SWANSEA – Installation of business district sewers got a thumbs up from voters while the Preserved Gardner House was likely issued a death sentence during a town meeting doubleheader on Monday night at the Joseph Case High School auditorium.

The four-plus-hour gathering consisted of the annual town meeting preceded, in part, by special town meeting that addressed transfers and appropriations to be performed before the end of Fiscal Year 2024 on June 30.

There were actually three articles, involving both meetings, pertaining to the sewers. The article for a proposed renovation and restoration of the nearby Preserved Gardner House at Swansea Memorial Park was part of the annual town meeting. It was rejected 227-111 on a ballot after a voice vote was deemed inconclusive.

Citizens immediately thereafter approved 204-92 by stand-up vote an article to spend $85,000 for demolition of the boarded-up 213-year-old house in need of costly renovations.

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