Why would we rent for $1k per week when for example the school rental policy for residents is $75/hour for part of the field house? At that rate we should rent the tennis courts for $9500 per week (factoring in the school discount policy).

You know darn well that the catering operation will take up more parking at Phillips Park or on Humphrey. It will also add more congestion on Humphrey.

If we are going to rent additional Hollywood space, lets get paid for it. Maybe the Recreation Director could devote any revenues received to either field upkeep, or lowering fees charged to Youth sports programs in town.

By the way does Hollywood have a permit for it's campground at the Temple?

CS

Why don’t we just let CP occupy Swampscott in general for the summer, and ask resident to walk/bike everywhere? Is the financial situation in Swampscott so bad we are ready to sell/rent everything?

CS - I agree and disagree. I agree that $1,000 per week is low. If they offered that, try to get at-least $2,500 per week, and settle for $2,000.

Regarding the $9,500 figure, please STOP.

Youth programs (Little League, Soccer, Lacrosse, etc.) are not run by the Rec. Dept. The Rec. Dept. only controls the cost of their programs and they are already the best bargins available.

I do agree that the money should go to field/park upgrades.

How about changing the town name to Stanton? Give Columbia an inch and they take a mile. Have they offered businesses whose earnings were interrupted by the invasive filming, any sort of monetary recovery for sales losses?

Forget trying to sell the old Middle School and Temple. Just put a sign up at the town line, "SOLD"

I think filming a movie in parts of Swampscott is exciting. Sure, it is inconvenient at times, especially not being able to park for the beach, but whatever money the town is getting is a bonus on our part.

AC,
Lets keep in mind that the money we are getting is one half of 1% of our total budget.
It will be spent without any accountability. We sit in town meeting and discuss miniscule budgets of departments that don't come close to $250k. What irks people is that we have no idea what our supposed windfall is going to be spent on. Most likely it is going down the "rabbit hole".
CS

I agree with Aileen. This is exciting and fun. stop being greedy and stuffed shirts about it.

I vote "Yes" to everything Columbia Pictures wants to rent. The more $, the merrier. It's money we didn't have. Then use the cash to resurface Humphrey St. from end to end and repair the potholes all over town. The town is falling apart.

The production budget for Grownups 1 was estimated at $70 million. I'm sure the sequel will be at least the same. Happy Madison Productions (I'm assuming it is controlled by Mr. Sandler) will no doubt benefit immensely from by our Commonwealth's motion picture tax forgiveness program since the entire film is being shot here.

I would repeat we are coming off like "country bumpkins" renting facilities for $1k per month plus the sheer enjoyment of our citizens getting to see movie stars.
CS

There is one reason motion picture companies like to shoot on location, it is much cheaper than using studios. The lower the production costs, the greater the profit.

Don't be star struck, and realize we are being used.

I would not call getting paid $250k+ being used or coming off like "country bumpkins".
This is something that is fun for our town and has created a lot of buzz and excitement. There is a lot of whining and complaining about nothing. If we can generate a stream of revenue for our town from this type of activity it is a positive thing!

BB,
Its not a revenue stream. It's a one time event, who knows how much we left on the table.
The money we received comes to about $4500 per day for the use of a movies set and ancillary space. I'll guarantee that is a miniscule cost for Hollywood.
We should have gotten much more.

CS

No one has said whether or not the playground will be affected. My children and I frequent it, especially over the summer, and losing it as a play option for two weeks would be a big deal. As it is adjacent to the tennis courts, would the plan be to take it over too or will we still be able to swing, run and play there during this time?

A mom

This is really the first time for this type of thing in our town on this scale. There is a certain amount of learning curve in everything you do in life (live and learn). If our community is looked at in a favorable light then this may not be the only time we do this, hopefully and a revenue stream it could be.
mom, no one ever mentioned anything about the playground that I have heard, just the tennis courts. The kids should stil be able to play.

Stop the Stars in your Eyes! $1000 a week for total shutdown of the tennis courts seems to me to be small potatoes, the town has little opportunity to be able to get free money, so get more. I agree that if they take the tennis courts they will also take all the parking with their trucks and food trucks etc.disrupt traffic. They have already made a trailer park out of the Temple parking lot and PAY NOTHING to do so. This is a big budget movie in a small budget town, WAKE UP, SMELL THE COFFEE and get some funds for the parks from this opportunity. Earmark the monies for the parks! I am surprised at the people who say "it is exciting". Maybe seeing Adam Sandler gets your blood going but..... act like a responsible adult, stop drooling and get the fees ($$$) the town deserves for the disruption to the townspeople and merchants.

SB,
Sandie I don't agree with you often, but were on the same page on this one.
Question for our Rec director, if in fact we are going to use some of our Hollywood money to do work on Phillips Park, what is the time table for doing so. Seems to me that repairs and upgrades should be starting now, so that improvements will be in place when the next heavy use period begins ie: fall athletic activities.
The cynic in me feels that we probably won't do any improvements.
CS

Selectpersons Sullivan & Van Dam,

How was the parking situation at Phillips Park today, noticed we have a new sign in Town "Lot Full". So much for the conjecture about whether the lot fills up.

CS

C'mon. Seriously, only $1,000. WOW!!! At least $2,000. It's a pretty big space.

Why not use the tennis court rental money to help fund improvements to the tennis courts and playground? The playground looks good, especially in a black and white public health video from 1957. Nevertheless, families, including my own, visit it regularly. Many more local families, however, do not. It's indisputably unsafe and an eyesore. The town should use this "big" tennis court rental money to make small improvements to enhance our family friendly community.

Pleasant Street Neighbor

I'll leave the numbers to the town officials. My major concern is that our summers are very short. As previously said, there appears to be a sufficient # of tennis courts in town available to our citizens. I would like to go back to the parking situation for our citizens who look forward to our beaches.
At the last selectmens' meeting because of the # of citizens who turned out + time constraints of the meeting, not everyone was given an opportunity to speak on the subject. Most conversation spoke to the problems with the potential safety issues on Puritan Road.
The Selectmen did not ask if there was anyone in attendance that could offer a possible solution to alleve the projected parking shortage. Citizens in attendance did have some excellent ideas. The present projection was a shortage of 10 parking spots. Why couldn't the town (recreation dept) designate an alternate parking spot, eg. Hadley School lot, the Middle School lot and provide a shuttle say between the hours of 9:00 - 4:00?
In my opinion this would be a very cost effective solution as well, eg., not requiring police details etc.
The Selectmen have referred the parking question over to the Traffic Committee.
I suggest that the Traffic Committee confer with the Recreation Department for a speedy solution. Signs posted that the lot is full has been posted more than once. School is out soon. Beaches will be frequented. With that said, I do understand, "The Show Must Go On!"

Joyce Trapasso

So far, for all practical purposes, parking in the Phillips Park became unavailable (contrary to the promises, part of it is taken by the boats and the crew members are parking their cars outside _their_ designated area thus leaving practically no space for the cars from Swampscott). As a fine demonstration of open-mindedness and willingness to compromise for the common good, residents of the Puritan Road pushed Town Hall into not allowing parking on this street. So, summer on the beach is lost (unless you live near the beach) and we are supposed to be excited about what exactly?

Totally agree with you, Alex.
It might be a nice experience if town would care about convenience of it’s citizens a little more. Yesterday I was unable to park at Phillips Park for my son’s game, just because the vehicles from movie crew occupied the parking lot.

$1000 is too low. Lets ask them to repave Humphrey street. :)
Seriously. Too Low!

People, lets try and be part of the solution not the problem. I have a couple spaces in front of my house on Ross Rd near Eisemans beach. Please come and park in front. Our family would be happy to host a couple cars for June and July.

I think we can get to 10 extra spaces if a few more local residents step up. I know if Paul Moran still lived in my neighborhood he would add a couple more. Thats what you do when you belong to a community.

I just hope we keep our BEACH parking lot. We still need more space.

$1,000 a week is an insult. Best that the Swampscott negotiators start negotiations to sweeten the pot. Not only should there be a sizable rental fee but also funds to bring the courts (provided they are already in good playable condition) back to what they were prior to catering trucks and employees tramping all over the courts. CP can easily afford to pay a good rental fee and the cost of/any all repairs.

The citizens of Swampscott have the leverage in this situation. I agree with all of the previous comments about $1,000 a week being insulting. If that's all they're willing to offer, tell them no and see how well the crowding on their set works out for them. Speaking of rentals at Philips Park, I recently found out that the selectment and town manager are in the process of negotiating a deal with a cell tower operator to construct a multi-tower array at either Philips Park or near the water tower. The operator said they'd pay the town $150k to cover the cost of relocating the police and fire communcations equipment. This is appaling given the risks associated with living in proximity to these devices - not to mention that both of the proposed locations are within densely populated neighborhoods. I doubt the manager and selectmen are really aware of the risks but ignorance is no excuse. If the cost of relocating the communciations equipment is really what this is all about, I'll kick in the first $500. We need to find a better location for the communications equipment as well because even at lower frequencies, the radiation is just as dangerous. Swampscott won't need the revenue if we're smart about where we spend our tax dollars which as well all know, are extremely high to begin with. Do we really want to guarantee our fellow citizens cancer, trouble sleeping, headaches, etc for the sake of what amounts to pennies in revenue?

Very good observation. We already have that cement (or whatever) plant in a close proximity to the most densely populated part of Swampsoctt and adding another potential source of trouble is one thing that we don't need.