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, July 21
- Select Board, 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday, July 22
- Conservation Commission on-site, 8:15 a.m.
- Conservation Commission, 6 p.m.
Thursday, July 24
- Council on Aging Board of Directors, 9 a.m.
- Finance Committee, 4 p.m.
Conversation Starter
Fire on the Marsh?
When the energy and climate action committee reviewed the town’s 2020-2025 Hazard Mitigation Plan at its July 14 meeting, member Eleni Carr said that the table of hazards selected for a risk assessment “could come as a surprise to some people.”
According to the plan, a wildfire is likely to occur in Eastham between 2020 and 2030, based on data from the Barnstable County Wildfire Preparedness Plan, which was published in 2012. It names several areas of “extreme” vulnerability in the town, the largest being a mile-wide stretch of mostly salt marsh between Bee’s River and the Boat Meadow River.
“It doesn’t make intuitive sense to us that marsh areas subject to flooding are also risk areas for wildfire,” Carr said. “If we ever have to communicate this to town residents, we really need to understand this better.”
Committee chair Tom McNellis asked that Carr contact Dave Crary, former fire management officer at the Cape Cod National Seashore who helped guide the 2012 study, for additional information.
Crary retired in December 2021, and the Seashore has not hired a new person for that job. The Independent reported in March that the Seashore had posted Crary’s job a year earlier, in April 2024, but had still not filled it. At that time, Deputy Supt. Leslie Reynolds said the cost of living on the Cape was a challenge. Since then, President Trump’s on-again off-again hiring freezes have made the probability of a new hire even harder to predict. —Parker Mumford
