Swampscott Pier Conflict May Be Part Of A Greater Disconnect In Town

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — The recently unearthed disconnect between a town committee pursuing plans for a replacement pier at Fisherman's Beach and residents and local fishermen who would rather see the current one shored up in hopes of extending its useful life is an example of how the town needs to promote townwide discussions on major projects earlier in the process, according to Select Board member Danielle Leonard.

Leonard, who ran for the seat being vacated by outgoing Select Board member Peter Spellios this spring under the campaign theme of transparency and inclusiveness in town decisions, told Patch she was surprised to find out as the liaison to the Harbor & Waterfront Committee that plans in development for four years using state grant money were not well-known or being embraced by fishermen and neighborhood residents.

• New Swampscott Pier Pushback Strong At Public Forum

The process seemed to come to a crossroads last week when a group calling itself The Fisherman's Alliance spoke out at the Select Board meeting against preliminary design plans for a 9-foot-high pier intended to be resilient amid rising sea levels for the next half-century as being impractical for their current needs, and about 50 people attended Thursday's Harbor & Waterfront Committee meeting to question the plans.

"The most telling thing for me was the number of residents who came out to the Harbor & Waterfront Committee meeting," she told Patch on Tuesday. "They were asking the questions: 'Can we afford this pier? Do we need it? Why are you pushing this peer?'

"It made you really want to see the whole community engaged in this discussion because it is a bigger discussion."

Advocates for the pier said that it is a long-range project — subject to change — to ensure Swampscott still has a pier decades from now, and that the process has to begin well before the existing pier becomes obsolete, estimated within the next 10 years, if residents decide they want to have a pier at all well into the future.

But Leonard said the pier discussion is indicative of how Swampscott needs to make town committees more inclusive and how the Select Board needs to actively solicit input on proposed projects early in their development.

"I am really concerned with how we staff committees," she said. "Do we want a fair cross-section of the community or do we want people who only share the interests of the people forming the committee? We need to have people on the committees asking and answering the hard questions. Are we interested in what everyone has to say or just the ones who agree with us?

"Sometimes I think we did a good job of advertising what is happening but not necessarily seeking engagement on it. We may put up things (on the town website) for perception but are we really doing our best to solicit input from the community? Are we doing what we're doing to say we are doing it, or do we really want the input?"

Leonard said part of that process lies with town government outreach and part of it lies with community members willing to become more engaged.

"I just feel like we need to right the ship a little bit and give the committees more direction," Leonard said. "I was encouraged by how many people were there (on Thursday).

"I want to hear what everyone has to say. I don't want anyone to feel like they can't speak up on an issue."

(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.)