Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Truro are remote. Go to truro-ma.gov and click on the meeting you want to watch. The agenda includes instructions on how to join.
Thursday, Feb. 9
- Economic Development Committee, 9:30 a.m.
- Commission on Disabilities, 4 p.m., Truro Public Library
- Housing Authority, 4:15 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 13
- Bike and Walkways Committee, 6 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 14
- Budget Task Force, 8:30 a.m.
- Select Board, 5 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 15
- Walsh Property Community Planning Committee, 6 p.m.
Conversation Starter
Restoration Roadkill
At a Feb. 7 board of health meeting, Dept. of Public Works Director Jarrod Cabral said that the culvert at Mill Pond Road needs to be replaced. If the repair is to lead to better flood prevention in the face of rising sea levels, the fix will need to be major.
“My recommendation to the select board is to permanently close the road and install a 95-foot breach with a 10-foot-wide inner channel,” Cabral wrote in a related memo.
Cabral wrote that the current culvert — a 36-inch corrugated pipe that was intended to be temporary when it was installed in 1991 — restricts tidal flow into Mill Pond from Pamet Harbor and ultimately Cape Cod Bay. Health Agent Emily Beebe concurred.
Cabral’s memo lays out four possible scenarios for replacing the undersized culvert either with a larger structure or a channel breach alternative to allow increased tidal flow.
The scenarios developed following geotechnical analysis by Fuss & O’Neill and hydrologic-hydraulic analysis by Woods Hole Group include a 10-by-8.5-foot culvert, an 8-by-8.5-foot culvert, a 65-foot-wide open channel “breach,” or a 95-foot-wide breach.
While Cabral wrote that the widest breach would be most effective, the town’s water resources consultant, Scott Horsley, wrote that he preferred the 65-foot one. Cabral said during the meeting that if either breach alternative were chosen, the select board should form a subcommittee with representatives from the harbor commission, the recreation committee, and a Depot Road resident to decide the best course.
Beebe said that a healthy salt marsh is crucial for both fish and shellfish in the area. “Its ability to reduce impacts of storms and risk of flooding are really significant,” Beebe said of the Mill Pond salt marsh, “and all of these really tie into public health.”
There will be a public information session on the project at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 8 at the community center. —Sophie Mann-Shafir
