In a joint meeting held Thursday, November 13, the Select Board, School Committee and Finance Committee convened to confront the town’s mounting infrastructure needs from immediate five-year repairs to larger 10-year projects that could reshape Swampscott’s schools and municipal services.

The meeting, intended to become a quarterly “mini” financial summit, marks the first time all three bodies have sat down together to map out long-range capital priorities. Town Administrator Nick Connors opened the meeting by stressing the purpose of the new format.

“The idea here tonight was that we were going to be speaking to the net new projects, the idea of the five-year plan and what it might look like coming to town meetings,” Connors said.

Connors contrasted Swampscott’s approach with towns that rely mostly on free cash for capital needs.

“There’s a lot of communities out there that only use free cash. It is literally, ‘we have this much money this year, what can we jam in, or how do we package things up into a debt exclusion?’” he said.

Because of years of formal planning and debt policies, Swampscott is in a stronger position, he added.

“We are in a much better position because of hard work that’s been done over time,” Connors said.

5-Year Plan

Much of the five-year capital list focuses on keeping essential systems functioning, especially in school buildings.

A full window replacement at Swampscott Middle School is planned for the summer of 2027, after years of leaks and insulation failures. Facilities Director Max Kasper stressed the urgency.

“The windows are unacceptable,” Kasper said. “We need to be advancing that.”

Security improvements across the district including duress buttons at the high school and new radio communication systems for first responders also appear on the five-year list. The high school’s HVAC systems, now approaching 20 years old, will also require early planning to avoid sudden failures.

A solar canopy project over the parking lot remains technically viable, but a similar project at the elementary school is still in the works. The solar canopy “has a cloud over it. We don’t know the exact status,” Kasper said.

On the municipal side, the five-year plan includes, ongoing sewer main rehabilitation tied to a federal consent decree, water main replacements using Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MRWA) loans, water meter replacements town-wide, paving beyond limited state funding and seawall repairs at Phillips Beach.

Director of the Department of Public Works (DPW) Gino Cresta, who served as the interim town administrator for majority of the year, said the water meter replacements are overdue. Swampscott uses interest-free MWRA loans to replace aging water mains, he said.

“Meters start under-recording after about 20 years, and that’s what loses a little bit of revenue,” he said. “We’ve taken advantage of that loan for 20 years. We’re trying to stay on top of replacing the water mains.”

Cresta also reminded the committees that the town remains under a federal mandate.

“In 2015, the EPA hit us with a consent decree, and we’re working to resolve those issues,” Cresta said.

The Upper Jackson track, warped by tree roots, is now deemed beyond repair and could cost around $1 million to replace.

10-Year Vision

The 10-year capital outlook is dominated by two major questions: What to do with the middle school, and how to rebuild the town’s deteriorating DPW yard.

Kasper said the middle school’s plumbing, electrical distribution and HVAC are failing simultaneously.

“We have many major systems in the middle school that are in very poor shape because they are very old,” he said.

Swampscott now faces a choice between a full Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) renovation with 40 to 50% state reimbursement, or a more costly, piecemeal systems-replacement approach that could still trigger code upgrades.

“We’re at an inflection point now to decide what is going to happen with the middle school,” Kasper said.
“It just gets really big and expensive really fast because of what the needs of the building are.”

For the DPW yard, it was described as outdated, unsafe and undersized, and a rebuild is expected to be a major part of the 10-year project.

“The DPW yard is one of the facilities in town that’s in the poorest condition,” Kasper said.

Cresta agreed.

“We’ve been talking about that facility as far back as 2005,” Cresta said. “The time has come.”

Next Steps

Officials said Thursday’s meeting was only the start of a longer process. The town will now compile a full asset inventory, refine project costs and build a capital roadmap that threads together both the five-year needs and 10-year ambitions.

The next joint meeting is expected early next year, when the committees will begin prioritizing which projects move forward with and how to pay for them.