SWAMPSCOTT — The Town voted to approve the right of the Select Board to lease the Hawthorne-by-the-sea property during a special Town Meeting on Monday evening.
Town Administrator Nick Connors said the Hawthorne Re-Use Advisory Committee had done an “extraordinary amount of work to identify what makes a successful re-use of the Hawthorne property,” which has given the Town the ingredients, vision, goals, and principles that would guide the use of the site going forward.
“Article 10 gives us the time and flexibility to keep this landmark protected, productive, and active while we finish that work together,” Connors said. “The path ahead is built on a dual-track approach: one track is focused on the short-term activation of the site, the other on the long-term planning and the development that will go into it.”
He continued, “This approach keeps the site alive while we work toward that permanent solution. It’s both fiscally responsible and community-minded. It ensures that we generate value and relevant costs while we complete this plan.”
Connors added that the Select Board unanimously agreed on the approach as it protects the Town’s interests and “maintains the momentum we’ve begun to create with the Hawthorne.”
Hawthorne Re-use Advisory Committee Chair Brian Watson, spoke against the article, citing poor conditions of the building as potential problems. He also added that none of the plans the committee drew up envisioned the building staying up.
Select Board Vice-Chair Doug Thompson spoke in favor of passing the article.
“There’s nothing in here that allows the Select Board to go willy-nilly spending capital money. … We basically are simply asking for a little bit more time to explore what could be an even better solution. We don’t know for sure,” Thompson said. “We do recognize that it will take a lot of support from many of us in here.
“Because whether an option is pursued to purchase the other half of the church parking lot, or to build a big, beautiful park, it’s going to be a major capital expenditure, and that’s going to take two-thirds agreement from this body. … We’re trying to put together the pieces to make sure that we can assemble that type of coalition.”
Thompson added, “The Re-use committee has put together a very nice picture… but it’s a long way from that picture to a reality.”
Select Board Chair Katie Phelan said the previous Town Administrator put together a group of people, including consultants, to review what would happen with the site after the Town purchased it.
“In response to the call of our community, which just handed over its recommendation Tuesday before we met to close the warrant,” Phelan said. “We had a path forward, you all spoke, and we listened. … We changed paths to put together more what you guys were hoping for, and we now have a recommendation before us.
“Even if we decided today to go forward with one piece of land with the recommendation that the committee put forward, that process takes time to negotiate. … If we wanted to demolish the building in the same form Mr. Watson stated. … That is still going to take probably 18-24 months to put forth a Request for Proposal, to put it out and have respondents, choose an appropriate winner, and negotiate a Land Development Agreement.”
The town also voted to pass Article 1, which covered approving bills from prior fiscal years. The total estimate, $11,735.54, spanned items including a fire hose from Bergeron Protective Clothing, auto insurance from Gallagher Risk Management, Kelley and Ryan Associates, legal notices from Essex Media Group, Fire Equipment Inc., and community development from Registry of Deeds.
The purpose of the article was to provide a mechanism to pay bills that were incurred in prior fiscal years.
Town Meeting members also approved Article 2, which sought to amend appropriation for fiscal year 2026 operating budget. These transfers within the FY26 budget were based on previously-voted employment contracts, contractually-obligated costs, as well as other known adjustments needed for the fiscal year.
Article 4, which sought to transfer the total of $26,292 from free cash to the FY26 school operating budget — to be used to offset the costs in the school budget for homeless and foster care transportation — passed unanimously.
Article 5, which aimed to rescind the transfer of free cash to the special education reserve fund that was approved at the May 2025 Town Meeting, was also approved unanimously.
Town Meeting voted unanimously to pass Article 6, which looked to transfer $94,864 from free cash to the special education reserve fund. Article 7 also passed, which aimed to take some of the surplus resulting from the Town’s general fund operations, as of the end of FY25 and use it to offset the tax levy for FY26
Article 8 passed, which looked to see if the Town would vote to appropriate $350,000 in order to fund the new side entrance to the children’s room at the library. It was noted that there was a $250,000 grant opportunity available to defray some of the project costs.
Town Meeting also passed Article 9, which sought to appropriate $205,810 to pay costs improving Abbot Park regarding rubber surfacing equipment.
