SWAMPSCOTT — The Special Town Meeting on Monday will include discussions on how the town will use its money and ideas to implement pedestrian and roadway safety.
Swampscott Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald said the fall meeting, at 7:15 p.m. in the high school auditorium, gives Town Meeting members and town officials the chance to have a few conversations on matters they don’t have time to discuss at the annual Town Meeting. Focusing on pedestrian safety and roadway safety are goals of the Select Board, he said.
“There will be discussions on the agenda that will help highlight the importance of those goals,” Fitzgerald said.
The first article will be reports and updates on various town projects and plans, including plans for the contract with the Lynn Water & Sewer Commission, an update on the work at Stacy Brook and King’s Beach, updates on town infrastructure, roads, and sidewalk improvements, and future plans for the solid waste and recycling services.
Amendments to the sewer enterprise expenses within the town’s fiscal 2020 budget are the subject of article two. Town Meeting members will vote whether or not to amend budget line item 69 to raise and appropriate or transfer from available funds a sum of money for the operation of the Sewer Enterprise Fund.
“It would just be making adjustments based on changes that happened with the Lynn Water Sewer Comission’s proportional costs to Swampscott after Garleick Farms closed down,” Fitzgerald said. “We have to adjust those changes because our budgets are affected proportionately. They reflect the shift in some of the additional costs that ratepayers will be seeing.”
The third warrant article will be a vote on whether to transfer from retained earnings of the Sewer Enterprise Fund, about $135,000, to be used and applied by the Select Board in the reduction of the sewer rate. The purpose would be to help offset the impact of the sewer rate change and keep it at a reasonable rate, which is about 3 percent, Fitzgerald said.
The fourth article will involve a vote on whether to appropriate $6,891.10 from the Transportation Infrastructure Fund for expenses associated with the impact of transportation network services on municipal roads, bridges, and other transportation infrastructures. With a yes vote, it will allow the town to spend funds received from the Mass. Dept. of Public Utilities that are collected from ride-share services such as Uber and Lyft.
The fifth warrant article will be whether to approve the transfer of free cash, recently certified at about $4.4 million, to adjust the town’s tax rates. If free cash is not used, it’s likely residential taxpayers will see an increase in the average single-family household tax bill of about $160, Fitzgerald said. If free cash is used, taxpayers could see a $23 increase, he added.
“We have one of the highest single-family tax bills in the region,” Fitzgerald said. “I have recommended to the finance team and board that we use a piece of the town’s free cash to help ensure that Swampscott tax payers are not going to be overly impacted by our annual operating budget.”
“No matter what we do, when we set our taxes, we are still going to have a high average single-family residential tax rate. The effort here is to think more carefully about the use of free cash and how we can strike a balance with all of our obligations.”
The approve or transfer of free cash to settle union contracts, such as the ones being negotiated with the police department, fire department, and between the school administration and Swampscott Education Association, is the topic of warrant article six.
“A few years ago we used over $200,000 in free cash to settle union contracts,” Fitzgerald said. “This is to see if we are able to find an opportunity to strike that type of bargain again.
On warrant article seven, Town Meeting members will vote whether to approve the transfer from, or borrowing of, about $116, 050 to purchase a sidewalk spreader in order to advance pedestrian safety. Article eight is a vote on whether to allow tuition payments received for non-resident students and state reimbursements for foster care students to be expended by the School Committee without further appropriation to help the town continuously provide student services regionally.
Article nine is a vote to amend the zoning bylaw, Section 4.8.7.0, Fees-in-Lieu-of Affordable Housing Unit Provision, to clarify and make the language more specific to Swampscott. The amended language would help the town negotiate payments, Fitzgerald said.
“At this meeting, we are going to talk extensively about infrastructure and the cost of it,” Fitzgerald said. “While we tackle all of that, we shouldn’t forget the impact the local property taxes have on our hardworking taxpayers. Swampscott has a lot of families that work hard to make both ends meet and we have a responsibility to keep them in mind when we set our taxes. These votes are for change in the overall approach in how we build budgets and manage the ultimate impact on tax levy on our tax payers.”
