Selectmen Recommend Phase 1 of Drainage Plan — $820,000

Selectmen on Monday supported a warrant item, Article 4, that proposes spending $820,000 for the first phase of Lower Paradise Road drainage work.

The board members also supported Article 5, a proposal for a $350,000 town-wide drainage study.

Town Meeting members will take up these and other proposals when they meet Monday, Nov. 18, at Swampscott High at a Special Town Meeting.

Article 4, the first phase of improvements to Paradise Road drainage, would upsize the 24-inch drain to 36 inches in the Paradise/Farragut Avenue area, Town Administrator Tom Younger said in an earlier interview.

It is listed as B2 on the Kleinfelder drainage study for Lower Paradise Road.

The first-phase work would start in the spring of 2014.

The town administrator said on Monday that the town could not afford all of the estimated $4.4 million plan to alleviate flooding on Paradise Road near Franklin Avenue and Swampscott Avenue; lower Banks Road near Farragut Road; and Shaw Road and Elmwood Road.

He envisions the total $4.4 million package as a three-phase, interrelated project.

The town would phase in the second and third parts over two or three years, and, perhaps, secure outside funding to help pay for them, he said.

Article 5 would fund a town-wide study to determine needs and solutions for drainage issues throughout Swampscott.

Both Articles 4 and 5 would need a two-thirds majority vote for bonding.