Swampscott Select Board Backs Efficiency Study, Approves Cafe Avelino Liquor License

SWAMPSCOTT -- January 7, 2015, Swampscott's Board of Selectmen opened 2015 by approving a beer-and-wine license for Cafe Avelino at 242 Humphrey Street and voting to back a municipal-efficiency study through the Collins Center at UMass Boston. The board unanimously directed the Article VI Committee, led by chairman Mark Morquan, to pursue a Finance Committee budget transfer to fund the study, which Morquan said would take between 90 and 120 days and examine shared services, regionalization, and outsourcing across town departments; the town's general-government IT budget was identified as roughly $115,000, enough for one outside position against a $30-million non-school budget. A hearing on an all-alcohol license for Ikea Restaurant at 443A Paradise Road was continued two weeks after a required criminal-background check on the applicant's manager was not completed. The board voted four to one to allow Aries Express at 357 Essex Street to begin Sunday beer-and-wine sales at 10 a.m. under a recent change in state law, over one member's objection citing a recent license suspension. Resident Mary Ellen Fletcher urged the board to produce a formal five-year capital plan within 60 days, calling the town's current capital document "a wish list."