Good afternoon everybody. Welcome to the January 29th, 2026 meeting of the Chattam Finance Committee. Please note this meeting is being recorded and will be available shortly hereafter for scheduled and on demand viewing on any smartphone or tablet device. If anyone
else is recording the meeting, including the use of AI note-taking apps, please notify the chair. Seeing none, uh I see you can use
Okay. All right. Pursuant to Governor Healey's March 28th, 2025 signing of chapter 2 of the acts of 2025 extending certain CO 19 measures adopted during the state of emergency suspending certain provisions of the open meeting
law general laws chapter 3A section 20 until June 30th 2027. This meeting of the Chattam Finance Committee is being conducted in person and via remote participation. Every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the
proceedings as provided for in the order. A reminder that persons who would like to listen to this meeting while in progress may do so by calling the phone number 1508-945410. Conference ID is 343168 667 pound sign or join the meeting
online via Microsoft Teams through the link in the posted agenda. We will post a record of this meeting on the town town's website as soon as possible. Thank you. I'll call the role.
Uh Stephen Daniel is absent and Mandy Young temporarily chairing this. Joanne Sprag >> here. >> Good. Barbara Madison >> here. >> John Pablardo >> here. >> Kristen Andres is absent. Tracy Shields is absent. Tommy Don
>> here. >> Good. And Eric Whitley >> here. >> Terrific. We definitely have a quorum. That's great. All right. Uh, everyone should have received a copy of materials from Carrie
Mezerol, channel finance director. Carrie, you're up. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, so today we're going to be going over the FY2027 operating and capital budget review of natural resources department.
Um, I have with me Greg Burman, the director of natural resources to also go over a presentation for you. The natural resource department budget is presented at 2.5 million for FY2027, an increase of 4.92%
or 117,000 over the current fiscal year. The health division for FY2027 is 652,000. The conservation division operating budget for 2027 is 441,000. The Pleasant Bay Management Assessment
includes a budget of 69,000. The Harbor Masters Division is at 923,000. The coastal resources division is at 157,000.
The shellfish division is at 265,000. And then there are um three committees which is the South Coast Harbor Plan Committee, Shellfish Advisory Committee, and the Waterways Advisory Committee, which are all level funded for 2027 in the amount of $1,000.
Um there is a uh some capital items that are between 10 and 250,000 for 2027. Natural resources requests are uh 50,000 for storm water management.
There's 10,000 for the conservation uh lands management for the conservation department. Harbor Master has uh 20,000 for uh Navades uh 45,000 for Mitchell River Bridge maintenance, 50,000 for the rehab of
Harbor Master office at the old mill boatyard. And that's uh kind of dependent on the uh vote from the CPC. And then there's um coastal resources requests 50,000 for jack knife beach improvements,
10,000 for town landing infrastructure, health division uh request at 60,000 for household hazardous waste collection. And there are uh three separate potential warrant articles for FY2027 as well. There's the annual dredging for
400,000 which is use of the tax levy and uh two borrowing accounts uh one for um the bulkhead replacement at Barnhill Landing for $2 million and another one for the bulkhead and ramp replacement at Ryder's Cove for
$3.5 million. And I'll pass this over to Greg Berman to go over his presentation for you. >> Welcome, Greg. Thank you. Greg Burman, your director of natural resources. And I think this should just automat
Yeah, there we go. Thank you, Mark. Here today to talk about the fiscal year 27 budget. So I I practiced a bit on the select board a couple days ago. So now I can, you know, bring a nice polished version to you guys. Uh my intention is
kind of to go through the operational budget uh salary staffing getting to expenses and then we can dive into the digital budget book if you like. Uh we can also go through all of the capital requests through the presentation of the budget book and then I have those three
separate articles kind of at the end of the presentation. So obviously feel free to stop me. This is your show but I'll just kind of increment through unless I hear otherwise. So, as I'm sure you all know, we have our five divisions in natural resources and then a couple, you know,
non-divisions, but still kind of fall within our wheelhouse. Natural resources is about 3% of the overall town budget. And then, as Carrie said, fiscal year 27 is just over 2.5 and that brings us to 4.9 or just under
5% increase compared to last year. The lion share of that increase is due to staffing costs in the operating budget. Uh so we we have it broken out by division here. You know, most of these changes are due to the contractual
wages, step increases, uh temporary wages, longevity. Uh if you're looking at various positives and negatives within those divisions, our current coastal resilience director is a much lower step. uh Ted Keon was around a long time. So there's
reductions in that on this fiscal year. Uh conservation is fairly stable within uh those wage and step increases. Uh health is also quite stable. When we're looking at Harbor Master, we do have some increased hours for the
assistant waring specifically for safety reasons at the fish pier. um combination of safety reasons because if you take all the assistant warfingers off the warf to monitor traffic and people, we don't have anybody on the warf. So that's kind of the main purpose of the waring. So we really needed to bring
somebody on just due to the increased activity. And as you may have noticed at any point during this conversation, you'd like input from our well-represented harbor master division, happy to call them up to answer questions as well
for uh let's see. So shellfish is an increase and this has to do with an increase in the salaries of some of the seasonals that was to match the town landing officers which had you know honestly languished in terms of a rate
of salary for many years. So we did increase both of those to more reflect the salaries of other people doing that same work. So, you're not going to see that in coastal resources because that's uh there's only two or three town landing officers compared to shellfish,
many more, and it's offset by that uh step difference between the directors. Uh so, that's mostly it for the staffing costs. Again, I can just kind of move through, but feel free to stop me if you have any questions along the way.
For our expenses, this is kind of the stuff over people. the coastal resources. I mentioned Katherine Ricks. Uh she is a professional engineer. I think the town was very lucky to get her. Uh but we would like her to stay a professional engineer. So we have continuing education credits that we
didn't have when uh Ted was director for conservation. Uh we wanted to add a line for shark bleed kits in our operational supplies over at North Beach. They're quite expensive and they do expire. So we wanted to account for that within the
budget for Harbor Master. You can see it's pretty close to even, but that's mostly because uh there was variation between the fish pier and trap dock. So right now the fish pier is more expensive to maintain versus the trap dock. Trap dock is relatively newer. So
we shifted some of the expense line of trapd dock over to fish pier to more accurately represent expenses. So it's more of a a shuffling of funds versus adding or subtracting anything. But if you're seeing an increase in fish beer, it's actually from the trap dock.
Uh for health, there is an increase of about 10k. We needed to replace one of the wells that's being used for environmental sampling over at the uh caplin fill at the uh DPW building. And then shellfish actually has a minor
reduction. Um they haven't been using as much fuel as anticipated in previous years. So we show a reduction there. >> Mr. Chair, excuse me for interrupting, but would you please go over the the health increase again in ENV well
replacement? >> Explain that. >> I I just uh did EMV for environmental well replacement. So, this isn't water being used for, you know, irrigation. It's not being water used by households. It's water, you know, mostly just a pipe in the ground that's directly sampled by
environmental engineers, taken back and monitored uh as part of the D stipulation for closing out a landfill. >> So that that's what we're required to do for a number of decades after that close out. >> Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Mr. Chairman.
>> Uh so now kind of getting into the, you know, within the department, but not necessarily a specific division. As Krie mentioned, all of our committee support is level funded. Uh, Pleasant Bay Management does have an increase, part of which is part of the contract for the
coordinator, uh, that does escalate slightly every given year, but here's the overall breakdown. I called out the kind of red box to show you what the difference is. The idea with the Pleasant Bay Alliance is we do have four different towns. The costs are split
amongst those towns. And uh this particular change is predominantly due to a salt marsh restoration project that's going on as a fourtown project, but that's what the increase is for this particular year. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Greg, just backing
up for a quick second. I'm just wondering, did we have to use any of those shark bleed kits? >> Um, not last year, but they they do expire. That's why we have to to, you know, replace them as needed. Uh, >> oh, completely agreed. I was just hoping
that we hadn't had any accidents out there. >> Thanks. >> I I would guess we probably would have heard about it >> probably. Um, Greg, but along those same lines, when you say North Beach, I assume you mean the folks who patrol North Beach as opposed to the turn
monitor or the folks down at the lighthouse beach. >> Correct. So, those would be the uh in in the budget, the North Beach Rangers. Yeah. um who you know monitor the beach during season and and provide support um you know keeping folks in line with
regards to regulations and conservation but also providing you know potential medical assistance in case of emergency like that. >> Right. Thank you. >> So at this point you know I have this slide in here so I can click and go into the digital budget book. Um, I do have
some slides after this that get into the capital requests. If you'd like, I can kind of breeze through those and we'll come back to the budget book or we can, you know, the budget book allows us to to dive deeper and show everything. But, uh, this is these are the capital items
uh, from the department. So, if you'd like, I'll kind of go through each one and then just let me know if you want to dive deeper on anything particular. First one is jack knife beach improve improvements for 50k.
So there there is a CPC line for um uh part of the jack knife beach master plan. A lot of this is planned to be used for match for a CCM grant that we're just in the process of applying for. It just opened. That's part of the larger living shoreline uh jack knife
beach marsh restoration along this section of shoreline. Um, but we do need some additional funding. One to increase the elevation of the parking parking to match the CCM funded area and to extend the guardrail further past that area too
to protect additional uh areas of marsh and then to reestablish some of the dunes uh further down. So again, most of this area is very close to that restoration area where those rocks are, but we want to kind of continue the the restoration and and what's included in
the jack knife planning and master plan all the way down there. Next is town landing infrastructure improvements for 10K. This is kind of a a standing line item. It it's in the capital account so it can potentially build in a given year. This is due to
the, you know, punctuated nature of storms and how they impact our landings. In years where we don't have major storm impacts, knock on wood, again, uh we're able to provide some maintenance of our town landings. Uh over at Sears Road
over on the right, we were able to work with DPW. Uh you know, they're a great partner. They provide the equipment and labor and we provide some of the design and expenses for materials. we're able to realign that parallel parking to angle parking to get a couple more
spots. And then over at Battlefield, um we've had some surface water, storm water issues, uh going over and eroding that edge of the coastal bank on the parking lot where I had DPW come out and dig a trench drain. And then, you know, the uh uh conservation, I'm sorry, not
conservation, town landing account paid for the gravel and materials that were used to uh allow an infiltration u barrier along that. And those are just a couple examples. We have many more. Similar thing was done over at Goose Pond.
Next is conservation land management. And similar to town landings, this is something outside the operational to allow it to kind of build up for the larger projects or do smaller maintenance things. You know, if we have a storm or even if we don't have a storm, some of the larger trees come
down and block our conservation trail areas when they get too big for town staff to be able to do safely. We do bring out outside contractors that are paid for through this. Um, we were able to install an a couple Osprey poles and
some Osprey education. And I just put that as an example. You know, it's not all regulatory enforcement. A lot of it is education and outreach to the community. Mitchell River bridge maintenance. This is a line item in previous years that had been a little bit more. uh we
reduced it to 45K to show the potential cost savings of bringing on uh Jackson Goddard, our marine mechanic and boat operator. We do think there's going to be a a decent cost savings overall with that which I had presented last year as
part of the um uh new position. U there are no new positions being proposed by DNR this year. So with this bridge maintenance uh that bringing in outside contractors can be very difficult for a bridge like this. It's made of wood and
goes up and down and that's not many people want to deal with that. Certainly you know uh some of the hydraulics in there get very expensive very quickly. So, this is one where, you know, a certain amount of maintenance is done every year. And in fact, Jackson was able to coordinate with some folks
coming out to do a bridge inspection and is putting together a robust kind of maintenance safety protocol to to keep things up to snuff and find out who to call when things get bad. Um, you know, it is going to be very expensive if
there's a major thing, which is why this is kind of a bank that's built up over time. >> Mr. Chair, >> um a quick question. So, um I'm glad to hear that the um the position is working out as presented. Um what was that line
item before? What was it reduced from? >> I believe it was 70K. >> So 70,000 down to 45. >> Great. Thank you. >> Next is navigation aids. This is 20K, the same as previous years. The harbor
master division does deal with over 200 private aids to navigation. Um all properly permitted brought in and out seasonally. You know this is even the chain alone is a substantial investment. Um our harbor master has done a an
excellent job of you know husbanding the budget where applicable and you know a fine line. You're not going to replace everything every year. It's not feasible. But you know the the maintenance of these structures and bringing in new when necessary is part
of this line item. Next is exterior rehab at the harborm office. So we were able to get some uh historic air photos from Nancy Bar and the archavist Judy Kiff. Um
it it has been observed that portions of the Harbormaster building are in need of attention. Uh specifically uh the stairs and deck porch area. You know, these are things that we need to address soon.
That said, you know, Jason and myself have very much been on board with the idea of, you know, historical preservation. the fact that the US Coastg Guard boat house is coming back to stage harbor. This is another one. Uh this building is actually at least as
old as 1900. So this is a in our minds historic structure. We brought it to the historical commission. They said that it was you know of historical significance and potentially worth funding. So, we uh put a
request into the CPC for an additional $50,000 for a historical exterior design. So, you know, stairs and decking have to happen and they're happening soon, but we want an it to wrap into an overall design of the building. Um, so,
you know, after that design and a better cost estimate, we plan on going back in fiscal year 28 to CPC for the exterior roof. uh the windows, shingles, those kind of things. Uh but if you can see in some of these photos, it's kind of the the classic x hatching. You know, it
didn't even have a porch on it at one point. There's a a lot of history that's happened to this building in this location. And you know, just doing things in kind. Um you know, it it'd be nice to bring it back to some of its former glory and kind of match the
historical significance of some of the other areas. So right now this is 50k for the deck and stairs. We're hoping that CPC decides to fund the rest for uh you know ensuring that whatever we do with the deck and stairs is going to blend into next year when they do the
entire exterior. >> Eric, um thanks Mr. Chair. Uh two two questions. So when uh and I'll ask them together. When the new upweller is done, what happens with that section of the building? And then do we have any concern about getting to a point in the
uh upgrades here that we trigger some kind of handicap access issues that will um really change the dynamic of how that building's used? >> Yeah. So I mean already, you know, we we are trying to make this ADA accessible.
The overall plan is when that upweller facility goes out of the lower portion of the Harborm building that's going to be, you know, retrofitted into uh office space where people don't have to go up the stairs in order to act with harbor
master staff. So that that lower section is is planned to be used to address people with limited mobility. >> Greg, I had a question. um have really probably the question you didn't want which is so when is the upweller going to get to relocate.
So, um, don't have all the numbers in front of me. You know, potentially, you know, knock on wood, Coastg Guard Boat House coming back to Stage Harbor late February, March. Um, that's going to be too soon for using the Upweller that
spring, but the next spring is what we're shooting for for, you know, that would be a propagation season in the new upweller at 90 Bridge Street. Okay. John, >> Greg, I see the plans for 27 and 28,
they seem to be focused on the exterior. Is there a plan to come before us for support for interior redesign, remodeling? >> So, right now it's probably exterior uh
that that's the historical aspect is is the exterior shell. But I'll let the hard master talk is potential internal components. >> Yeah, I believe we already have uh a uh request for engineering and design I believe uh in our operational right for
interior if I'm not mistaken this year >> it would be a capitalist anything >> but it uh that's been the the first step would be to to try to get the the money to do engineering or design for the interior. Um, so the thought right now
was with the exterior building needing so much uh so much work that we would start with that and also given the uncertainty of when the upweller would be moving uh downstairs, we have a little bit more time to to deal with, but some of the structural components to the exterior and having those funds
potentially available through an alternative source um was kind of the primary. So at some point in the future, yes, we'd be looking to to try to do some renovations within the interior. uh just not certain exactly what budget year that might uh that might be because it's contingent on a number of other factors.
>> When the upweller comes out, you know, there would be monies needed to refurbish the lower area at least. >> Yeah, I I'm happy to hear that um there's a focus to try to preserve the
building, make it modern, if you will, by but also protecting the historical significance of it. And I would hope that you also look at um upgrading utilities, communications, um like do a full rena.
>> It's on our five-year budget or capital budget plan is where >> Greg, is this since you obviously did some historical research, was this part of Alton Kenny's boatyard >> at one point? >> So we I'm sorry. >> The rear building.
>> Oh, the apparent >> only the rear part. >> Rear building. >> Yeah. Okay. Thanks. We we've kind of dipped our toe into the historical references, but it is it is vast. Uh historical commission has done uh they have a specific sheet on it, but you
know, if if this is funded and a full historical, you know, uh redo, re renovation of it is done. Um there would be something on the website, probably a QR code, plaque on the building giving the full description, provenence, all
that of the uh structure. I just I not so fondly recall the corrugated steel sheds that had a tendency to blow down. >> Thanks. Other questions for Greg on this? No, >> just something real quick. I I guess I
just my only comment, it's a comment, not really a question, is you know, everything you're doing makes sense as far as needing to be done and certainly the the stairs and the deck and it sounds like it's a immediate safety type issue, but to dive into some of the exteriors without really knowing what you're doing on the interior downstairs
seems a little bit upside down and, you know, could could be spending money in the wrong direction. So, I just, you know, I know you guys are very thoughtful in the things you do. So, just please kind of keep that in in in on the front screen, what's happening inside as you're trying to put these
exterior positions together. So, >> yep. Absolutely. Certainly appreciate that. And, you know, this is one where historical is is almost purely the outside. So, anything we do inside shouldn't affect the outside at that point. But, we'll
definitely keep that in mind. Uh, next is our storm water management. Uh, 50K, another standing line item. A lot of this has to do with the muts. Uh, relatively, you know, minor cost for the mut disposal containers themselves that
do see damage at the town landings and various spots in town. I believe there's about 25 through town. Uh, but speaking to animal control officer, we go through a lot of muts. Um, this is part of the MS4 Pro and I'm sorry, muts are the the plastic bags to
pick up dog waste. Uh, the idea is to keep it out of the surface water that flows into our estuaries. So, that's why it's part of the MS4 program. You know, that's one aspect of the MS4 over on the right. Not that there's going to be a test uh right now on that, but there's
significant reporting uh regulatory and inspectional requirements as part of MS4. We are just getting kind of up to snuff. Uh EPA is is I believe last I've heard pleased with our progress and we
are uh uh having a robust MS4 program. You may have heard of the storm water regulations under DPW that was part of the uh mandate by EPA to keep us up to compliance. But, you know, this this is also uh a
lot for the uh private contractor to come in and do uh illicit discharge detection uh reviewing some of our um let's see uh good housekeeping and storm water management uh manuals for DPW and
really all around town. >> Yes, >> thanks Andy. Um, Greg, as a occasional user of the muts, I just wanted to point out that they are very plastic intensive. I mean, they're
quite heavy and um larger than they need to be. I mean, sorry, and nonbiodegradable. They're I just wonder if we could take a look and see if we could get They have green bags that are thinner and that do biodegrade. I know some people sort of
toss them in the woods and hope that they'll go away and the green ones will, but those do not. >> Noted. No, I I hear you. You know, plastic in our environment is a concern. Um, I had, you know, kind of assumed they
were the the biodegradable kind, but we'll make sure about that. >> Thanks. >> Good point. Uh last one on the list is 60,000 for household hazardous waste collections. You probably haven't seen this on a capital request. It was in the
operational a number of years ago and then last year it was covered by ARPA funds through Barnstable County. This is the Tritown collection. I believe it's over in Harwitch. Um, and it's a little tricky because we honestly don't know
what the cost is going to be until after the collection happens. So, that's one reason why it it kind of makes sense to be in the capital even though it's a regular recurring expense. We don't know how much it's going to be. And, you know, looking at how much was last year,
we can project, but keeping a little extra in there. you know, otherwise costs went up significantly uh after and during COVID and that has to do with uh Barnstable County runs these all through the county and they have contractors
that go through state procurement and try to get the most advantageous price but you know all the contractors went up in price during that time. So you know I believe the price hasn't quite doubled over the last five years but it is close.
question, Greg. Um, I've gone through the line several times. They keep asking me, "So, which town are you from?" So, does that mean that they're we're actually getting a a accurate aortionment of how much that you know, our town represents and the
expense or is it just serving three towns whack it up into thirds? >> No, they actually do give a percentage. So the percent of people coming in, that's the percent of that particular collection that gets expensed to the town.
>> Okay. Interesting. >> And again, I mean, I I assume everybody is is on board, but the idea of keeping all these, you know, pesticides, cleaners, chemicals out of the groundwater is, you know, >> I it's a great program and and to be able to to originate it from the county
level makes a lot of sense. Yeah, >> we've got to be saving money compared to town by down. >> Absolutely. >> Thanks. >> Uh so this is the last of the um capital items for Department of Natural Resources. After this, I have the three
separate articles. If you'd like, I can go into the digital budget book or we could move directly into the capital articles, whichever you prefer. >> Just uh I want to go back to our grand wooden bridge. At some point it would be helpful, I
noted you talked about preventative maintenance versus big big repair job. Um be helpful to get a an accounting of our annual expenditure on that that piece of infrastructure since it went in
the new bridge went in. >> Yeah. And that that's one of the advantages of having a separate line item like this for it is being able to really just pull up in our financial software, you know, what's been spent every year. >> Some of it might be in operational
versus capital. But the lion share, anything big should have coming out of that uh capital account. But >> and if I could, it would also be just out of curiosity, how how many times is that sucker going up and down in a given year? Uh we average I think around 70 to 80
openings a year. >> Um there's how much? >> Close to >> close to 150 this year, but normally between 70 and 80. Um part of the issues too is that when we first got the bridge, it's not a off-the-shelf bridge as I'm sure you guys are all well aware. Um so being this, you know, kind of a
one-off bridge, made a lot of the initial um maintenance and function of the bridge difficult. So we had some swelling with the timbers. Um that was unexpected because it's a one of its own kind. So you know it was a little expensive in the beginning working with
that. We had some electrical issues. Um you can't call your local electrician to do this. We had to bring people from way down. They go on the clock as soon as they hop in the truck. So um working through some of those issues through the years um has been difficult. We originally specked a maintenance contract out that was north of 85 grand
a year just to have somebody come out and do the maintenance. Um, so we we kind of have cobbled together through the years just the bare minimums. Um, and since we've had the the new position, he was able to go through, as Greg alluded to, with the inspectors, kind of see uh which uh which equipment
uh needed kind of quarterlys, annuals, and so forth. And he's currently developing basically a preventive maintenance program for that bridge. So, we'll be able to do that. Um, but certainly um you know, presenting a an accounting of the bridge would be good. It's just not necessarily an accurate representation of what every year would
look like. Um, and and part of this is building up enough because if we have a a hydraulic failure or electric failure, it's super expensive. So, I think a lot of this is just trying to have the money and funds available if something catastrophic were to happen um to be able to cover it. So, um so in short, uh
like I said, we're making a little more progress than we had over the previous years now that we have someone kind of, you know, overseeing and developing that maintenance program. So, you know, over the next two years or so, we should have a pretty good idea what we're using annually for just routine maintenance and what we may be looking at uh to
increase costs if something catastrophic were to happen. >> Go ahead, John. >> Yeah, I appreciate the explanation. Um I guess I'm interested in the trend. All right. It's nice to hear your the approach you're taking to this, uh
Jason, and hope hopefully the the annual expense is quieting down or is becoming more predictable. It's with >> the exception of the the catastrophic issues. >> The electrical components have been expensive. Um just like some of the design, the um the way that the wires
kind of loop down to the poles didn't have a dip. So you're getting drain uh water draining directly down which sorted out a lot of stuff and kind of corroded a lot of the equipment. So that had to be repaired. Um we had some sensors um on the uh the lock stops that went through that we had to adjust uh
some of the gate issues. It's it's really just kind of getting accustomed to those types of things. We haven't knock on wood, we haven't had anything bad over the past few years. Um but certainly those first five years or so was just kind of abnormal, especially with the swelling of the timber. Um was really unusual and something that wasn't
accounted for. And it really wasn't a I mean, you're shaving wood at that point. You can't really put a cost estimate on how much it it cost to have someone come in and do that. So um but yeah, happy to ever uh provide whatever you guys are looking for in the future over that because I'm I'm curious myself. So, >> thanks
>> Greg. I do I do have a question regarding um conservation division. >> Um the presentation notes that there's the total operating budget of 441,000 and change representing a
decrease of 4.3% from the prior year. Um wonderful but you know what are we giving up in that? something anything >> there's a decrease in >> it's the top of page two in the presentation Carrie
in the written it didn't track for me so I'm trying to figure out >> are you talking about the coastal conservation division >> yes >> or is that just an error in the written piece is here.
>> Oh, it must be in >> I'll have to go back and look and double check and see what that is. >> Yeah, top of page two in the in the written piece. >> Yep, I know. But I have to actually look at the detail. >> Oh, yeah. In the budget book, it's showing a 4.3% increase.
>> So then it's probably just an error. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> That that would be my guess. I I don't think there were any reductions that would have brought it down that much. Well, that's that's what I was looking for and I didn't find any. So, I finally went back to the source in the budget
>> for seeing that. >> Great. Thank you. >> Okay. Um I'll move into the waterfront infrastructures uh projects and separate articles. So, you know, I'm not just
going to talk about the two waterfront infrastructure projects. You know, I do want to mention kind of the the five big ones we're dealing with right now to give you a feel. Um, message received about having uh u these projects lumped
together at town meeting requests. We are doing separate articles for each one going forward. So, our our five big ones right now are finishing up 90 bridge which you know is fully funded, our Little Mill Pond Pier, Fish Pier
Walkway, Ryder's Cove, and Barn Hill. So before I kind of dive into each of those, I did want to talk about, you know, where the money is coming from. So our three primary funding sources are over on the left there. Um, one where it
says, uh, annual town meeting article 21 from 2017, we usually refer to this as the waterfront bond. Um, this still has about 2.2 2 million left in it. Although some of that money was recently allocated for the south jog walkway at
the fishpier. The special town meeting article one from 2024 that was 4 million authorized specifically for 90 bridge versus that uh 2017 article which was for the multiple projects.
There's about 2.2 million left in that article as well. The waterways user fee revolving fund currently has or back in December had 1.4 million in it. And I did just kind of want to stress the value of this waterfront um user fee
revolving fund. This is something that's really been able to one get us up and running with some of these projects that have been on the back burner. So being able to engage an engineer to get our design and permit in place before we bring it to town meeting, we can have
more robust engineer cost estimates coming into town meeting. So that that's one of the values. So uh let's see, back in 2025, we allocated 80,000 from the wolf for uh Little Mill Pond Pier. you
know, as part of that project, we also put a request in uh for CPC, which I'll cover when we get to that. In also in 25, we had 140,000 for Writer's Cove. In 2026,
we allocated 59,000 for Barn Hill. And that's really in my mind one of the uh success stories. We're able to use that fund to immediately or as soon as feasibly possible uh do a temporary
repair of the bulkhead to restore access and in addition, you know, start the design permitting process because Barnhill really jumped at the head of the list unexpectedly after that report. And I'll cover that report when I get to that particular one. I just wanted to mention the wolf and the funds and and
what's being used for each. And we do likely anticipate a wolf request uh for the final phase of 90 bridge, but we're still, you know, about to go through procurement for that very last phase. Um, and you know, some of the good news over on the right hand side is what
we've been able to defay some of the costs for these projects. uh for outside funding sources and I do include CPC even though that's still kind of town money. Um over 4.5 million has been brought in almost entirely for
90 bridge. Um there was that one for Little Mill Pond Pier down there uh for 500,000 but you know Seapport Economic Council grants have been very good to us. You know the original design uh 1 million for construction and then we got another
award just very recently. And I do want to mention these last couple ones that we received. So the Seapport Economic Council grant really I I want to say um changed some of the criteria that they grade upon. I want to say if we had gone
in for just a bulkhead construction, it may not have been funded as opposed to previous years where it seemed like that was kind of the thrust of it. Uh but being able to request funds for the return of the boat house, uh turning it
into a um educational facility in addition to an upweller facility in addition to a historical facility which also services commercial, recreational, fishing, and boating. I think that's really the the crux of how we were able to, you know, get additional awards for
the same address. And then that um uh MDAR uh food security infrastructure grant. There weren't too many grants out there uh for shellfish upwellers. This one hit the mark. So these weren't ones that
were typically sought uh in many years, but we were able to identify them and and these all of these were really a collaboration between our department, whether it's our shellfish constable, our harbor master, our coastal resilience director. It was all hands on
deck to kind of bring these funds here for this project. Um, and you know, especially 90 Bridge takes that many cooks. There's a lot of stakeholders involved with that project. >> Go ahead. >> Thank Thank you, Mr. Chair. So with this
great great work um with the four and a half million from the right side of the screen and that the rem the the remaining balance of 2.2 to that or or has this 4.5 already been
spent or it it I guess my question is are we anticipating that remaining balance being used or potentially being turned back over and if so does it just not get borrowed or does it move on to another
project? So for these particular grants, you know, really it's going through 90 bridge first, right? Um and we're planning on using that special town meeting article one. That's the only project it was allocated for. Um, honestly, I would have been a little
hesitant to go for to go through procurement for the South Shog Walkway if we hadn't gotten those grants because that freed up some of the capacity in the 2017 uh bond which had uh the Fish Pier and really all these projects listed in it.
So, we are planning to use, you know, the original bond to kind of get these other ones started as needed. And that's uh I think part of what I can show on this next slide is what you've kind of seen before for 90 bridge. Um this was
presented um yeah so this is where we are about now although we're wrapping up one and we're about to go through procurement. So it's one of those we don't know how much it's going to cost until we get that last procurement. We have engineered estimates that have contingencies. So, we're doing our, you
know, best to get the estimates, but prices go up over time. Uh, this particular one I'm showing because here's last year's numbers, right? So, we're we're about 2 million less of town funds than we thought we'd be last year. And this is predominantly due to grants
and the fact that the overall cost went down a little bit that uh uh the RBO uh the RBO and also the bulkhead was slightly less than our estimates or really it was within that 25% contingency we had built into it. So if
this last phase is within our engineered estimates I'll have a much better idea of what's left in each one of those bonds. you know, the the special town meeting 2024, that's only 90 bridges. That won't be used for any other projects. But if there's still capacity
in the 2017, which I certainly assume there would be unless there's a major cost increase in procurement unexpectedly, you know, that that's going to help us move along some of these other ones and defay the costs. it I if these projects finish up and
it's still money in the bank, you know, if they weren't listed in the original 2017 bond and those projects are done, it I assume it would just get turned back or not borrowed. >> Yeah. So, if the funds aren't used or borrowed and not needed, then we would
resend them. >> Farmer, >> thanks, Mr. Chair. Um, Greg, I just want to echo what Tracy said initially. it. This is great work. All the all the grant funds that you have managed to get. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. No, we're we're very
proud of the team. >> Um and and just some, you know, glamour shots of 90 bridges. We're seeing a lot of progress recently. Uh so 2017 and upper left, 2025 over on the right. We've seen a lot of progress since then. We've had our piles installed. We have
our deck in place. Um may not be able to see it perfectly, but that crane over on the left, that kind of cement um looks like raised area around it, that's actually the sill that the boat house is going to be placed on. We're doing the stringers um and uh joist for the
decking right now. So that'll get done before the boat house comes back. And the boat house, you know, made its trip from Quincy. It's sitting in New Bedford. It's going through final prep. And hopefully it will be coming back here end of February, beginning of March. very weather dependent.
Don't want to take any risk with it, but you know, very good progress moving forward and I I think that the light at the end of the tunnel is is finally able to be seen with this one. >> Go ahead, John. >> So, back on the spreadsheet that you had the slide prior to this, am I reading
reading that right? So, 38% of the project has been funded through grants. >> I don't have my calculator on me, but th those are the the numbers for the grants. That's pretty amazing because the town wanted it done with or without grants. We were hopeful we get grants,
but you've been able to bring in roughly 38% of the money spent on the project. >> Yeah. I mean, >> sources our Jason and I's predecessors, you know, Ted Stewart, uh, Dr. Bob did a did a great job bringing in funds and
we've tried to continue along that path and identify other areas to kind of reduce the cost. This is not an insignificant cost. This is new waterfront development versus just using our uh maintaining and rebuilding our existing ones. So, it's going to be
pricey. So, anything we can do to reduce >> Tommy. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Jim. Uh do you have any idea when the completion of that building will be? >> So, I I had mentioned we want the
Upweller in use, not this coming spring, but the spring afterwards. We expect them to turn the facility over to the shellfish department, you know, kind of late winter, immediately before that. >> Thank you. >> Um, and I I I do want to kind of
emphasize too, we've been very careful to try to keep as much of that postage stamp of a property as open as possible. So, at the what what used to be called the tap pier, the extension pier over in that area, uh that should be usable
relatively soon within a few months and we're planning on keeping that open even while the work is going on within the upweller building. So, you know, some parking access to that extension pier and then maybe gets closed for a month at the end of summer uh just to kind of
get the final grade and work for the parking lot. But you know trying to keep as much open in any given time. >> Thank you. >> Sure. >> But this is just to give a context for the other two articles that we're actually talking about.
Um the another one is that Little Mil Pond Pier. So engineering and design was funded through the Wolf. We went last year through the uh community preservation act funds. We got about 500,000 of those. We're working with an
engineer PAR. Uh you can see those two images over on the right. Those are just a couple alternatives and it's changed significantly since then. It's gone to the various uh water related committees in town for their input about what's usable, what's helpful. And you know
those images over on the left are just to indicate you know it it's time between the uh degradation of the pilings and the fact that you know this this is what's called sunny weather flooding. It's not even necessarily storm related. You know that this
structure has been around a significant amount of time. Sea level has risen during that time. We want the structure to last you know many decades. So, we're trying to incorporate any potential sea level rise into that time frame. That said, we don't want to increase it too
high too quick. We want it still be a usable working waterfront. So part of it is that we are going to increment up a bit to at least match our existing sea level versus what it was when it was constructed many decades ago and build a little bit of extra resilience in it but
predominantly making sure that it's still relatively easy to expand higher you know 20 40 60 years down the road. It's not going to take a full reconstruction. In addition to that we're working for the parking lot area. Uh we're going to have a storm water
project that also increases the elevation and matches the increased elevation of the pier so you don't have to you know wade through a foot of water to get to a pier that's out of the water. Uh a lot of that hopefully all of it is uh funded through an NRCS project
uh with the Cape Cod Conservation District as it treats the first inch of storm water going into the water body. I'll uh move on to the next one. This is our Fish Pier walkway that we've talked about for quite a while since I've been here. You know, we've gone from a cany
levered, which I finally don't have to say or show anymore. Now, we're on a pileup supported walkway. The whole idea is that our box trucks are using this area. Right now, we have those jersey barriers. It's not necessarily as safe as we want it to be, right? because the
the jersey barriers still will allow people to step over, fall over, that kind of thing. So, what we're going to do is create this pileup supported walkway, remove the jersey barriers, which also allows us the one of the main points of that reconstruction was to allow two vehicles down there instead of
one. So, we're finally going to be able to use it for its intended, you know, full design spec. This is one uh that we brought to the select board, I think within the last month. uh they did uh vote to approve
using that 2017 bond money uh which was part of it was originally designed for the uh fish pier and the walkways part of that original uh allocation. So again it it was a little nerve-wracking but with our recent grant applications you
know we we think we have the capacity in that 2017 that's not going to delay any of the other projects. this particular project. You know, I've we've all worked with the fishing community very closely. Harbor Masteraster and his crew knew them very well. You know, we don't want
to get into a time frame then this is affecting their season. So, that was one of the stipulations we put in the procurement. They proposed a middle of April demo where they'll be completely done. You know, we've given them till I think early miday and after that the
penalties start racking up. So, you know, we're we're this was a rapid procurement to say the least. And I think we have our kickoff meeting tomorrow. >> Greg, yeah, >> quick question on that. The contractor on that is what? AC >> ACK.
>> Yeah, ACK. Okay. >> I don't know if that's actually an acronym or their name or >> ACK. >> Yeah, ACK. Uh they were the same ones that did the trap dogs >> and they and they they got a great reputation and with any luck we can stick to that time frame. That'd be beautiful. >> That's the plan.
>> I have a question though. The candle lever originally came about because it was a question whether or not we would be able to put anything on the sand to the south of the the edge. Isn't that CBI property?
It's right up to the edge, but it's >> So, the pilings are going to go right to the edge. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. I I just >> Yeah. No, it >> I I'd be disappointed to find that out now after we designed them permanent, but it was definitely a point of conversation.
>> Yeah. Okay. All right. Great. No, I'm glad I'm glad it worked out. >> Thank you, Tommy. >> Greg, are all three units of that building being in use? So if we're talk, there's two fish packing bays that are in use and also
the fuel lease which is in use. >> So everything's occupied. We're all leased up. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Great. Thanks. >> Sure. So uh first one of the articles uh that I'll be talking about is Barn Hill.
We have a a ballpark number of 2 million. We've had some estimates come in. We're trying to figure out exactly how much contingency this might go up to about 2.2, but I think we have a little bit of time before we have to nail down the final number. Not too much time, but
we have the contractor and engineer on board that are doing doing the design permit. Um, again, with these individual articles, we just want to be very sure that we can fund it through that article because we can't go to any of the other ones. Um, so we we want to make sure
there's capacity within there. As you probably know, we did have to shut down that section of the bulkhead uh after we got a report from GEI showing that it it really wasn't safe to have loads on it. So, they did give us
some repair guidance. We had a welder go out as soon as feasibly possible and were able to repair the section of the whale that was honestly repairable. We couldn't even do the whole thing as a temporary. We did as much as we could, which should be enough for at least one
box truck at a time to kind of get in and allow people to load and unload off that structure. You know, this this is one where we'd like to be able to open the whole thing as soon as possible and it is a temporary repair. We have our
engineer doing the design permit for it. So, this is when we thought we had more time. We were going to come at a later town meeting. the inspection report kind of, you know, brought it more to the top of the list. So that's why we're bringing it at this town meeting versus
a later. And I I'm happy to answer any questions about it. We have gotten at least some preliminary designs. I don't believe they've gotten to the water committees yet, but they will shortly. Next one is Writer's Cove. This is one
high priority one that's been on our list. I mean, intensely used. Um, we've been very careful and will be very careful about, you know, the construction window, just like the fish pier. We don't want to impact it, certainly during the summer season. You
can see over on the right hand side, that's an example of one of the many repairs that we've had to do. And this one isn't as bad as Barnhill. This one, uh, we'll see some settling along the edge. If you've seen the gravel along there, that's why it's gravel now, so we can see it coming instead of some of the
asphalt dropping. Uh over on the left side, that's part of the boat ramp that's deteriorated over the years. We'll have people go out kind of in the spring, see how it looks or or when our town landing officers or harbor master staff identify some of the rebar poking out, we'll shave that down and uh reduce
the danger of some of those. But this is one that's been coming a long time. Uh we did separate out some of the expanded parking kind of over on the get my directions right over on the left the south area of the landing closer to the
uh MCI building. So hopefully that'll be happening um kind of spring time frame that those parking spaces at least the ones that aren't in the conservancy district will be extended just due to the uh larger vehicles and trailers in the area letting them park a little bit
easier and maneuver a little bit more easy. Uh right now we're still in the the design phase and presenting it to the committees. A lot of this is looking at the configuration of the floats. We're going to replace the floats, the bulkhead, and uh potentially look at the
exact angle of the ramp and if there's any improvements that can be done for the flow of people backing their trailers down in there. You know, one thing we've looked at is, you know, maintenance versus replacement. When we look back at Barn Hill, you know, some
of those areas along that bulkhead was uh either repaired or replaced um a number of years ago. I want to say 20-ish years ago. I don't think necessarily the right treatment was placed on it, but right now the even the area that wasn't replaced, all of it
needs to be replaced at the same time. Now, um this is a situation where we have steel sheeting in a marine environment. You know, it starts off with zincs or whatever particular maintenance requirements are put on it by the
engineer. These are really intended to be, you know, put there and replaced on a certain schedule. At least the one at Barnhill, I think, was done in the 80s. I couldn't tell you exactly what year. It's been there 40ish, 50-ish years. You know, the
materials will likely be using on this next phase. It's very unlikely to be steel. It will probably be an FRP product if you've seen over at uh 90 Bridge Street that holds up a lot better to the marine environment, especially when you don't have a lot of waves striking it like this. So that that's
one way where we're trying to extend the longevity of these. Um this one is estimated at 3.5 million and we did get the uh engineer construction estimate for that. Again, you know, we're we're going to be looking at the contingencies, you know, whether 25% is
enough contingency and, you know, also once we get our procurement back from the 2017 waterfront bond, you know, that'll let us know how much potential capacity is in there, if there are any overruns. But of course, if there are overruns, we go to 2017, we would bring
that before the select board because they are kind of the the stop gap to make sure that the 2017 funds are being used for the appropriate use and to allow public comment. >> Greg, I have a question. Um the one of the issues with the ramp as well as the
float, um it looks like there's been a lot of tiltation in there. uh is this including a plan of any kind for mechanical dredging or >> so I hopefully it will reduce some of that
siltation like one of the aspects is uh you know at the very end of the ramp putting some kind of articulated concrete or something to potentially reduce the amount of you know uh vessel turbulation >> right
>> um right now the plan you know the DP PW comes in and can scrapes on a fairly regular basis. We can talk about that, but you know, it's I can't say for sure. Well, we'll bring it to our engineers. It'll be discussed
in waterways committees. I believe they're at least planning for the sides of it, not allowing it to overflow. If it's coming, you know, from the water side, there's not too much we can do other than when it fills up, you know, call DPW. I mean my observation at least is the some seawward of the bulkhead the
big bulkhead the main bulkhead and that may be leakage from underneath just sediment getting out. >> No that's very true in fact where that hole is right there is >> that would be a prime suspect. >> Yeah. >> Right.
>> So over in that area. So yeah I mean material could definitely be lost from the bulkhead itself going on there in addition coming from the marine environment. Now in terms of resilience um you know certainly I and plenty of others have observed that as we begin to get high tides or extraordinary high
tides um one of the first things that floods is the uh drain in the parking lot as the water begins to come up and fill the parking lot. Are we going to attempt to raise any of this?
>> Yeah. So that that is part of the design permit. you know, re really all our waterfront projects we put a focus of coastal resilience on. We're looking at the potential for increasing the height of the bulkhead. I can have Jason talk about the bulkhead
cap and potential expansions of that. Um, one of the issues even if we do raise the parking lot is, you know, working with the adjacent property on it. Just if water comes around whatever we're doing, then it's not going to be as effective. But we are starting conversations about that. And also to
help answer your question, uh the design calls for uh basically a one-way valve on the end of that uh pipe that drains out to help prevent that from coming in and just allow water to flow out. Um as Greg just alluded to though, that that's fine for the title water that's coming up up through the drain, it should
resolve that issue. However, when it comes over the bulkhead, separate issue. So, as he alluded to, um you know, we're going to reach out to the u budding property owner to see if they have any plans in the near future to to replace their bulkhead. But, uh one of the preliminary designs of this also allows
for um a design to where um you would be able to increase the bulkhead height in future years to accommodate coastal resilience uh at a much cheaper rate without having to redo the entire bulkhead. It has to do with the design of the cap log and being able to add on to that. Um, so you know, whether the
property owner decides to do that in the future and wants to raise it, we'd be able to match that or even on our own just to go up over time. Um, but it's uh it's, you know, a a very likely design that we'll probably severely entertain. Um, this also has built into it uh some of the offloading shelves there as well.
So even if we do go up a little bit, um, you know, boers, whether they're commercial shell fishermanmen or or recreational boers, will have ledges to be able to put uh their gear up on and then put it up onto there as well. So, it's a tricky area to try to account for that. And Greg mentioned it earlier. It's a really uh it's a really tight
line that we're walking a lot of times between functionality of a town landing and trying to account for coastal resiliency. It was brought up at the select board meeting the other night about how fine that is with some of these projects, but I think they've done a great job so far of kind of presenting um options for the future that where we can do both. So, in this in this
instance, I think the preliminary designs will will hopefully allow us to do that. >> Great. Thank you. Others? No. Okay. Thank you. And then our last one is a a familiar one. This has been coming
every year. Um at at one point it was 300,000 in capital and I believe it was a h 100,000 within the um regular capital. I forget how expenses kind of in the operating um but now everything is within this
separate capital article for 400k. But it's not like there was an increase in number. It's just that both those are contained within this one. Now, uh this is uh proposed through use of the tax levy. Um just a little like where we are right now with dredging
over on the right. That was back in May of 2025. That's Mil Creek. um with a time of year extension, which I may refer to as a toy. Um we were able to kind of punch through at Mil Creek there and restore tidal flow. It was a near
thing. Um we did that with a kind of speedy permit because our 10-year permit is hopefully I've been knocking on wood a lot lately. U should be wrapping up this week or next week. So we we have
assurances from the Army Corps that even if the government shuts down, their particular branch will be able to get us over the line within the next week or two. We've done all our coordination with Fish and Wildlife and all of the other federal agencies. So we're so very close to that permit now. Um and it's a
good thing because we have a lot of siltation at Ant Lydia's Cove. There's a lot of moorings over there. Uh just kind of north is kind of to the right. So over on the east side of the channel, um we did engage with a contract to to
remove, I think, 20 of those moorings along there, and those are very large moing. I want to say 6,000ish pounds. Uh so they had to get pulled out before the dredge gets there. The dredge right now, right now, was I think frozen in place,
but as soon as they're able to move again, uh they're going to finish up the project. I believe they're in Yarmouth, and start chugging their way over here. and then you know starting dredging as soon as we have that permit in place. So why we make these requests?
One, it's very good to have match in hand for grants. We currently have two state dredging grants. One for the Mill Creek and Antucket Sound area uh that we're able to use. That's a 50/50. So the state splits the cost with us. And then same thing up here in Ant Lydia's.
That'll be another 50/50 split with the state. Sadly, the state has not allocated those dredge monies for the matching grants coming forward uh for this next fiscal year. So, we don't know. That's a little uncertainty moving forward.
That said, we still have, you know, a decent amount in our capital dredging account because we haven't had our 10-year permit in place and because the Army Corps came last year uh and did some of the stage harbor work, which isn't a direct cost to the town or not a major cost. We do uh spend some money on
supporting that, but it's nowhere near the price of doing it ourselves. So, we have spent some money over in Mil Creek. We plan to spend more money in Ant Lydia's Cove. Um really, you know, this is we look at it every year to see how much. We think
it's still a reasonable number for this year, especially because the Barnstable County rates are going to be changing. Um there is a proposed escalation over the next few years which is going to increase cost. We don't know what the state is going to do with dredge grants.
We don't know if the Army Corps of Engineers is going to swing by and take care of stage harbor or we have to do that. So, there's a lot of uncertainties with this additional money. I think we're covered for the next year, maybe even two years, but we take a look every
year to see how much needs to be added into kind of the the bank for what needs to be dredged. >> Go ahead, Trace. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is this the sort of is dredging somewhere that monies from the wolf can
be pulled over if need be or if there's surplus in the waterways user fee can be applied to this? >> You know, we haven't thought about it specifically for that. Um, it's I I'd
have to look at the exact wording in the wolf. feel like it might be for infrastructure projects versus dredging. You know, it could it could be explored. Um, but I I don't want to say right now without taking a deeper dive on it. Um, I mean, I I think a lot of the intention
and it's a little tough, but the Fish Pier leases and a lot of the other leases, you know, feed into the Wolf and provide a certain amount. Um, so I I don't think there's really Do you know right off with the Wolf? It's it was
very specific in the language that went before town meeting about it. I I believe that dredging uh would be allowed to be supported. And the issue is is that dredging is so expensive that it would eat through e even the kitty that we have like ridiculously quick. We
we bring in about 250,000 a year um with that. But I'll double check right now. But I leave I believe believe that was one of the things that was specific um whenever the uh the article went through. Um but it's you know we have a decent amount in it right now. But these
dredging projects are so expensive at times um that it would just completely wipe it out. Well, that that's a good point, too. And I I think one of the reasons the wolf is fairly flush right now is because the the waterways comm water related committees have recommended we keep a decent amount in
there for 90 bridge if needed. Uh shellfish specifically has been very hesitant to, you know, recommend spending the wolf unless we have a decent aotment kind of sitting in reserve to make sure 90 bridge comes forward during the right date for the right, you know, we we don't want
another year delay. Um I in addition to you know the vulnerabilities of the upweller in its current location in addition to not having the expanded capacity at the new location you know costs go up every year so we certainly don't want to add costs due to any potential delay.
>> Greg is the is the um you know is the 10-year permit is that incorporating any new potential areas to be dredged or for disposal of dredge spoil. So, similar to the last one, we have zones of dredging. So, that it's
actually uh you can think of it like a a polygon along really each side of Turn Island. We don't have immediate plans to dredge on the other side, but we wanted that flexibility in the 10-year plan. >> So, that's been one of the challenges
talking to the regulatory committees that we're we're not planning on dredging this entire polygon. We're just going to do a navigational channel within that polygon. But if conditions change and it's impossible to maintain a list position, we want to be able to shift to the other side.
>> Do we still have a polygon in the area of Fox Hill for instance? >> I'd have to >> or minister's point. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. >> I'm sorry. Go ahead, Trace. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. just sort of as a
followup to I mean obviously in order to participate and use the waterways the the the dredging is part and parcel to that. Um, I wonder if it's been considered given the increase in cost of
dredging the a commensurate increase in the waterway user fee because in order to access those facilities, the dredging has to happen.
>> Yeah, I mean that that's something Oh, after you. So, um I just looked up the um article for the waterways user fee revolving fund and it states that um let's see
um appropriation due to to defay waterways capital expenses related to design permitting construction major repair or replacement of public waterfront waterway infrastructure. So that's what it that's how it is written.
Um I believe in order to add the dredging we'd probably have to go back to town meeting to include it in there. >> Yeah. And then you know not just dredging everything's going up as we've seen with 90 bridge and all our
waterfront projects really everything the wolf is being used for you know prices have increased >> I don't have I don't know when's the last time it >> since the inception. Yeah, I I don't think it has increased or >> It was instituted I think like eight
years ago. Um and it hasn't been a cost increase uh since then. Um but it it also like Carrie said, it was used for a number of different things. So I don't know if any one of those things would drive an increase necessarily uh for those. I thought it did have something
originally about dredging that may have been dropped when it went through the process, but um but no, I mean it's every year we kind of stop and evaluate things. Um but uh annually, like I said before, we we take in about um about 250,000 in revenue to that. And to date,
it's been, you know, as Greg mentioned earlier, a great resource to help defay some of these. It's just not necessarily a primary funding source um for a lot of these other ones. So, >> sure. I was just asking in terms of you
know the things that it does get applied to help you know if those all are increasing in cost you know perhaps a some some level of increase in the users's contribution not just the town's
contribution might make sense >> yeah I think you make sense >> John Greg I think You mentioned time of year relief. Did you get some relief on the time of year restrictions? >> So, uh, when I was talking Mil Creek,
that was actually a waiver at the end. Uh, if anything, our time of year has been restricted even a little bit more. We now have red knots in addition to uh, clovers, horseshoe crabs, and winter flounder. So, it it is not a tremendously long time where we can do
work. One of the things that we've been working with Barnstable County is, you know, certain areas will be closed for winter flounder, but might still be open in another area until the red knots or clovers get there. So, kind of juggling
that schedule uh is difficult. Um the county has been very vocal and we have added our voice at times about looking for you know reasonable um flexibility but you know in in the
10-year permit we'd have to request waiverss and if we need them we certainly plan on it. That's what we did for Mil Creek previously. >> And those those time of year restrictions aren't based on actual observed presence. They're just in the calendar and
>> it it's a zone of presence. So let's say winter flounder in Pleasant Bay. It's they may not or you know I I don't think there's been a winter flounder off of 90 Bridge for quite some time but you know it's still a species that could use that
area. So, you know, one way we kind of worked with the regulatory agency for 90 bridge was putting up a uh silk curtain that potentially excluded winter flounder from coming in during their seasons who were able to continue inwater work. Um certainly more
difficult for some of the landbased species when we're doing dredging and nourishment, but you know, it's it is a challenge. Okay, proceed. Greg, >> really that's about it. Um, this was my last slide. Uh, so we have dredging,
Barnhill, and Writers Cove is the three capital, and I'm happy to go over them or any part of the operating or expenses. John, >> I I I don't have any specific questions on the capital projects, but I seem to
remember back in 2017 or when we were talking about the the waterfront bond bill, Crows Pond was originally on the project list and >> it dropped off maybe a year or two ago. Um so just in general curious about that
and also other town landings like Cotch Pinnick, Scattery, Strong Island. um any longer range plans to address any issues you guys see there? >> Yeah, so with Crows Pond anyway um you
know and and really all of the landings have been brought to the water related committees and discussed. Our coastal resilience director now brings up pretty much an update for every single one of them every month to provide to them. Uh, Crows Pond is such a low area and really
that road is a very low area too. Um, that's one thing that the Cape Cod Commission looked at it with the town. It was one of the low-lying roads uh to see what might be done along there. We did put an MVP grant in to see if we could address it. It wasn't funded. Um,
there's there's not too much that can be done at Crow's Pond. So I I think that's probably the primary reason where it kind of fell off. Um at at some point, you know, with sea level rise and changes with that, if it's likely not
feasible to put enough material to maintain the water or unless we address the road, there's really no point. You know, it may be looking at other ways of enjoying the area where it may not be, you know, parking per se, but it it may be kind of an an access area or instead
of a ramp, it might be a a dock or a pier to be able to to enjoy that particular spot. But, you know, it it's one that we're looking at, but it doesn't have great ability to do much with it yet. One of the natural limitations to using
that area too is the the parking. So, and we still have a significant number of moorings in in the pond, >> but being able to use those moorings is challenging. >> Yeah. And I mean, we have taken a look at our various landings to see if
there's potential expansion for parking. you know, as you probably guessed, there there usually isn't uh between the the various, you know, state and local regulations, expanding into adjacent coastal resource areas is almost impossible. Um, we expand and,
you know, make things as efficient as possible, but I I think you know some of the challenges with with crows and some of the other ones, but we are looking. >> Okay, Barbara. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, Greg, under the health department's prior year
accomplishments, they mentioned that they held multiple hearings on short-term rental violations. Um, what sorts of things are people doing that are short-term rental violations? And are the fines that we're imposing stiff enough to discourage the behavior?
So the the primary violation or I think might even be the only violation that would actually bring them in or warrant a fine was not registering. So if if a concern is found during an actual inspection that's noted and I think all
of them have been addressed, but it's it's the lack of registration that has brought people in because I think we got an additional about 200 this year compared to last year. Um the way the fines have been working is
if we don't get you know any response back to phone calls, emails and you know our our staff know that it's being used as a rental because it's on Airbnb have you or one of the other sites. Uh so we we can't identify that it is being used
as that or it might be on the state list but not the town list. They might not know about it. Uh so fines are assessed and I believe I don't want to give you the wrong number. It's either $200 or $300 a day. >> So, it stacks up over a week or two weeks. I think one of the largest one we
had was many thousands of dollars, but when somebody comes in, it almost always gets reduced. So, I I think the last board of health meeting that I came to, you know, they're looking for compliance versus, you know, pain and suffering. So
they I think they took like you know a twoe one and knocked it down to a one day that kind of thing. So at that point they're registered they're in the system which is really what board of health was looking for. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Sure. >> Related question to board of health
Craig. Um one of the things that we've heard about periodically is um a lag in people hooking up to the sewer systems that are newly installed. and board of health we understand is the one that is issuing the orders to
connect but where is the enforcement? >> So enforcement has been spotty so far. Uh part of which you know it it has been going on a long time. >> Sure. >> But
there were a lot of reasonable excuses if you will. COVID was a major one. getting engineers to do the work was a major one. So, everybody is still in the system and if they have not connected yet, we know about it. Um there hasn't been significant
enforcement uh especially if there was going to be a requirement for a grinder pump to be able to use it. There was a moratorium on any kind of enforcement or connection order. So, it it really hasn't there there haven't been many fines associated with that yet. Now, there is
going to be a new round of connection orders coming up probably within the next few months. Um, and with that, we're going to a new system which is going to remind the other people who still haven't connected at which point if we don't kind of hear back from them with plans of when they're going to
connect. You know, the board of health would consider what enforcement they would want at that point. You know, the main thing is compliance and connection. And this is a long-term effort. You know, it's going to take decades to actually clean the water, but we want
people connected as soon as possible. Definitely. >> Has the grinder pump payment issue come up or been resolved yet? >> I'm trying to think if we have the final policy. I I know that at least a number of grinder pumps have been acquired and
they were going to be provided. I I I don't want to speak too much because I can't remember off the top of my head, but it it's certainly been talked about and I think it may have been resolved. >> I think that's more of a question for Rob Philly. >> No, I understand, but it was also it was
sort of the other prime suspect in the delays, right? >> Yeah. C certainly the recent delays. >> Yeah. Right. Okay. I appreciate it. Thank you. >> Rob will be here. >> Oh, >> thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, also Greg,
under the goals for shellfish department, they were talking about emerging threats of invasive um, species of shellfish. Have we had some of those or are we just getting prepared in case?
>> So, I'm trying to remember. I I wish I could remember there there's a specific clam that is a southern clam that's just starting to show up in the area. I don't know if anyone here remembers the name of it. I'm not going to be able to tell
you right off. It's not displacing a large amount of natives yet, but it's one that we're keeping an eye on. Um, some of the other potential invasive species, even, you know, kodium and and certain types of seaweed are invasive species that we want to keep an eye on. Uh, if there's any kind of pathogenic
bacteria, that's something we really want to keep an eye on. So, that's something that we test for. Um, but you know, invasive species in general and we do have a few specific ones that we're looking at. >> Thanks, >> Joanne. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, it seems like
the town lately has been talking a lot about helping the taxpayers in different ways and for different reasons, which u I think is a good subject to talk about. But when we're talking about the installation of the sewer and the
grinding uh whatever you call it, uh I think that's worth looking at for giving some taxpayer relief. I don't know what system you would use, but I think the importance of that is way high when
we're talking about the areas of importance to the town and what we, the town as a whole, can do to encourage the completion of the work we've put into it and the money we've put into it to
encourage the uh taxpayer, the the person who's having to do install the sewer connection. see what we can do maybe to help them. Is there a plan other than making sure they know where they can borrow the money? And something
I've said every year, but I don't know if still if many people use it, uh, you get a tax credit over a period, a certain percentage over a period of years, which is like money when you're filling out your your tax return. So, I
think it's an important area when we're talking about helping the taxpayers and the benefit you would get from that sort of investment in the taxpayer by the town. It's worth looking into. >> Absolutely. And I I feel bad. I don't want to put too much on Rob's plate, but
I I know at least for grinder pumps, there is some talk about, you know, either providing the pump or if people have already installed a grinder pump, maybe reimbursing. I don't want to step completely out of my wheelhouse now, but it it's definitely been talked about at
many select board meetings that I've been present at and I I think there may be funding in place with the new I think even in the last town meeting there was a certain money set aside for grinder pumps within the overall uh uh
sewer article. So >> like Rob could serve. >> There was a assistance program put in place and there is a grinder pump policy but I >> it's on I if you like I I can talk to Rob or I may be able to hunt down the policy and provide it to Carrie and she
could provide it to the committee. >> I think we should get a start on that. >> It states right here in the policy the town will provide a homeowner with a onetime universal stipen to help offset the installation costs associated with grinder pumps. The installation stipen will be $2,000 and will be increased
2.55% annually to align with the historic consum historic consumer price index. It's online. You can find it online if you just um go on the town's website and put in uh grinder pump policy. It's in there.
>> Sound like a good idea. the the importance of the sewer project to uh the present and to the future of the town is worth putting some real thought into how we have an an abundance of people who simply can't afford or won't
afford to uh to hook up. And I think it's it's more important than a lot of things because of our town's investment and the taxpayers's investment in the whole sewer program. So I I hope that the town as a whole is going to start
looking at what can we do to encourage that and get the project done. >> So I I I think this might likely come up when you speak to uh Rob Phy DPW and I think that might be a joint one with select board. Uh I I guess I do just
want to hearken back a little bit to one of the um board of health meetings I attended and some of the conversation. So, you know, for for people who've been living in town for many years, having this additional expense, I think the board of health, you know, doesn't want
to fine or get people out of their homes. But, you know, these properties are flagged if, you know, a major, you know, refurb the house or a tear down, rebuild, something like that. There there's a flag on that property that,
you know, you need to do your sewer connection first. if the property changes hand, you need to do your sewer connection first. So, I mean, these things are kind of coming slower, but it's that there is there are some safeguards in place. >> Greg, you're you're absolutely right. We
will have another opportunity to talk about this at our February 3rd meeting joint with the board of selectment or with the select board rather. That's DVW. >> Yes. And just to add, there is a sewer assistance grant program policy in place as well be with the article that was
voted on last year at town meeting. I don't want you to forget about that. It was a $50,000 uh grant award and it um the policy states that onetime grants in the amount of up to $2,000 per res per resident
will be awarded to applicants meeting eligibility criteria. And that's also online that you can find. I think we're um this is more of a topic for Department of Public Works. So, >> I agree. Tracy, please. If I can just
piggyback on and add that it never it seems like we're always pretty weak on the enforcement of things or there being repercussions to breaking some of the rules or that repercussion costs so
little that the person you know infr committing the violation just factors it into their cost. So I I agree with Joanne that this is such an important project that there does need to be
known, published, and actually enforced um ramifications for um not complying. >> Okay. Others? No, guess not. I don't see anybody on the line trying to talk.
Barbara >> also piggybacking on what those two are talking about in terms of um violations of conservation and you know waiting until the house is built and you can't see behind it from the street so you can tear down the trees that are like 20
feet from the water. Um we should have fines for that that we collect >> so that there is a system in place for that. you know, we don't have the staff to kind of go out looking. Um, oft times our best source of information is
neighbors. Um, and with any of these waterfront properties, if let's say for example, they they clearcut behind their house where people can't see, you know, eventually they're going to go to a project where people can see. they'll come for the concom and that's when the agent or assistant agent will go out and
do a full assessment of the property, not just, you know, what's being requested. So, it's another one that we may not get them right away, but they kind of get caught eventually. >> Okay. Any other questions for Greg Harvard Master? No. Okay. Well, thank
you very much. >> Thank you. We will chew on this stuff thoroughly. Carrie, >> do you have any more questions >> for you? >> Yeah. On any of that stuff >> always >> that we went over? No. Okay. No. >> All right. Good. >> I'm sure we'll get to them.
>> Okay. >> Um, folks want to talk about any of this on the committee? No. >> Talk about >> Huh? >> Talk about what? >> About these this agenda item on the committee?
>> No. Not okay. I thought it was a good presentation. >> I thought it was a great I thought it was a good presentation. Yeah. >> Let's see. We have uh that was it. >> All right. Item three is adjourn. Anybody in favor of adjourning?
>> No. You want you you want to stay, right? >> Can I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Good second. >> Is there a second someplace? Wonderful. Okay, those in favor say I. Eric Whitley,
>> I. >> All right, good. Tommy Don, >> yes. >> Chris, uh, John Pelardo, Barbara Madison, >> yes. >> Sprag, >> yes. >> Andy Young votes I. We are adjourned. >> Thank you very much.
>> Thank you.