SWAMPSCOTT — Standing residents lined the walls of room B129 at the high school Thursday night, as the amount of seats could not accommodate the large attendance the Hawthorne Vision Community Forum garnered.
In April, Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald led a presentation that proposed replacing the building on Humphrey Street currently occupied by Anthony’s Pier 4 and Hawthorne by the Sea Tavern with a brand-new library. He described a multi-use and modern facility that could be used throughout all months of the year. An unofficial cost estimate attached to the proposed project was approximately $30 million.
Since the announcement, residents have been critical of both the library concept and the town’s process of formulating the idea. Upon his arrival Thursday, Fitzgerald was met with boos from the crowd.
Assistant Town Administrator and Director of Planning and Land Use S. Peter Kane recapped how the town and Boston-based engineering company HDR determined the type of establishment best suited for the location, including an “idea exchange” that more than 400 community members attended. The town formulated three scenarios. When a public-feedback survey was conducted in 2023, the largest share of respondents preferred a “park-centric” facility, which led to the library proposal.
The meeting then shifted to public comment, as residents were given a chance to air their grievances. Nearly every resident who spoke criticized the proposal and received applause from their peers.
Resident Brian Watson suggested that instead of the town asking residents how they would generally want the land to be used, it should have presented them with numerous options and listed the pros and cons for each of them.
“Let’s have some education, some orientation,” Watson said. “You skipped about four steps. You went too fast, you had two meetings and then you come up with what is essentially a ‘take it or leave it’ library… I think it’s a terrible proposal.”
Swampscott Conservancy President Toni Bandrowicz offered her organization’s assistance in reevaluating the proposal and process to Fitzgerald and the town. This prompted multiple residents to suggest forming an official committee to restart the development and information-gathering process.
Newly elected Board of Assessors member Charlie Patsios polled attendees on whether they supported the library proposal as presently constituted, and only two raised their hands.
“Let’s stop talking about the library, because it seems to me that it’s fairly dead,” Patsios said.
Resident Bill DiMento pleaded with Fitzgerald to “let the library thing go.”
Fitzgerald was receptive to the feedback, as he supported the idea of forming a committee to reevaluate the proposal and process. Toward the forum’s conclusion, Select Board member MaryEllen Fletcher promised residents that the town will have a more satisfactory process moving forward.
“We will have transparency and we will have better communication,” Fletcher said. “I can tell you every member of the Select Board wants to do it right, and Sean wants to do it right too.”
