Community Corner

Town Meeting Guide

Here is a look at several items likely to generate debate at Monday's Town Meeting. They include a proposal that would allow demolition of the 1895 section of the former middle school.

taxes and conduct outside of school are candidates for debate at tonight’s Town Meeting.

The meeting starts at 7:15 p.m. in the high school auditorium.

Representatives of the town’s precincts will take up 29 articles on the warrant.

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The first article was dispensed with last week — the town election.

The election included a funding proposal for a new police station, which passed by 27 votes.

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Tonight’s Town Meeting must also appropriate dollars for the station if it is to be built. Tonight’s appropriations item is Article 7 and needs a two-thirds majority for approval.

Meanwhile, the Finance Committee voted late last week to indefinitely postpone two retirement fund articles.

They are Articles 3 and 4.

Article 3 had sought to increase the cost of living base for retirees and survivors of the towns retirement system.

Article 4 had sought to increase the benefit for a survivor of a retirement fund member from $6,000 to $9,000. This increase would have applied only to survivors whose spouses retired due to a job-related disability on or before Nov. 11, 1996.

Article 8, sponsored by selectmen, proposes to allow demolition of the historical portion of the former middle school on Greenwood Avenue.

The chairman of the Board of Selectmen, Jill Sullivan, said earlier that lifting existing protections for the 1895 part of the building will promote the property’s development.

The wants to preserve restrictions on development to protect the historical part of the vacant building.

The existing development plan, including the historical restrictions, was approved by the Town Building Study Committee, the Oversight Committee, and by a vote at Town Meeting, two years ago.

Article 8 needs a two-thirds majority for approval.

, also sponsored by selectmen, proposes a .75 cents excise tax on meals served in Swampscott restaurants.

At least some restaurant owners oppose the tax, saying now is not the time to levy  a tax on businesses struggling to make a profit.

takes aim at Swampscott High School’s chemical health policy.

The proposal would accept a state law that prevents schools from suspending or disciplining for conduct unconnected to school-sponsored activities.

Heidi McCoy and others gathered petition signatures to place the article on the warrant, opposing the chemical policy’s year-round powers.

Last month the Swampscott School Committee voted unanimously to oppose the article.

Committee Chairwoman Jacqueline Kinney said earlier that the article, if approved could have far reaching consequences,

It could prevent the district from enforcing its anti-bullying policy and threaten Swampscott’s membership in the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association.

Members of Repeal and Rethink, a group opposed to the chemical health policy, say that the article would not influence bullying policies or MIAA membership.


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