Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Eastham are in-person, typically with an online attendance option. Go to Eastham-ma.gov and click on the meeting you are interested in for details. Meetings are at town hall unless otherwise indicated.
Thursday, July 6
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 5 p.m., Earle Mountain Meeting Room
Monday, July 10
- Climate Action Committee, 3:30 p.m., Small Meeting Room
- Select board, 5:30 p.m., Earle Mountain Meeting Room
Tuesday, July 11
- Conservation Commission onsite, 8:15 a.m., Town Hall
- Conservation Commission, 6 p.m., Earle Mountain Meeting Room
Conversation Starter
Resisting the Dune Shack Resistance
The select board decided not to sign on to a letter objecting to the Cape Cod National Seashore’s Request for Proposals (RFP) for 10-year leases on eight dune shacks in the Peaked Hill Bars Historic District in Provincetown.
The select boards in both Provincetown and Truro submitted letters to the Seashore arguing for changes to the controversial RFP. In their letters, they wrote that the current document favors high bids over cultural preservation, the latter established as a criterion in the Park’s Dune Shack Historic Preservation and Use Plan of 2012.
Eastham select board members said that the town does not have stake in the issue because the swath of National Seashore where the dune shacks sit is not in Eastham. “It’s not our place,” said chair Arthur Autorino during the board’s June 26 meeting.
Member Aimee Eckman added that the RFP is “pretty straightforward,” stating that “the financial rent offered is one of six criteria that the Seashore looks at. It has been blown out of proportion.”
Suzanne Bryan said that she thought the RFP was “a decent management tool” to ensure the shacks’ maintenance.
“Maybe someone lives there and that’s upsetting to that situation,” Bryan said, referring to the eviction of 94-year-old Sal De Deo, “but I don’t know enough about it.”
The response that the Truro and Provincetown select boards received from the Seashore is that “it’s done,” said member Gerald Cerasale. “To come in now is closing the barn door after the horse has left.” —Sam Pollak
