SWAMPSCOTT, MA — A task force to determine needs and potential usage for a proposed Community Life Center in Swampscott using funding approved at town meeting was approved at Wednesday night’s Select Board meeting.
After a lengthy discussion, the Select Board approved the task force designed to solicit ideas from different areas of the community, including senior services, veterans, schools and other groups on what a community center may bring and whether a new center is needed as a hub for those services.
The proposed 11-person committee would include three community members with volunteers to be sought for those positions.
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“I think this task force will have the advantage of some recent reflections and lessons learned,” Select Board member Katie Phelan said. “We don’t want to put the cart before the horse. We don’t want to say what we want before we understand the needs of the community. That’s really the important part — that we create a cross-section of the community that feels like they can come forward and have good discussions and good information from consultants when necessary and put together something that’s really meaningful. So that when it comes back to the table that report for us all to look at will have the weight of something behind it and people won’t feel like: ‘Well, what do we do with this now?’
“Because we’ve already done a little bit of the community dig. We’ve already done a little bit of understanding of what we have for assets. How the assets work and don’t work. Then we could really push it once we’ve gotten that information on what we feel like the next step is.”
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School Committee Chair MaryEllen Fletcher expressed some concern about spending consultant funds before a needs determination was made, but Select Board member David Grishman noted that a vote of town meeting had already authorized the consultant funding.
Select Board member Danielle Leonard said she liked the idea of a new committee with a cross-section of town interests rather than an existing committee whose members may be already predisposed toward pushing for an entirely new building.
“You may have more time in a specific topic, or against the specific topic for that matter,” Phelan said, “raising their hand and saying: ‘Hey, I’d like to be part of that conversation where they might not want to be part of a broader conversation.
“Are we recreating the wheel? Not necessarily. But you are bringing more people along for the ride? Absolutely.”
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
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