SWAMPSCOTT, MA — The Swampscott Select Board will spend the next two months studying municipal policies and best practices on beer gardens and other one-day liquor licenses to determine a formal guideline after some members of the Select Board questioned whether the town was including alcohol in too many community events.
Select Board Chair David Grishman told Patch on Thursday that the Select Board reached a compromise to allow beer gardens at the Swampscott By the Sea Summer Concert Series on Town Hall Lawn — with the exception of one date where the act is most geared toward families.
Select Board members Katie Phelan and MaryEllen Fletcher initially balked at allowing the beer garden licenses to Granite Coast Brewing of Peabody two weeks ago — citing correspondence they had gotten from some residents concerned about whether it was appropriate to have an alcohol element at so many community events on public property.
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The Board eventually voted to allow the one-day license for the first event pending the discussion that took place during Wednesday’s meeting.
“We’re going to continue to have events that bring people together with food trucks and have that sense of community,” Grishman said, adding that the Board will take up the policy recommendations in 60 days. “We are trying to bring that foot traffic to Humphrey Street and help those businesses. One of those steps is to really liven up the downtown.”
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The vote took place at the Select Board meeting held at Andrew Chapel on Essex Street and was not available for hybrid participation or video broadcast. Most Select Board meetings since the onset of the COVID-19 health crisis have been available through the Town of Swampscott’s YouTube channel or through embeds on the town’s official Facebook page.
Grishman told Patch that there was not a move to get away from hybrid and recorded meetings but was part of an effort discussed in the spring for the Board to get out in the community more in the summer months.
He said most of the upcoming meetings will be streamed and posted in the usual means with the potential exception of another on-location meeting planned for August.
“We certainly want to have meetings that are available and accessible to everyone in town,” Grishman said. “There is not an intent to change that policy.”
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
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