Last holiday season, Swampscott resident Izabela Kennedy reached out to Recreation Director Danielle Strauss to share a festive Christmas card: a drawing of the Hadley School with Santa over it.

“I thought, ‘Wow, what a great beach sticker this would make if you made it a little beachy,’” Strauss said, calling the prominence of the Hadley School in the image an homage to the recently closed building. 

After a bit of collaboration and back-and-forth, Kennedy and Strauss had a parking sticker. The image is of the Hadley School against waves and whales in the water. 

“I think it’s great,” Strauss said. “It looks cool. I love it.”

Residents must obtain their parking stickers to visit Preston Beach, Phillips’ Beach, and the Whales/Eisman’s/New Ocean House.

“Part of the reason we’re so strict about it is because at Phillips’, especially at Phillips’ there’s not enough parking spaces for even the people that live here,” Strauss said. “We want to make sure that the people who live here have a chance to go to the beach.”

No parking stickers are needed for Fisherman’s Beach or King’s Beach on Humphrey Street.

“Fisherman’s is mostly a boating beach,” Strauss said. “There’s definitely people that just like to go to Fisherman’s Beach and watch the boats.”

Stickers cost $25, or $10 for anyone over the age of 65. Fees were changed in 2024 but stayed consistent this year, according to Strauss. Payments can be made by cash or check only.

Residents may obtain their parking stickers in-person this year at the resident services on the first floor of Town Hall. The office is open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Friday from 9 a.m. to noon.

In-person payments are a return to how the stickers used to be sold, according to Strauss. 

“Years ago we did beach stickers in house, and the Health Department and myself had a shared admin who would be the person that would sell the beach stickers,” Strauss said. “It became too much of a burden, so we went out to this company called City Hall Systems.”

City Hall Systems is linked with the Registry of Motor Vehicles, Strauss said, allowing the organization to “see people’s license and registrations and all of that stuff.” Through City Hall Systems, the only way people could obtain a parking sticker was through the mail.

“Now we’ve gotten to a point that we have budget cuts and that (City Hall Systems) was one of the cuts that we could make and bring it in-house,” Strauss said. “A lot of the work is done by our senior workoff program.”

A driver’s license and vehicle registration is required to obtain a sticker. 

The stickers must be placed on the rear window behind the driver on the outside of the vehicle.