Town Meeting, Night One

Although many of the big ticket items weren't discussed during the first night of , residents voted in favor of a renovation project aimed at making the accessible to all visitors, the banning of tobacco products from a playground near and the removal of the position of police chief from civil service protection. 

After hearing reports from a handful of town officials, residents breezed through the first half of the warrant without comment; the majority of which pertained to the rules governing Town Meeting, unpaid accounts, revolving funds and the purchasing of equipment for town departments. Few comments were offered by those in attendance on any of the first 27 warrant articles and several were indefinitely postponed by unanimous vote.

The Old Town House

After sitting through a brief PowerPoint presentation detailing plans to make universally accessible, residents voted in favor of appropriating $667,793 for a project that would install a three-floor elevator and two handicapped accessible bathrooms in the 284-year-old building. The vote passed by a margin of 571 to 45. 

Proponents for the accessibility project argued that the cost to each Marblehead household would only be about $64 to fund the project and some shared stories of occasions when disabled town residents and visitors couldn't tour the building because they simply couldn't get up the stairs.

Those speaking out against the project included former Finance Committee member Jack Buba, who said he didn't feel the project was one that needed immediate attention and that it wasn't a good idea to spend on unnecessary endeavors when the state economy is still in recovery.

"Why now? The economy hasn't gotten any better and this is not an emergency," Buba said, adding "This is well over a half of a million dollars and we just can't afford it."

In response, departing Selectman Bill Woodfin II shared a story of a time when an elderly relative couldn't visit the third floor of the Town House because of a lack of accessibility and said the town had an obligation to "spend a little money to do the right thing."

"The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, that this is our cradle of liberty and no one should be denied the chance to see it," Woodfin said.  

Smoking at Devereux Beach Playground

The next item on the warrant was a request to the town to declare the playground area of Devereux Beach as a no-smoking area. The article drew comments from residents on both sides of the issue, including one who offered an amendment that would eliminate smoking from the whole of Devereux Beach.

Those in favor of the initial proposal argued that smoke itself was unsafe for youngsters to be around and that discarded cigarettes are routinely found and handled by young children. 

There was little opposition to the article until the aforementioned amendment was offered, which prompted several those in attendance to defend the rights of town residents to smoke cigarettes in public spaces.

"This is supposed to be a free country and a free town," one resident said. "This means someone can’t even walk down the beach or take their children to the park and smoke in an area where the ocean breeze would be blowing."

After resoundingly defeating the amendment, residents voted in favor of banning smoking at the playground by an overwhelming majority.

Removal of Police Chief from Civil Service

The final votes of the night were on Articles 30 and 31, which called for the removal of the position of Marblehead police chief from civil service protection - which means that future police chiefs wouldn't have to come from the local department and will be hired for three-year terms operating under a contract with the town.

After several residents spoke out against the article, some arguing that it would limit the ability of local officers to work their way up to the rank of chief, Town Administrator Anthony Sasso explained that he felt more candidates could only help in the selection process.

"This does not remove the ability to replace from within the department," Sasso said, later adding, "There is nothing to be suspicious about here. It just widens the pool of potential candidates, which can still be in-house."

Residents voted in favor of removing the civil service protection 428 to 161.

Stay with Marblehead Patch for up-to-the-minute updates from the second night of Town Meeting, scheduled to begin tonight in the same location at 7:30 p.m.