Most meetings in Eastham are in person, typically with an online-attendance option. Click on the meeting you are interested in on the calendar at eastham-ma.gov for details. All meetings are at Town Hall unless otherwise indicated.
Monday, Aug. 25
- Visitors Tourism and Promotion Services Board, 3:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Aug. 26
- Conservation Commission on-site, 8:15 a.m.
- Conservation Commission, 6 p.m.
Thursday, Aug. 28
- Council on Aging Board of Directors, 9 a.m.
- Board of Health, 3 p.m.
- Finance Committee, 4 p.m.
- Forest Advisory Committee, 5 p.m., Public Library
- Nauset School Committee, 6 p.m., Nauset Middle School, Orleans
Conversation Starter
Slips and Liveaboards
The select board voted 4-0 on Aug. 18 to update the town’s regulations for commercial vessels docked in Rock Harbor. Under the new regulations, slip owners at the harbor’s south dock will need to produce proof of $10,000 in gross sales to qualify as a commercial business — otherwise, they’ll forfeit their slips.
The town will give current commercial slip holders a two-year grace period to establish a business meeting the town’s criteria.
“We want to make sure that those with commercial slips are actually using them for that purpose,” Assistant Harbormaster Nicholas Sanders told the board. He was the one who recommended the changes, speaking on behalf of the Dept. of Natural Resources.
There are 46 slips on the Eastham side of Rock Harbor. Twelve of those, on the south dock, are designated commercial slips; the other 34 are recreational. Sanders said there is a 10-person waitlist for commercial slips; the recreational waitlist is much longer.
Town Manager Jacqui Beebe said she thought $10,000 was “a very low number.”
“If you’re truly making a living in aquaculture, you should have a healthier balance than that,” she said.
The board also voted 4-0 to add a new rule to the town’s mooring regulations that prohibits liveaboard vessels in town waters. Sanders said that a lack of pumping facilities for wastewater from those vessels was the reason for the change. There are no shoreside pumping facilities or pump-out boats available to liveaboards in Eastham, Sanders said.
Large fishing vessels in Rock Harbor require a truck to pump them out.
“To preserve our waterways, it’s easier to restrict liveaboards,” Sanders said. He said Eastham had been in contact with Orleans Harbormaster Nate Sears, who agreed that it wasn’t reasonable for either town to allow liveaboards. —Parker Mumford
