Swampscott High Students Sweep Phillips Beach Clean

1. Beach Clean-up:

Bernard Kravitz's marine ecology class scoured Phillips Beach Sunday. Dozens of students made the sandy beach, low-standing vegetation and marsh outskirts spruce for the Coast Sweep program.

Students Lizzie Sullivan and Victoria Paradise said the most commonly found items were beer cans, beer bottles and wrappers.

Hundreds of cans went into plastic garbage bags and got noted on group clean-up audits.

Students including Taylor Irwin and Desiree Dufour searched wild rose, rocks, beach pea and wind-blown marsh grass for trash.

Odd-ball items found included a bag of fireworks, said Toby Hale. And a golf ball found by Faye Deligiannides.

There were candles and backbacks, buoys and lobster trap parts.

Overall the beach wasn't too dirty, said Abby Price. Other students found the litter deplorable and said the beach deserved greater respect from those who littered.

The beach and abutting marsh and freshwater Palmer Pond serve up a variety of ecological features for the students to study in the future, said Bernard Kravitz and math teacher Chris Ratley.

The teachers are thinking about designing science, technology, engineering and math projects for students. One might have students setting loose a remotely operated underwater vehicle or two to explore the freshwater ponds.


2. Library Notes:

On Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Swampscott library hearsuccessful authors talk about their craft. It's an impressive line-up of professors and published authors including a candidate in fiction for the 2013 National Book Award: Elizabeth Graver (on the Long List for the 2013 National Book Award), Gary Goshgarian, Laura Harrington and Nancy Lusignan Schultz.
The authors/professors explain how you can go about making your ideas into something that is ready to be published. These professors all teach English and Creative Writing at our local universities and will all speak about the difficulties of working at one job while trying to write, their individual creative methods and perhaps give some helpful hints on completing the writing process.

3. Weather Watch: 

Wednesday's forecast calls for a chance of rain after 11 a.m., with a high temperature of 49 degrees.

• Sunrise: 7:06 a.m.
• Low tide: 8:32 a.m.
• High tide: 2:46 p.m.
• Sunset: 5:48 p.m.

4. Trick or Treat Notes: 

Trick or Treat is Thursday, Oct 31 in Swampscott. 

5. Winter Parking Notes:

The Swampscott Police Department would like to announce that it is now accepting applications for the Town’s Winter Parking Ban.  The Winter Parking Ban requires that motor vehicles must be off of the roadways between the hours of 1 A.M. and 6 A.M. from December 1, 2013 (the evening of November 30th) through 6 A.M. March 30, 2014.  The only vehicles that may be left on the road during these hours are vehicles with valid Winter Parking stickers.  Vehicles found to be in violation will be issued parking violations based upon the following conditions:  

• The absence of a parking waiver sticker ($20.00)

• Vehicle parked on the street despite forecasted snowfall, regardless of being issued a sticker ($25.00). 

• Vehicle parked on the street during a snow emergency and/or impeding snow removal ($50.00).  

Interested parties may pick up applications and guidelines at the Swampscott Police Department or online atwww.swampscottpolice.com.  There is a $30.00 non-refundable fee per motor vehicle for the application.  Checks or money orders only are to be made payable to the Town of Swampscott. A copy of the registration for each vehicle at the residence must be submitted with the application.