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. All meetings are at Town Hall unless otherwise indicated.
Thursday, Aug. 31
- Board of Health, 3 p.m., Earle Mountain Meeting Room
Monday, Sept. 4
- Labor Day — Town Hall closed
Tuesday, Sept. 5
- Zoning Task Force, 4 p.m., Small Meeting Room
Thursday, Sept 7
- Board of Assessors, 11 a.m., Small Meeting Room
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 5 p.m., Earle Mountain Meeting Room
Conversation Starters
Changing the Channel
Recent lineup changes by Comcast have moved the local government access channel, previously on channel 18, to channel 8. The True Crime Network now resides on channel 18.
Comcast Cable spokesperson Marc Goodman noted that customers would have been notified of the lineup changes in their Comcast bills and through email.
“From time to time we realign some channels in our lineups so they are organized by genre,” Goodman said in an email.
No Exemption for Residents
The select board maintained the course it set in January, voting at its Aug. 21 tax classification hearing not to grant a residental tax exemption (RTE) for fiscal 2024.
The RTE would allow resident homeowners to apply for a reduction in the valuation of their property by a set amount before the tax levy is allocated across the tax base, resulting in a few hundred dollars savings for residents and an increased tax bill for nonresident homeowners.
Provincetown, Truro, and Wellfleet have all adopted the RTE.
Board members Jamie Demetri and Suzanne Bryan voted in January to adopt the RTE, while the remainder of the board voted against it. Bryan and Demetri were absent from the Aug. 21 tax classification hearing, when chair Art Autorino, Aimee Eckmann, and Gerald Cerasale voted again not to grant the exemption.
The total assessed value of properties for fiscal 2024 is approximately $4.8 billion (97 percent of which is residential) — an increase of 13 percent over fiscal 2023. The previous year, assessed values had increased by about 25 percent.
“It’s still a solid increase,” Assistant Town Administrator Rich Bienvenue told the board.
With the increased values and no corresponding increase in the tax levy, the tax rate will decrease from last year’s $7.24 to about $7.01, said Bienvenue.
The net effect of the increased assessed values and decreased tax rate on the median-value single-family home in Eastham ($704,800 for fiscal 2024) would be an increased property tax burden of about $411. —Linda Culhane
