time.”
His view of the town was directly challenged by challenger Dina Maietta, who alluded to deep divisions within the town over fallout from controversial issues.
“I’ve lived here a long time,” she said, “and I remember this was once a friendly seaside community. But in the last three years, this town has been divided. If you’re for the rail trail, those who don’t support it don’t like you. We have to get back to the way it used to be.”
The subject of the rail trail came up, with most of the candidates saying that, as selectmen, they would do whatever the town wanted despite their personal feelings. However, challengers Andrea Calamita and Stephen T. Williams noted that they are abutters to the proposed trail and there is still a lot to be learned about the plan.
“I’m an abutter,” Calamita said, “and I support it.”
And John Cassidy, a former police officer, sounded a note of caution that some of the land earmarked for the trail might be privately owned.
“I’m not sure how anyone would like having people going through their backyards, or having parties behind their house,” he said. “There are a lot of fences in Swampscott for that purpose.”
Overdevelopment, the candidates acknowledged, was a thorny issue because so much of the town’s tax base is residential. Also, said Cassidy, the streets are already clogged with traffic.
“I saw it every day as a police officer,” he said. “The town is gridlocked with traffic in the mornings.”
“We need to expand the commercial base,” said challenger Polly Titcomb. “But that does not mean to build up. We can use the space we have. There are possibilities on Humphrey Street. We should also be more welcoming to small business.”
Also discussed was the dearth of affordable housing in the town, which all six agreed was a problem; and the town’s ongoing liability with its pension payments.
“This is a major concern, and it’s a problem that was created years ago,” said Titcomb.
“It’s a legacy issue,” Hause agreed.
“I think it’s time to look into this as a governing board,” Calamita said.
Also discussed was the 90-page harbor and waterfront plan, which includes repairs to the pier at the Fish House and the possibility of putting a restaurant at the end of it.
“I think it’s a real positive development for the town,” Hause said.
But Maietta disagreed.
“On one hand, they’re saying they don’t want to overdevelop, but then they talk of putting a restaurant at the pier,” she said. “In the meantime, our seawalls are falling apart. Let’s fix what we have.”
Toward the end of the debate, Maietta addressed an editorial in last week’s Item that took her to task for questions she asked Hause in a previous debate about his attendance at meetings.
“I want to talk about the inaccurate journalism in The Lynn Item,” she said. “I am disgusted.”
Turning to Hause, she said, “I did not know you had cancer. I apologize to you for any misconceptions you may have because of that article. The newspaper asked me if I knew, and I said I didn’t. He asked me again, and again I said I didn’t.”
She went on to say that her family has suffered from cancer too.
Hause said that when he was diagnosed with cancer, he did not want to make an issue out of it, “and none of this is of my doing at all.”
Incumbents Carin Marshall and Amy O’Connor and challenger Keiko Zoll engaged in a cordial hour-long school committee debate prior to the selectmen’s forum.
Both Marshall and O’Connor stressed that one of the committee’s biggest accomplishments was to stabilize the school department, and both vowed to continue working with Superintendent Pamela Angelakis to implement her master plan.
On the subject of an override to help fund a new school, O’Connor said she wasn’t sure.
“We’re working as hard as we can to live within our means,” she said.
Marshall said she supported one.
“We have to build a new school, and if that’s what it takes, that’s what we have to do,” she said.
Zoll also agreed.
“Yes,” she said. “We need a new school. And I can help get that message out.”
