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Eastham Select Board

    TOWN MEETING

    RTE Crops Up in Three Eastham Warrant Articles

    Zoning changes, land acquisition, and a transfer fee are on the agenda

    By

    EASTHAM — The draft warrant for town meeting on May 5 is nearly 50 pages long and includes a new zoning code for the North Eastham business district, an eminent domain purchase of two duplex units, and a request to the state for a real estate transfer fee on the portion of home sales over $1 million.

    Eastham already owns 2815 Route 6, on the left side of this duplex, and will take 2825 Route 6, on the right side, by eminent domain if Article 4D passes. The borrowing authorization will also appear on the town election ballot, but the bonds would not be paid by raising property taxes, according to select board chair Aimee Eckman. They would instead be paid with future revenue from the town’s tax on short-term rentals. (Photo by Parker Mumford)

    Despite all that, the most contentious topic, and the one that dominated the select board’s discussion of the warrant on March 24, is one that isn’t directly up for a vote: the select board’s decision in January to adopt a residential tax exemption (RTE) starting in fiscal 2026, which begins in July.

    After several years of voting against an RTE, select board chair Aimee Eckman changed her mind in January and joined board members Jamie Demetri and Suzanne Bryan in voting to implement an exemption later this year. Since then, dozens of critics — many from the Eastham Part-Time Resident Taxpayers Association (EPRTA) — have spoken at select board meetings asking Eckman and her board to reconsider.

    Article 9A, which is this year’s only citizens petition on the warrant, asks the select board to “hire a qualified, independent entity to audit and develop a comprehensive tax strategy for the town’s infrastructure and community-based needs before moving forward with any changes to the FY2026 tax structure.” It is nonbinding.

    “The Select Board’s tax and spend strategy fails to meet the standard of thoughtful and targeted assistance for its citizens,” the article says in its “Discussion” section. The select board “did not present any rationale based on facts and data why further tax breaks for local special interest groups are justified,” the petition says.

    The RTE is a policy created by state law that allows towns to set a certain percentage of the average home price in town — in Provincetown and Truro it is 35 percent, while in Wellfleet it is 32.5 percent — as the fixed amount that resident homeowners may deduct from the assessed value of their homes when calculating property taxes.

    Because the policy is revenue-neutral, towns tally all the exemptions and then set a new, slightly higher residential tax rate on the remaining assessed value of residences in town, which decreases the value of the exemption on large properties owned by residents and raises taxes on properties owned by nonresidents.

    “I think this is a stall tactic against the RTE,” said select board member Robert Bruns at the March 24 meeting. “And while I’m very against the RTE from an ethics perspective, this is not the way to go against it.”

    Article 9A was sponsored by Wendy Gamba, a part-time Eastham resident who is registered to vote in New Haven, Conn.; she serves as treasurer for the EPRTA. She told the Independent in an email that the petition was a “collectively written document with the inputs of many concerned taxpayers.”

    The petitioned article “is not about the RTE,” Gamba wrote. “It is about the broader issues that are at play in our community related to taxes.”

    Taxes in Eastham have increased rapidly, she wrote, and Proposition 2½ overrides “make it very difficult for households to plan and budget,” which she described as a concern for resident and nonresident taxpayers alike.

    Bruns said that Finance Director Rich Bienvenue’s “preparation and knowledge is far superior to our surrounding towns.” Bruns abstained on the select board’s vote on whether to endorse Article 9A, while the other four board members voted against it.

    Everything else on the warrant received a unanimous recommendation, including Article 4A, which would add $200,000 to the town’s “overlay reserve” account to help smooth the implementation of the RTE, and Article 5A, which would accept the state’s “seasonal community” designation for Eastham.

    That designation, which was created by last year’s Affordable Homes Act, gives “seasonal communities” access to a basket of policies to help them address their housing crises, including the right to develop housing specifically for town employees, the right to create year-round market-rate rental housing trusts, as Provincetown and Truro have done, and the right to raise their RTEs from the statewide maximum of 35 percent of the value of the average home in town to a new maximum of 50 percent.

    The designation does not yet come with direct state funding, although that remains a possibility in future years, according to state Sen. Julian Cyr, who authored the provision.

    “Anything that gives us the option to get more state funding, especially in the area of housing, is something we should be jumping on,” said select board member Jerry Cerasale.

    Cerasale has voted against adopting an RTE in Eastham, but he was enthusiastic about the other options provided by the seasonal community designation and noted that the town “isn’t forced to use them.”

    Duplexes and Transfer Fees

    Article 4D on the warrant would authorize the town to take by eminent domain two duplex units owned by the family of David Delgizzi, a Weston resident who owes back property taxes on rental properties throughout the Outer and Lower Cape.

    Eastham took possession of 2815 and 2835 Route 6 in 2020 after the owners fell far behind on their taxes, but because they are duplex units connected to properties the Delgizzis still own, it has been difficult for the town to maintain them properly. Article 4D would allow the town to borrow against its short-term rental tax revenue to take the other two units — 2825 and 2845 Route 6 — and pay the Delgizzis $850,000 for them.

    The properties are “an ideal location” for a new wastewater pump station, Bienvenue said on March 24, and would also help the town divert runoff from Route 6 away from Salt Pond, which has frequently suffered from toxic algae blooms after storms. The duplex units would be repaired and rented in the short term and could be redeveloped into additional units in the long term, according to the warrant language.

    Article 6A is a “home rule petition” that allows the select board to ask the legislature for permission to adopt a 3-percent real estate transfer fee on the portion of real estate sales over $1 million — a request that 19 other towns have also made.

    Bienvenue said he was skeptical that the state would approve the petition, “but it might influence legislators to create a statewide option” for a transfer fee that towns around the state could adopt.

    According to Article 6A, the exemption amount could be amended by a two-thirds vote at a future town meeting.

    Finally, the longest article on the warrant is 7A, a new zoning code that aims to create a walkable mixed-use commercial and residential area in the town’s North Eastham Corridor Special District. The town has had many public meetings on the new code, and the planning board has some amendments to offer on town meeting floor that aim to preserve industrial uses around Holmes Road.

    The select board signaled that it expects to be in agreement with the planning board on those amendments and the underlying article, members said on March 24.

    Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article, published in print on March 27, identified Wendy Gamba as an Eastham resident. She has a home in Eastham but is registered to vote in New Haven, Conn. Also, because of an editing error, the amount of the proposed real estate transfer fee in Article 6A was reported as one percent rather than 3 percent.

    ON SECOND THOUGHT

    Eckman Has a Change of Heart on Tax Policy

    Eastham Select Board chair says she will now vote for a residential exemption

    By

    EASTHAM — Select board chair Aimee Eckman said Monday that she has changed her mind about whether Eastham should enact a residential tax exemption. Only last week, the board had voted three to two against establishing the policy; Eckman and board members Gerald Cerasale and Robert Bruns had voted against it, while Jamie Demetri and Suzanne Bryan voted for it.

    Eastham Select Board chair Aimee Eckman at this week’s board meeting. (Images from Eastham town video recording)

    “This is going to be a bombshell to a bunch of people,” Eckman said at the board’s Jan. 13 meeting. “After that vote last Monday, it didn’t feel good.”

    In August, she said, when the board will take its official vote at the fiscal 2026 tax classification hearing, she plans to vote for the policy.

    “I’m sorry I didn’t come to that decision last Monday,” said Eckman. “I figured the sooner the better to correct it.”

    The residential tax exemption (RTE) is a policy created under state law that allows towns to discount a portion of the assessed value of residents’ homes when calculating property taxes. The reduction is set at a percentage of the average assessed property in town — in Provincetown and Truro, the exemption is currently set at 35 percent of the average assessment, while in Wellfleet it is 32.5 percent.

    The RTE is revenue-neutral, meaning it does not change the amount of money the town raises in property taxes. Instead, once the exemptions are tallied, the tax rate on residential property is recalculated and all remaining assessed value, whether owned by residents or nonresidents, is taxed at a slightly higher rate.

    In Provincetown last year, the tax rate was 7.5 percent higher after the residential exemptions were applied: $5.60 per $1,000 in assessed value rather than $5.21. The tax rate went up 7.7 percent in Truro, from $5.74 per $1,000 to $6.18.

    The higher tax rate resulting from the RTE washes out some of the gains from the residential exemption for all owners who claim it — especially the owners of high-value properties. Eastham Assistant Town Manager Rich Bienvenue told the select board last week that the resident owners of property worth more than $1.88 million would actually pay more under an RTE, the higher tax rate wiping away the entire value of their exemption.

    There are only 59 such resident homeowners in Eastham, Bienvenue said. For the other 2,522 resident property owners, the RTE could save them from a couple of hundred dollars to more than $1,500, depending on the value of their home and the exemption percentage the select board chooses to adopt.

    Board members did not discuss this week what exemption percentage they plan to support at the August meeting.

    A Different Outcome

    The Jan. 6 select board meeting included a series of arguments about who in Eastham deserved financial relief and how to give it to them.

    Select board vice chair Gerald Cerasale.

    Demetri and Bryan argued that the RTE was an effective way to provide financial relief to town residents — essentially all of whom need it, they said.

    Cerasale and Bruns had said that relief should be “need-based” and given to households in true financial distress through the town’s new Residential Taxpayer Assistance Fund, which Cerasale wanted to fund with a $300,000 allocation at town meeting in April.

    Beginning in July, the Residential Taxpayer Assistance Fund is set to offer $500 payments to households that can prove they need it; according to current rules, the payment can be received only twice.

    Eckman had said on Jan. 6 that the RTE did seem unfair to her and that she wanted to wait until the town reaches the threshold the select board set in 2020: that the RTE would be adopted when 60 percent of residential property in town was owned by part-time residents.

    Currently, 55 percent of homes in town are owned by part-time residents, Bienvenue had told the board on Jan. 6.

    Eckman said that one reason for her change of heart was that percentage.

    “So much has changed since we set that 60-40 policy,” she said on Jan. 13. Property values have increased, and “just because their house values have gone up doesn’t mean they have more money in their pockets.”

    Eckman said the increasing number of short-term rentals in Eastham was another reason for her decision. “The use of second homes has changed so much,” she said. “I believe we went, in the last 10 years, from over 400 year-round rentals of single-family homes down to around 80 now. We lost all that inventory to short-term rentals.”

    Bruns told Eckman he still believes the RTE is fundamentally unfair. “The qualification for something like this shouldn’t be part-time or full-time,” he said. “It should be needs-based. In my mind, it’s a question of financial and ethical fairness.”

    Cerasale reiterated his belief that town funds should be used for financial relief.

    “Unlike Truro and Provincetown and Wellfleet,” he said, “we have that great taxpayer fund. If we put $600,000 into that, we could give 600 families $1,000 with a net of $900 benefit.”

    “I hear you,” said Eckman to Cerasale. The RTE alone would not provide all the relief some residents need, she said. “I think we’re still going to need other programs to help with that.”

    Bruns said he thought the RTE was based on “assumptions.”

    “What we’re assuming here,” he said, “is that most, if not all, of the full-time people need the money more than most, if not all, of the part-time people. With $1.8 million as the cutoff” at which the policy stops helping resident homeowners, “I don’t see a lot of people with million-and-a-half-dollar homes needing that money.”

    “Housing values have gone up,” Eckman responded. “People’s incomes haven’t gone up.”

    As to the issue of fairness, Eckman said, “It’s never going to be fair.”

    “I’m much more of a needs-based — that’s just my philosophy on it,” said Bruns. “That said, I’m sure it’s going to help a lot of people. This is, as Gerry [Cerasale] would say, democracy in action.”

    “I know the part-time resident group is going to be pretty upset about this,” Eckman said, “but I can’t imagine if it was 60-40, or higher than that, that they’d be any less upset.”

    ASSESSED VALUE

    Eastham Board Will Reconsider Residential Tax Exemption

    The optional state policy would shift more of tax burden onto seasonal houses

    By

    EASTHAM — At the select board’s last discussion of the residential tax exemption (RTE) in January 2024, the four members who were present were evenly split: Aimee Eckman and Jerry Cerasale voted against adopting it while Jamie Demetri and Suzanne Bryan voted for it. Without a majority, the exemption was not adopted; then-select board member Art Autorino, who was out of town, had previously announced his opposition.

    That discussion will begin anew on Jan. 6 when the board will decide whether to adopt the RTE for the fiscal year that begins on July 1.

    The rules for the RTE are written into a 1979 state law that gives towns the option to redistribute their property tax burden within the residential class.

    The RTE allows year-round residents to exempt some of the assessed value of their property from taxation; as a result, the residential tax rate goes up, and that new tax rate is applied to all residential properties in town, year-round and seasonal homes alike.

    Each year’s exemption is a fixed amount: a certain percentage of the assessed value of the median residential property in town. In January 2024, the median residential property in Eastham was assessed at $748,794, according to Assistant Town Manager Rich Bienvenue. The select board can set the exemption as high as 35 percent.

    After subtracting the exemption amount — 35 percent would have been $262,078 — the rest of a year-round property’s value is still taxed at the new, higher rate. That means that owners of year-round properties with a sufficiently high assessed value can actually experience an increase in their property taxes, even after applying the RTE.

    Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown have all adopted the RTE: Provincetown and Truro at 35 percent, the maximum allowed, and Wellfleet at 32.5 percent. Thirteen other cities and towns in Massachusetts have also adopted the RTE, including Boston, Chelsea, and Somerville, all of which set it at the maximum rate.

    Provincetown and Truro also allow the owners of year-round rental properties to claim the RTE, although Bienvenue told the Independent it was unlikely Eastham would consider such a policy until an RTE for homeowners had been in place for a few years.

    Arguments Against

    Tom McNamara of Weymouth, president of the Eastham Part-time Resident Taxpayers Association (EPRTA), bought his Eastham house 10 years ago.

    He’s been visiting Eastham since 1972, he told the Independent, and said he thinks that adopting the RTE would create tension in town.

    “An RTE would drive a wedge between the full-timers and the part-timers,” McNamara said. “I don’t think that’s really acceptable.”

    Part-time residents are important contributors to the local economy, McNamara added, and the RTE would unfairly punish them to benefit full-time residents.

    “We want a successful town, but we also want solutions that are equitable and fair,” McNamara said. “Let’s use the programs that are already available.”

    He said the state’s Affordable Homes Act, signed on Aug. 6, would do a better job of addressing the root cause of unaffordable housing.

    “The problem of affordable housing is really being driven by the shortage,” McNamara said. “That’s a national issue that municipalities everywhere are struggling to address.”

    A Year-Rounder’s Perspective

    Brigid McKenna, who rented in Wellfleet before moving to Eastham in 2018, told the Independent that living in a seasonal community magnifies her financial stress, and that balancing that hardship is the point of the RTE. “Everyone is dealing with inflation and price gouging,” she said, “but being in a seasonal community without many options during the winter, you just have to go with whatever’s available.”

    An RTE of 35 percent could save the owner of a $500,000 home in Eastham more than $1,500 in property taxes. McKenna said that could help her buy groceries or pay off student loans.

    “Full-time residents are the ones who keep the economy going during the off-season,” McKenna said. “I don’t understand why it’s controversial.”

    McKenna said that from her perspective it was part-timers lobbying against the policy that were accentuating divisions. “Having a part-time residents’ association drives a wedge between us by nature,” she told the Independent.

    Most of the letters the select board receives about the RTE are against it, Demetri said. She believes that’s because many of the year-round residents who would benefit most from the RTE don’t have time to campaign for it. “They’re busy working and raising their families,” she said. “The reason they vote for members of the select board is because they assume we’ll carry on their voice.

    “The RTE is designed to offset the tax burden on year-round residents, and it does that very directly,” Demetri said. “We’re at a time and place when we should be using every tool we have to assist our year-round residents.”

    A 60/40 Policy

    In the background of these discussions is an earlier vote by the select board, taken in response to a motion by Demetri in January 2020, to establish a “60/40 policy.”

    That meant the board would adopt the RTE when seasonal homes make up at least 60 percent of the town’s total inventory for two years in a row.

    Demetri, Eckman, and then-members Martin McDonald and Jared Collins voted for the policy; then-member Al Cestaro abstained.

    Even if the 60 percent threshold hasn’t been reached, though, Demetri said she favors implementing the RTE next year.

    “We have to acknowledge some of the upcoming costs that will impact our tax rate, like the wastewater plan,” Demetri says. State regulations require Cape Cod towns to reduce the amount of nitrogen that seeps from septic tanks into designated waterways; Barnstable County Commissioner Sheila Lyons told the Independent in October that the new regulations were “coming out to be very expensive.”

    The EPRTA has argued that the select board’s 2020 resolution means an RTE should not be implemented now. Only about 55 percent of the town’s residential parcels were owned by non-residents as of early 2024, according to Bienvenue, and McNamara says it’s unlikely that Eastham will have reached 60 percent by next month.

    HEAVY LIFTING

    Eastham’s Zoning Task Force Looks Ahead to a New Downtown

    Current focus is on writing bylaws to support the master plan

    By

    EASTHAM — For the last three-and-a-half years, Eastham’s task force on residential zoning and regulation has done intensive behind-the-scenes work to adapt the town’s zoning bylaws to its major strategic goals, including expanding affordable housing and creating a new downtown in North Eastham.

    On Aug. 5, the select board accepted the resignations of Jim Kivlehan and Jeff Cusack, two members of the task force who had served since its inception. Kivlehan told the Independent that he and his wife plan to travel the country in an R.V. for much of the winter, when the task force will be doing important work. Cusack said he stepped back about four months ago because his work schedule had become too busy.

    The select board had also accepted the resignation of Roy Merolli from an alternate seat on the task force on Aug. 5, but according to select board member Bob Bruns, who had previously served on the task force, that was the result of an error. Merolli was never actually appointed to the task force, according to Community Development Director Paul Lagg; task force chair Mary Nee confirmed that Merolli had not attended any meetings.

    The select board appointed Patricia Canavan to the task force in January, and Martin Ridge was appointed in July. The task force can have up to 10 members, according to its charge, but there have never been that many members at one time.

    The group meets monthly, but the schedule accelerates to once per week for several months before spring town meeting. There are large packets of required reading.

    Their work has yielded results, though. The task force has made 17 different zoning proposals at the last three town meetings. Some were technical amendments, but most have been substantive changes that will affect how the town looks in the future.

    All 17 proposals were approved by voters, usually with about 85 percent in favor, according to Nee.

    “The zoning task force has become one of the most significant entities in town,” said Bruns, who was the chair of Eastham’s zoning board of appeals before he was elected to the select board in May. “It puts a lot of items on the warrant that are actually passed.”

    “Zoning is the rules that you have to follow to do development,” said Kivlehan. “They’re basically designing what the future is going to look like: building heights, how close the buildings are going to be to the road, where the parking is going to be, what the architecture would look like.”

    Past and Future

    Much of the task force’s work in its first two years focused on residential zoning to preserve Eastham’s “small town, semi-rural character,” according to Nee.

    One of the first issues the task force took on was restricting the construction of very large homes, especially on small lots. The town adopted the task force’s proposed solution: a sliding scale for maximum site coverage based on lot size. For example, a house on a lot between 10,000 and 19,999 square feet can cover up to 15 percent of the lot. The town also adopted the group’s proposal of a 6,000-square-foot upper limit for the gross floor area of a home.

    Those limits have prevented the construction of “McMansion”-style homes in Eastham, said Nee.

    The group also advocated the adoption of “buildable upland” as the controlling definition of a lot’s size. By excluding areas that are underwater or subject to flooding, the new rules prevent homeowners and developers of coastal lots from claiming to have larger parcels based on old assessor’s data than they actually have today.

    The task force also proposed loosening the town’s rules on duplexes — which since 1988 had required an 80,000-square-foot lot, or almost two acres. Duplexes are now on an equal footing with single-family homes in all the town’s zones except the National Seashore District.

    Nee said the group’s goals moving forward are to create clear regulations for business owners looking to build in the new downtown, to consider how the town’s wastewater plan will affect residential and commercial density, and to expand affordable housing to support a workforce.

    The Forever Task Force?

    Unlike other boards in town, zoning task force members have no end date to their terms. The task force itself also has no expiration date.

    Nee said that task force members told the select board last year that it would take two years to review commercial zoning to support the town’s master plan.

    The select board not only agreed but also gave the group more assignments: researching restrictions on “fractional ownership” of homes and limits on how many short-term rentals can be owned by one entity.

    The following spring, the task force recommended the town ban fractional ownership and limit short-term rentals to two per owner, and town meeting voters passed both measures by large margins.

    “I have a lot of reading to catch up on,” said Ridge, who also serves on the zoning board of appeals. “The heavy lifting is happening now.”

    ON THE BALLOT

    Two Candidates Are Unopposed for Eastham Select Board

    Demetri seeks reelection, while Bruns is running for an open seat

    By

    EASTHAM — There are two separate races for select board this year: a three-year seat, for which incumbent Jamie Demetri has filed for re-election, and a two-year seat to complete the term of Art Autorino, who died suddenly in February.

    Robert Bruns, chair of Eastham’s Zoning Board of Appeals, is the only candidate for Autorino’s seat. No one filed to run against Demetri.

    Both candidates will appear on the town’s May 21 ballot, and barring a write-in campaign both are likely to be elected.

    Demetri: ‘Time to Do Something’

    Demetri, 44, was first elected to the select board in 2018, spurred to run by the election of Donald Trump.

    Jamie Demetri has served on the select board since 2018. (Photo by Joe Navas)

    “I never envisioned myself in any type of political role,” she said. “But I felt the country was moving into a very unstable space, and it was time to step up and do something about the instability.”

    Since then, Demetri has carved a niche as an advocate for working people. She is especially proud of the town’s vote for the Family Support Package in 2020, which instituted free preschool and free school lunches.

    Demetri is working closely with the Task Force on Residential Zoning and Regulation to create guidelines for short-term rentals, she said — work that will appear on this year’s town meeting warrant.

    She was born in Eastham and raised in Orleans, and much of her work seeks to maintain “the Cape Cod way of life” that she grew up with. She wants workers to be able to afford to live here year-round and raise their children in the woods and by the ocean.

    “Cape Cod isn’t a playground for a second home, it’s our home,” she said. “It’s my commitment to make sure it continues being treated like a home and not a vacation rental.”

    Demetri seeks to represent those who have to “maximize their time to pay their bills” and are unable to serve on boards or committees, she said. She points to the energy stretch code passed in 2021, which requires all new construction to adhere to energy efficiency standards.

    “The code sounds good, but with every decision I try to think about the ripple effect,” Demetri said. Even though the code would decrease emissions, Demetri notes its financial burden on residents who are struggling to get by.

    She sees the adoption of the residential tax exemption (RTE) as a “tool in our toolbox to help our year-round residents.” Eastham is the only town on the Outer Cape not to have implemented the RTE, which lowers the tax burden for most year-round residents while raising the overall residential tax rate.

    It was last considered by the select board on Jan. 29, when it failed on a two-to-two vote. Autorino had voted no; Demetri had voted yes.

    “Our year-round residents need all the help they can get to keep their homes,” she said.

    After graduating from Nauset Regional High School, Demetri went to Tulane University and then moved to Boston, where she worked as a mental health therapist at Bournewood Hospital.

    “I hit a wall living in the city and realized that I missed the Cape,” she said.

    She moved to Eastham in 2005 and began working at the Pump House Surf Shop in Orleans, becoming manager in 2007. Her parents owned the Eastham sports bar Jimmy D’s until 2006; before that, her grandparents had run it as the Sandpiper.

    Demetri said that keeping working people and families on the Cape is a puzzle with many interlocking parts. One is creating “attainable housing” for people whose incomes are just over the federal threshold for affordable housing. Another is creating more places for townspeople to interact.

    “I have this daydream of a building that has the Council on Aging and an after-school program coexisting in the same space,” she said. “It would allow the elders to interact with the young people.”

    Bruns: ‘I Need Data’

    Bruns, 68, worked in computer systems for decades, and his thinking is measured and meticulous. He can recite the exact date and time he retired from his job at Ultimate Software: 2:30 p.m. on March 3, 2017.

    Robert Bruns joined Eastham’s Zoning Board of Appeals in 2017. (Photo by Paula Bruns)

    “This is the way I am — I’m a Libra; I need things in balance,” he said. “I need data, and then I need intuition, gut feel.”

    Bruns moved to Eastham in 2016, but he, his wife, and three children have been vacationing here since the late 1980s, he said. Like many others, they came for the beaches. He said he hopes to bring climate change and the maintenance of beaches to the forefront.

    Bruns joined the ZBA in 2017 during a “very contentious time,” he said. The town was working to develop the Village at Nauset Green and purchase the T-Time property. “It was trial by fire,” he said, “but it was a good way to cut my teeth.”

    Bruns has served as chair of the ZBA since July, where he said the town’s strategic plan guides every choice he makes, as does a spirit of “neighborliness.”

    “I try to treat everyone like my neighbor, because they are,” he said.

    Bruns said he is concerned about the “gentrification problem”: longtime residents can no longer afford to live in Eastham and are pushed out. He attributes that in part to the rise in property taxes, currently $7.01 per $1,000 of assessed value, or $5,667 for the average single-family home.

    He is concerned that there will be “more increases in taxes down the road that are not necessarily discretionary expenses” but more like the necessary renovation of Nauset Regional High School.

    “Education is a social contract,” he said. “Our parents took care of us and our school system when we were growing up. There are things you have to spend money on, and one of those is education.”

    Bruns said that while he might lean toward supporting the RTE, he “needs to know more about why it lost. I don’t know enough about both sides of the issue to decide where I stand on it.”

    While Bruns said that taxes are a central focus, other issues like planning for the town’s aging population are also top of mind. He thinks the town will add more full-time residents over the next 10 years as more people choose it for retirement.

    “I think we’re going to end up with more business in the community that seniors would be interested in patronizing,” Bruns said, “which will also mean a larger full-time workforce.”

    Bruns said he does not take lightly that he is running to finish Autorino’s term. “If I could do one-tenth of what Art did, then I would be successful,” he said.

    ANIMAL CONTROL

    Select Board Deems Two Huskies ‘Dangerous’

    Owner must pay fines and control dogs or face a judge

    By

    EASTHAM — The select board unanimously designated two aggressive male huskies who frequently run loose as “dangerous dogs” at an April 1 hearing that stretched to nearly three hours. Both dogs have histories of biting other animals and people without provocation.

    Mattie the mare has recovered from a Feb. 9 attack by two aggressive huskies. (Photo courtesy Virginia Delaney)

    The hearing was precipitated by a Feb. 9 incident when the dogs covered more than four miles over three hours, killing chickens and then attacking a mare in a paddock.

    Barkus, the two-year-old husky, is the father of Fernando, a one-year-old. Both belong to Richard Moore, who lives at 20 Boreen Road.

    The board approved a list of conditions that Moore must comply with or face a fine of $500 for the first offense and $1,000 for the second. If the dogs are loose at any time, they will be impounded until a hearing in district court takes place to decide their fate.

    By April 30, Moore must install an enclosed and locked chain-link, roofed kennel embedded two feet in the ground. If he takes the dogs off his property, they must be muzzled and securely restrained. Both dogs must also be neutered by April 30.

    Moore was given 10 days to appeal the select board’s decision.

    Warnings Didn’t Work

    At the hearing, witnesses offered testimony under oath. Animal Control Officer Stephanie Sykes gave a lengthy narrative on Barkus and Fernando’s aggressive behavior in the past year as well as Moore’s chronic failure to keep the dogs on his property and properly supervise them.

    After a series of warnings, Sykes cited Moore on Oct. 17 with a violation that carried a $50 fine, which he had not paid. Sykes said she tried to advise Moore on fencing. “The owner said he was using the right type of fencing,” Sykes said, but the dogs had repeatedly dug under it and pushed through it.

    Molly Silva of Meadow Drive, who owns the chickens that were killed, said she and her four-year-old son witnessed the attack on Feb. 9. The chickens were fenced in an outdoor pen. By the time the dogs left, three chickens were dead, and the rest were hiding in the woods. Two remain missing.

    “We spend a lot of time outside,” Silva said. “Now I fear the dogs know my yard has something for them. I’m quite concerned my children might be out.”

    Moore’s lawyer, Emir Sehic, complained that town attorney Nicole Costanzo was asking the witness “leading questions.” He wanted more information, he said, such as “what dog damaged which chicken.”

    After leaving Meadow Drive, the huskies were seen attacking a 30-year-old mare on Barrow House Road. The horse, Mattie, is owned by Virginia Delaney, who was out of town at the time. Her son, William Delaney, testified that he saw “Mattie running in circles, soaking wet with sweat.” The huskies were on either side of the horse attacking her hind legs, he said.

    Delaney said he ran toward the paddock, shouting and waving his arms but retreated when “the dogs lunged at me, teeth out.” He was finally able to scare the dogs away by banging a shovel on the side of the fence.

    A veterinarian treated Mattie’s wounds, which included lacerations on her rear legs. The horse has since recovered.

    Virginia Delaney told the select board that veterinary care had cost $1,678. “It is horrific that this happened at all,” she said. “They are an imminent threat to the health and safety and welfare of the people of Eastham, and the town really needs to remove them.”

    Attorney Sehic asked that Barkus and Fernando be designated “nuisance dogs” rather than dangerous dogs. “The dogs are puppies,” he said. “Puppies tend to be mouthy; they tend to bite.” Sehic questioned whether just one dog was “actively attacking” the chickens or both.

    Select board chair Aimee Eckman responded. “You’re splitting hairs.”

    Moore apologized for the dogs’ actions. “I’m sorry about the horse, and I’m sorry about the chickens,” he said, adding that he wanted to pay for the veterinary care.

    After the hearing, Virginia Delaney said she thought that the select board’s actions would not be effective. “I want the dogs gone,” she said. During the hearing, the board noted that banning the dogs from town is not allowed under Massachusetts law.

    Their designation as dangerous “gives the Animal Control Officer more authority to impound the dogs and impose fines, and move the matter to the courts,” Town Manager Jacqui Beebe wrote in an email.

    Asked whether the dogs could be euthanized, Beebe said, “It would be up to the judge at District Court, but it is certainly the next step if there continues to be a loose dog issue.”

    EASTHAM ELECTION

    Bryan and Cerasale Talk Select Board

    Collins and Cestaro to depart, leaving two seats open

    By

    Suzanne Bryan Looks Ahead at Climate Crisis

    EASTHAM — “I’ve turned into that person who’s really interested in small-town politics,” says Suzanne Bryan, who is running for select board. She likes the fact that small-town life allows people to be involved directly in government. “It’s not just because we’re bored,” she says. “People here care if you clearcut a property illegally.”

    Bryan is running unopposed for one of two seats on the board being vacated by Jared Collins and Al Cestaro. Finance committee chair Jerry Cerasale is also a candidate.

    Bryan, 32, has lived in Eastham since she was four years old. She graduated from Prescott College in Arizona with a degree in environmental and international studies and returned to town in 2015. She works for J.P. Ludwig Consulting, often recording Brewster town committee meetings.

    Suzanne Bryan is vice chair of the T-Time Committee. (Photo courtesy Suzanne Bryan)

    “I don’t have a whole lot of control over many things,” she says. “But I can try and make my town a nice place to live — a place that reflects its values and cares about its residents and the environment.”

    A former member of the water management committee, Bryan volunteered for the T-Time Development Committee formed in December 2019; she is currently the vice chair. For the past year, Bryan has also served on the conservation commission.

    She is currently studying for a master’s degree in spatial informatics from the University of Maine. “I’m interested in where planning, public policy, and the environment meet,” she explains, noting an interest in using drone imagery for mapping and surveying.

    Having a seat on the select board, Bryan says, will allow her to continue work on the T-Time project and the town’s broader plans for creating a town center and addressing traffic on the Route 6 corridor. She wants to make progress on the Complete Streets project, to make busy roadways accessible to pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists.

    Like Cerasale, Bryan says she admires the select board’s decisiveness in making recent land purchases. But town hall could improve its communications with residents, she says: “It’s always going to be hard. There are so many boards and committees, and they’re volunteers. But T-Time outreach showed that you really can reach people. It just required a coordinated effort.”

    Bryan supports the newly announced wastewater initiative to reduce the nitrogen load in Salt Pond, Nauset Stream, and Town Cove, but she believes that nitrogen and phosphorus are only two parts of a larger contamination picture that includes chemicals, detergents, and pharmaceuticals. “We need to do something about the ponds,” she says, “and we can’t endlessly sprinkle aluminum and dredge them. We need preventative care.”

    Bryan says it’s time to consider the enormous threat of sea-level rise. Rising waters could destroy numerous coastal homes in Eastham, she says, and thus a portion of the town’s tax base. “Is the entire bank along the bay side going to turn into a rock revetment?” she asks. “Because that’s the only tool we have. But then what? At some point that’s no longer going to be an option.”

    She points to the Ballston Beach house that was recently moved from the brink to illustrate the importance of planning. “Truro was scrambling to figure out what to do,” she says. “There are going to be many more properties in that situation, and there might not be pieces of land behind them to move them to.”

    Bryan says the town should apply the lessons of the housing crisis. Today, towns are buying parcels for affordable housing, but the building process is a long one. “All of those units were needed 10 years ago,” she says. “If we don’t plan 20 years in the future, then we’re going to be caught with our pants down.”

    Cerasale Looks to Trade 3 Seats for 1

    Although Jerry Cerasale can be seen in archived C-SPAN footage testifying before the U.S. Senate, he says, “I’ve never been in a position of government where I was actually elected instead of appointed.”

    Over a 40-year career, Cerasale has been deputy general counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Post Office and Civil Service and senior vice president for government affairs for the Direct Marketing Association.

    In Eastham, he has served on the finance committee since 2015 and has been its chair since 2017. If elected to the select board, Cerasale says he will continue his finance committee mantra of “getting all the facts out so everyone can make a more informed choice.”

    Jerry Cerasale has been chair of the finance committee since 2017. (Photo courtesy Jerry Cerasale)

    Cerasale is running for one of two uncontested select board seats with Suzanne Bryan. Incumbents Al Cestaro and Jared Collins chose not to seek new terms.

    Originally from Connecticut, Cerasale and his wife bought their Eastham house in 1988 and retired here in 2013. The couple volunteer at a food pantry in Hyannis, he says, and regularly pick up roadside trash. He is also head of his church council in Brewster. He says he and his wife, Janine, still try to make time to walk to the beach every day.

    In 2015, Cerasale joined the Eastham Housing Authority. He also serves on the Community Preservation Act Committee. As a select board member, he will have to give up those other three positions.

    Soon after Cerasale moved here, the town approved a $131-million municipal water project. At the time, Cerasale says, “I had no idea what was going on.” Now, he recognizes that “the town was trying to catch up. Eastham had delayed or postponed lots of capital improvements.”

    Today, Eastham is doing “really well” financially, says Cerasale. The only blemish is the lack of a AAA bond rating because the town issued so many bonds for the water project. The finance committee and select board have a management plan that he thinks will help the town regain the top rating.

    Cerasale says his work on the finance committee has helped him understand the town’s ambitious agenda. At the same time, as a finance watchdog he wants to rein in costs where it makes sense to do so. He thinks regionalization — starting small — could make a difference.

    Cerasale favors the proposed $500,000 budget override on the town meeting warrant. “If you delay this one, we’re going to be hit much harder next year or two years from now,” he says. Next year’s budget, including the override, he notes, would add only $50 to the tax bill for a house of median assessed value — currently $527,000.

    Along with the rest of the finance committee, Cerasale supported Finance Director Rich Bienvenue’s and Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe’s decision to use $900,000 in short-term rental tax revenues for housing rather than to fund the operating budget. He also voted in favor of every proposed town meeting article involving housing. “We’re making the right steps and we’re on the right journey, but whether we make it there or not is yet to be determined,” he says.

    “You don’t want the town to have to make the housing,” he adds. “You want to partner with a developer. We did that with Nauset Green, and we have to learn from that and go forward.”

    Cerasale says he wants to work more closely with school administrators on their budgets. Allocations to Eastham Elementary School and Nauset Regional High School account for 27 percent of Eastham’s fiscal 2023 budget. “It’s a great school system, but I think there could be more cooperation between the towns and the schools than there is,” Cerasale says.

    Cerasale approves of the current board’s land acquisitions. “We don’t want to just have a developer come in and purchase whatever they want,” he says. “The select board has a good vision there.”

    Collins and Cestaro have both endorsed Cerasale and Bryan. “I wouldn’t be stepping down if we didn’t have such excellent candidates that are selfless and have the bandwidth to govern with responsibility,” said Cestaro.

    “I feel exactly the same way,” responded Collins.

    ON THE WATERFRONT

    Eastham Pulls Out of Nauset Dredging Plan

    After investing $600K, Orleans unlikely to find a way forward

    By

    EASTHAM — At a joint meeting with the Orleans Select Board on Dec. 13, the Eastham Select Board voted unanimously to pull out of the Nauset Estuary Dredge permitting process. That leaves the future of the project, which has been in the works since 2015, uncertain.

    All five Eastham board members expressed concerns about sharing the cost of the $3.1-million project without sufficient economic data showing how their investment in the water economy would pay off.

    “We’re talking about a multi-million-dollar project over a number of years,” said the Eastham board chair, Art Autorino. “But there’s nothing that says, ‘Here’s the economic benefit, here’s what you’re going to save.’ ”

    A memorandum of understanding (M.O.U.) signed by the towns in May stipulated that both towns would produce a study detailing the economic benefits of the dredging, but that never materialized.

    Meanwhile, the M.O.U. established that Orleans would pay for the cost of permitting the project. Since 2016, Orleans has spent $670,000 for permit-related work done primarily by Woods Hole Group, an environmental engineering firm in Bourne. Townspeople committed another $160,000 for that effort at last spring’s town meeting.

    The agreement gave Eastham the right to back out of the permitting process. And it appears unlikely that the permitting could go forward successfully without Eastham on board.

    “I don’t think it would get very far without Eastham on that permit,” said select board member Aimee Eckman of Eastham, a longtime opponent of the project.

    Aiding Fishermen

    Shoaling has made the estuary channels difficult to navigate, especially when the tide is low. As a result, lobstermen have to keep their boats moored near the inlet, using skiffs to bring in fuel and other supplies.

    Nauset Estuary and its barrier beach. (Photo Nancy Bloom)

    Garrett Loparto, a second-generation lobsterman and Eastham resident, said it’s impossible to get his boat, a 33-footer, into Town Cove without “the highest freakin’ tide.”

    In 2018, Orleans commercial fishermen brought in a collective catch worth $2.66 million, according to the Mass. Div. of Marine Fisheries. In Eastham, the catch was worth $1.25 million.

    The dredging project would deepen the channel behind Nauset spit, the long, sandy barrier protecting Nauset Marsh. Two smaller dredging operations would deepen and widen the channels to Priscilla Landing and Mill Pond. The entire project would move 155,560 cubic yards of sand and silt, more than the Barnstable County Dredge relocated in all of 2021. Maintenance dredging would be required every year behind the barrier beach and every 8 to 15 years in the other areas, according to the town of Eastham website.

    Proponents believe the dredging will benefit commercial fishermen and water-based businesses like Goose Hummock Shops, the recreational outfitters. They also believe it will improve water quality for aquaculture in the estuary.

    Eastham Select Board member and oyster farmer Jared Collins said he understood why Orleans wanted to support the project. “Stationed at Collins Landing, I’ve seen basically every shellfish person move out and move their vessels to Hemenway or sell things completely,” Collins said. “I feel for the people who now have restricted times to get in and out and the inconvenience of having to moor their boats in different places.”

    Protecting Private Property

    Eastham Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe brought up Eastham’s low-lying waterfront property owners at the Dec. 13 meeting, saying they depend on the barrier beach for protection. “The total amount of assessed value of those properties is $82,660,200,” she said.

    Beebe said Eastham had a responsibility to protect its property owners. “If we do something that impacts this barrier beach and the barrier gets smaller and the marsh goes away, then those property owners are at the risk of the ocean,” she said.

    “The assessed value of your two big businesses,” she told the Orleans board, referring to Goose Hummock Shops and Nauset Marine, “is $1,000,693.”

    What About Safety?

    One purpose of the project is to enhance safety and navigability for commercial and recreational users of the inlet. But Eastham and Orleans officials disagree on the need from that point of view.

    At the Dec. 13 joint meeting, Eckman dismissed the dredging as a safety project and said that Eastham’s first responders “can get to anybody” on the water.

    At a public forum in June, Eckman contended that, because the dredge would not touch Nauset inlet itself, it would not help first responders reach people in open water.

    At that time, Nate Sears, the Orleans harbormaster, disagreed, responding, “You can probably monkey around on the sandbars, but you’re not going to get anywhere in a hurry.”

    When it comes to the possibility that the permits could go forward without Eastham on board, the issue of safety is important, said Orleans Town Administrator John Kelly at the Dec. 8 meeting of the Orleans Select Board. That’s because the Cape Cod National Seashore, which also owns land that would be dredged, will not sign off on permits for an economic improvement project.

    A Tough Decision

    When it came time to vote, Eastham board members Al Cestaro and Collins each paused for several seconds before joining the rest of the board and backing out of the project.

    “I feel for everyone, but ultimately it’s the cost,” said Collins. “I don’t think the constituency in this town is going to go for it.”

    Cestaro, who is a fisherman, said Eastham has a number of other costly infrastructure projects on the horizon, including wastewater management and a Route 6 redesign.

    “Nauset Harbor has been an economic asset for 400 years,” said Orleans Select Board Chair Meff Runyon. Runyon asked that the permitting process continue and suggested that a final decision on the dredging itself should wait until both towns signed off on permits and more data is gathered.

    But Beebe said that extending the process would only make it harder for Eastham to pull out. “Let’s be really honest,” she said. “When you apply for a permit, you are saying, ‘We want to do this, and this is how we want to do it.’ It is a commitment.”

    One other element of the M.O.U. between the towns: it gave Eastham the right to “comprehensively deny any dredging activities within the Town of Eastham boundaries.” Some of the dredging is set to take place on Eastham land and would require approval from the Eastham Conservation Commission.

    When asked by a member of the Orleans board whether they would exercise their right to deny permits for dredging within town boundaries, none of the Eastham officials responded.

    When the Orleans Select Board met on Dec. 15, two days following their joint meeting with the Eastham board, the possibility of terminating the dredge project was raised. Kelly told the board that the Woods Hole Group was being paid on a step-by-step basis, so only a small closeout bill would be due.

    The board decided to table a decision until Jan. 5, but Kelly gave the project a gloomy prognosis.

    “The voters were told that Eastham was cooperating with the project, but that we were funding it,” he said. Now, he continued, “you’re potentially working against not only the financial but the political side as well. And that seems to be where we’re at now.”

    EASTHAM WARRANT

    Rental Tax Bonus Would Go to ‘Community Support’

    Eastham Select Board unanimously supports 2% tax increase

    By

    EASTHAM — The select board has unanimously recommended Article 8 on the June 12 annual town meeting warrant, which would increase the short-term rental excise tax from 4 to 6 percent. According to the draft warrant, the approximately $300,000 of additional revenue generated annually by the increase would be used for community support programs for residents in need.

    “The specific programs to be funded by this revenue are yet to be determined but will be modeled after our very successful Family Support Package that provides funding for housing, food security, and day care for Eastham residents,” the article states.

    Program ideas under consideration include “affordable and attainable housing assistance; town fee waivers; property tax payment assistance; and creation of an Eastham Community Fund,” the article summary states in part.

    While the finance committee also voted 6-0 to support Article 8, committee members advocated for the additional revenue to be used for rental housing.

    “I think that the select board feels very strongly that this additional revenue should be used for housing — not for affordable housing with a capital A, but for workforce housing and for people that are already living here and struggling to stay,” Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe told the finance committee at its April 14 meeting. “They have a priority to keep families and children here and that is part of what they believe is their strategic plan and they want to do that by assisting them to purchase homes.”

    Beebe noted that there were already subsidies and other programs available for rental assistance.

    “There’s almost nothing in the town to rent,” replied finance committee member Steve Cole, who is also a board member and treasurer of the Community Development Partnership. “To really change the situation, the housing production plan makes rental housing a priority, and I think it’s building we’re talking about.”

    At Beebe’s suggestion, Cole brought his concerns to the select board before the final warrant was printed.

    “I urge the board to include affordable and workforce rental housing as an important use for the new revenue,” Cole wrote in an April 21 email to the select board.

    Cole’s email addressed the board’s idea to help families with down payments, arguing that financial assistance would “benefit only a handful of families. And this assumes that the anticipated high carrying charges on homes in Eastham could be met by these families.”

    Rather than using the short-term rental revenue as grants or loans to individuals, Cole suggested using the funds for payment on debt service for town borrowing. “The loan proceeds could result in significant support for partnerships with interested developers,” he wrote.

    Leases for Solar Projects

    The select board at its May 3 meeting also recommended Article 10, which seeks authorization for long-term leases with developers for potential solar projects at the town hall campus, the DPW facility and transfer station, and the District G wellhouse site. Board member Jared Collins, while voting to recommend the article, questioned whether the wellhouse site should be included.

    “The more I hear back from people and the more I think about and research this myself, the less I’m liking the idea of doing it at the wellhouse,” said Collins. “It appears to me, with this article, that it’s confining it to those three sites. I would like to take a longer, harder look at where we could do this.”

    He suggested expanding the areas covered at the town hall campus, DPW, and transfer station as a better alternative to clearcutting open space at the wellsite.

    “We put town water in for a reason, because of the transfer station and the dump,” said Collins. “We didn’t know what we were dumping into that landfill in previous decades or what would happen. In that same vein, we don’t know what’s going to leach out of these solar panels over the coming decades right next to the wellhouse.”

    Assistant Town Administrator Rich Bienvenue assured him that developers submitting proposals would need to comply with permitting requirements for a water protection district, including those of the Mass. Dept. of Energy Resources and Dept. of Environmental Protection.

    The board would be involved in the RFP process, and would have the “ability to reject any and all proposals” said Bienvenue. “Nothing says you have to do anything.”

    Town meeting voters will have a similar ability to choose which sites to approve, as the locations are identified separately in the article. “So, if somebody at town meeting wants to hold one piece of it aside, they have the ability to do that,” said Bienvenue.

    Water Skiing Rules

    Select board member Art Autorino voted against recommending article 13A, which would amend the freshwater boating bylaws. One change would be in the start time for water skiing on Great Pond, from 7 to 10 a.m.

    “I am still not comfortable changing those hours without the data relative to what’s really happening out there,” said Autorino. He suggested decisions on changes at the pond be delayed until the effectiveness of improved signage and increased enforcement could be measured.

    The less controversial Article 13B, requesting approval to amend the saltwater boating bylaws to create no wake zones, received unanimous support from the board.

    The town’s 2022 operating budget of $32,807,105 (Article 2) represents a 4.49-percent increase over 2021. The budget is composed of $9,651,071 in salaries, $18,173,770 in other expenses, and $4,982,264 in debt service. Those three components represent 7.01-, 2.48-, and 7.28-percent increases over 2021, respectively.

    The 2022 capital budget of $1,576,500 (Article 3A, B, C, and D) includes a $150,000 request from the public works department for a Rock Harbor response boat. Two-thirds majority votes would be needed to authorize lease purchase articles (3C and 3D) to acquire a Quint fire engine-ladder truck through a 10-year financing agreement at $114,766 per year and two ambulances under five-year leases with annual payments of $118,420.

    This Week In Eastham

    Meetings Ahead

    By

    Meetings are held remotely. Go to eastham-ma.gov/calendar-by-event-type/16 and click on the meeting you’re interested in to read its agenda and find information on how to view and take part remotely. 

    Thursday, Feb. 25

    • Board of Health, 3 p.m.
    • Winter business meet and greet session, 4 to 5 p.m.

    Monday, March 1

    • Search Committee, 4 p.m.
    • Select Board, 5:30 p.m.

    Tuesday, March 2

    • T-Time Committee, 5 p.m. 

    Wednesday, March 3

    • Board of Assessors, 11 a.m.
    • Community Preservation Committee, 5 p.m.
    • Nauset High School building project information meeting, 6:30 p.m.

    Thursday, March 4

    • Zoning Board of Appeals, 5 p.m.

     Conversation Starters

    June Town Meeting

    The annual town meeting has been scheduled for Saturday, June 12 at 10 a.m. at the Nauset Regional High School football field, with a rain date of June 13.

    “Basically, this is being driven by the weather and the availability of our electronic voting vendor,” Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe explained at Monday’s select board meeting.

    In answer to an inquiry from board member Aimee Eckman, Beebe said no petitioned articles had been received for the town meeting. The warrant was closed on Feb. 12. 

    Zoning Task Force Named

    The select board voted Monday to appoint the following members of the newly formed zoning task force: Stephen Wasby, Ed Schneiderhan, Carolyn McPherson, Jim Kivlehan, Mary Nee, Jeff Cusack, and Keven Gatlin.

    The task force is charged with examining residential zoning and regulation issues including, but not limited to, nonresident divided ownership of properties; limits or other regulatory changes on house use for commercial purposes, including large parties and weddings; protection of historic homes and scenic landscapes; limits on consolidation of lots to facilitate larger homes; extension of the 50 percent maximum size increase rule to zoning districts other than the Seashore District; development of “tiny homes” and applicable zoning; and review of historic overlay districts.

    The task force goal is to report its recommendations to the select board for consideration to be placed on the May 2022 town meeting warrant.

    —Linda Culhane

    This Week In Eastham

    Meetings Ahead

    By

    Meetings are held remotely. Go to eastham-ma.gov/calendar-by-event-type/16 and click on the meeting you’re interested in to read its agenda and for information on how to view and take part remotely. 

    Saturday, Feb. 13

    • Board of Library Trustees, 9 a.m. 

    Wednesday, Feb. 17

    • Open Space Committee, 3 p.m.
    • Planning Board, 5 p.m.
    • Nauset High School Building Committee, 6:30 p.m.

    Thursday, Feb. 18

    • Affordable Housing Trust, 11 a.m.

    Conversation Starters

    Covid-19 Update

    As of Feb. 4, Eastham had 22 new cases within the preceding 14 days and 89 total cases to date, according to the Mass. Dept. of Public Health weekly Covid-19 report. No Eastham Covid-19 deaths have been reported. 

    Second Term Sought

    Select Board Chair Jamie Demetri has announced she will run for a second term on the board this spring.

    “I’ve learned a lot in the last three years,” she said. “In addition to a standard three years on the select board, we have also had some curveballs with Covid.

    “There’s been a lot of ripple effects that are so unique to this last year that I feel obliged to stay through all of this,” said Demetri. “Right now, we’re kind of just kicking off vaccination clinics and we finally have some good news, and it feels good. I feel it’s important to have some type of continuity for the town.”

    Off-Season Storage

    The town is considering offering storage for shellfishing gear and other work equipment on town property.

    “It’s come to our attention that there is an interest in having shellfishermen, aquaculturists, people in that type of work in our town to use town property to store their shellfishing gear in the off season, meaning the winter,” DPW Supt. Silvio Genao said at the select board’s Feb. 8 meeting.

    “Do you have sites in mind that are not going to end up being an eyesore because you have all this equipment stored?” asked board member Art Autorino, noting the number of houses he sees with lobster traps and boats in their yards.

    Board member Al Cestaro noted the point of the public storage would be to help with blight concerns in town. “There’s a lot of folks in town that don’t particularly want to see 800 smelly lobster traps abutting their property,” said Cestaro. He noted his own aquaculture operation uses about 60 four-by-eight steel racks and a number of plastic bags.

    “Personally, I love lobster traps in people’s yards. I think it’s the Cape Cod way,” said Chair Jamie Demetri, noting that not everyone shared her view. “We need to maybe start brainstorming some options that can find that medium ground,” she added.

    Genao recommended working with the shellfish advisory workgroup to develop a plan. “There’s a lot of logistical steps we would need to iron out,” he said. “We definitely have space, if that’s what the board would like us to do.”

    —Linda Culhane

    TAXES

    Eastham Select Board Shies Away From the RTE

    Residential exemption idea triggers ‘vehement reaction,’ says Demetri

    By

    EASTHAM — The controversial residential tax exemption (RTE) is off the table for fiscal year 2022. Eastham’s select board voted at its Jan. 25 meeting not to adopt the exemption but will consider instead ways to raise money for programs to assist year-round residents, including increasing taxes on short-term rentals.

    Select board chair Jamie Demetri opened the work session by reading from a prepared statement noting that board members had received “countless emails” about the exemption.

    “I have to say, given the tone and content of the emails, we really aren’t sure what triggered such a vehement reaction,” she said.

    She reminded the virtual meeting’s attendees that the board is required to consider adoption of the RTE each year as part of the tax classification process.

    Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown all have adopted the RTE, which allows home owners to apply for an exemption on their primary residence. The policy results in a small tax increase for second-home owners.

    According to a recent analysis by the town, only 45 percent of the 5,676 residential properties in Eastham are second homes.

    But those numbers don’t match up with data from the Cape Cod Commission and the American Community Survey, which are based on census figures. The commission’s statscapecod.org website reports that Eastham has a total of 6,206 housing units, of which 3,761, or 60.6 percent, are seasonal. According to the 2010 census, 55.8 percent of Eastham’s houses were seasonal.

    The latest figures from the American Community Survey show the proportions of seasonal homes in the other Outer Cape towns as 62.6 percent in Wellfleet, 79.1 percent in Truro, and 58.1 percent in Provincetown.

    Enacted in 1979, the RTE allows domiciled home owners to reduce the taxable value of their primary residence by a fixed amount determined by multiplying the average value of a single-family residence in that town by a rate of up to 35 percent. The tax levy is then applied against the reduced overall property values, resulting in an increased residential tax rate.

    “The key point there is we are not generating any new revenue,” said Eastham Finance Director Rich Bienvenue. “It’s just who’s paying it that is different.”

    Bienvenue offered a list of revenue-producing options, including implementing a community impact fee of up to 3 percent on short-term rentals, increasing the short-term rental tax from the current 4 to 6 percent, and pursuing special legislation to create a dedicated revenue stream for a specific purpose which, he wrote in a memorandum, typically takes the form of a transfer tax on the sale of property over a certain amount (for example, a 1 percent tax on sales over $1 million).

    “If we’re going to go after special legislation, perhaps the more ambitious idea here would be something like an Eastham community type fund,” said Bienvenue.

    “I think they’re all really great options to look into,” said board member Aimee Eckman. “The only thing I probably wouldn’t suggest yet is the short-term rental tax going from four to six, since it’s only been one year.”

    Demetri disagreed, noting that some rentals are already fully booked for next year. “It’s an untapped resource we should be looking at,” she said. “I don’t think it has had any negative impacts on the rate at which places are renting right now.”

    Board member Jared Collins agreed with Demetri. “We’re talking about a way of working together with the part-time residents and the full-time residents,” he said. “How can we find a way to help the locals without hurting each other? The way to do that is going for tourism. Two percent for people on vacation is nothing.”

    Any increase in the short-term rental tax would need to go before town meeting, Collins noted. “I prefer the residents decide rather than we do,” he said.

    Based on last year’s figures, a 2-percent increase in the short-term rental tax would have generated about $310,000 additional revenue, said Bienvenue.

    Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe recalled conversations “two select boards ago” about implementing the meals tax. “The reason Eastham kept saying we don’t want to do the meals tax,” Beebe said, “was people will just go eat somewhere else. Ten years went by and, in that time, other communities collected the revenue and we didn’t, and we lost $1.3 million.”

    The board agreed to put discussions of the various options on a future agenda.

    This Week In Eastham

    Meetings Ahead

    By

    Meetings are held remotely. Go to eastham-ma.gov/calendar-by-event-type/16 and click on the meeting you’re interested in to read its agenda and find out how to view and take part remotely. 

    Thursday, Jan. 14

    • Nauset Regional School Committee, 6 p.m.

    Friday, Jan. 15

    • Board of Library Trustees policy review, 10 a.m.

    Tuesday, Jan. 19

    • Cape Cod Commission public hearing, 1 p.m.
    • T-Time Development Committee, 5 p.m.

    Wednesday, Jan. 20

    • Planning Board, 5 p.m.
    • Public meeting on waterways bylaws revisions, 6 p.m. 

    Thursday, Jan. 21

    • Affordable Housing Trust, 11 a.m.
    • T-Time Development Committee Community Development Workgroup, 5 p.m.

    Conversation Starters 

    Covid-19 Update

    As of Jan. 7, Eastham had six new cases within the preceding 14 days and 52 total cases to date, according to the Mass. Dept. of Public Health weekly Covid-19 report. No Eastham Covid-19 deaths have been reported.

    Boating Bylaw Revisions

    A public meeting on proposed revisions to the town’s waterways bylaws is scheduled for Jan. 20 at 6 p.m.

    The proposal includes the codification of no wake zones, instructing vessels to operate at only headway speed in all areas within 150 feet of bathers, divers, piers, docks, floats, moored vessels, small boats propelled by means other than machinery, vessels not underway, or the shore.

    Areas to be classified as no wake zones include the entrance and inner basin of Rock Harbor, Hemenway landing and the waterway to the north and south of the landing, the entirety of Cable Creek, and the Nauset Inlet mooring field, as designated by the harbormaster.

    “There’s been a no wake zone, but we haven’t had someone out there enforcing it,” said Aimee Eckman, vice chair of the select board. “The harbormaster’s plan is to have more of a presence.”

    Frequently out on the water in her own boat, Eckman noted this past summer was “really crazy…. I would go slow and they would stack up behind me,” she said.

    After public input is heard at the Jan. 20 meeting, the proposal will go before the select board for a public hearing. The proposed changes would require town meeting approval.

    The Boating Bylaw revisions are available on the town’s website.

    —Linda Culhane

    This Week In Eastham

    Meetings Ahead

    By

    Meetings are held remotely. Go to eastham-ma.gov/calendar-by-event-type/16 and click on a particular meeting to read its agenda. That document will provide information about how to view and take part remotely. 

    Thursday, Jan. 7

    • T-Time Development Committee Community Development Workgroup, 5 p.m.
    • Zoning Board of Appeals, 5 p.m.
    • Nauset Regional School Committee, 6 p.m.

    Saturday, Jan. 9

    • Board of Library Trustees, 9 a.m. 

    Monday, Jan. 11

    • Capital Projects Committee, 11 a.m.
    • Select Board, 5:30 p.m. 

    Wednesday, Jan. 13

    • Finance Committee, 5 p.m.

    Thursday, Jan. 14

    • Nauset Regional School Committee, 6 p.m.

    Conversation Starters 

    Covid-19 Update

    As of Dec. 31, Eastham had three new cases within the preceding 14 days and 47 total cases to date, according to the Mass. Dept. of Pubic Health weekly report. No Eastham Covid-19 deaths have been reported. 

    ‘Loud and Clear’

    The select board is working to improve the town’s communication with residents and will be setting up an account with the email marketing program Constant Contact that would allow residents to sign up to receive information on topics that interest them.

    “I heard you guys loud and clear,” Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe told the board, “and I totally agree that we need a more organized strategic and regular method or means to communicate things that we think are important that the community know. Not always expecting that they are going to tune in to meetings or search the website or look on the calendar or whatever.”

    “For me, it was two events that led me to want to talk about this more,” said board member Jared Collins. “It was people being surprised about the Rock Harbor capital project and the building, and the proposed change in the regs for board of health for animals.”

    “We’ve really tried over the years to try to get more information out,” said vice chair Aimee Eckman. “I started my whole political career filming select board meetings because they weren’t filmed. We brought a handy cam and a VCR and ran the tapes down at Comcast. It has to start somewhere. Look where we’ve come. Now we’re Zooming in the cloud.”

    While the town has a Facebook page, not everyone uses Facebook, noted board member Arthur Autorino.

    Constant Contact will allow the town to have separate email lists as well as send emails to everyone who signs up, noted Beebe. “I think it’s a better tool for us than just Facebook pages,” she said.

    —Linda Culhane

    This Week In Eastham

    Meetings Ahead

    By

    Meetings are held remotely. Go to eastham-ma.gov/calendar-by-event-type/16 and click on the meeting you’re interested in. The agenda provides provide information about how to view and take part remotely.

    Monday, Dec. 28

    • Search Committee, 4 p.m.

    Conversation Starters

    Covid-19 Update

    As of Dec. 17, Eastham had 13 new cases within the previous 14 days and 44 total cases to date, according to the Mass. Dept. of Public Health weekly Covid-19 report. 

    Commercial Shellfish Limits Increased

    The select board agreed to a request from the commercial shellfishing community to temporarily increase limits on the daily commercial catch of quahogs, voting at its Dec. 21 meeting to increase the limit from four bushels to eight bushels until Jan. 2, with no more than two of the bushels being cherrystones or littlenecks.

    “It’s my understanding from the shellfishing community that we have so many chowder sizes out there right now,” said chair Jamie Demetri at the meeting.

    The larger quahogs tend to get thrown back in the water, as they’re not considered worth the time or space, noted Demetri.

    “So we end up with just a ton of chowders and less and less of the smaller sizes, so this is kind of an opportunity to move some of that and also a chance for some of these folks to make a little extra money before the new year,” said Demetri.

    Vice chair Aimee Eckman said the increase might become an annual event should studies indicate a glut of large quahogs.

    “There’s a few people, maybe in the winter, that can take care of that,” said Eckman. “I think that would really help them out and, apparently, right now, there’s a good market for it.”

    Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe noted in a memorandum on the topic that demand for the larger quahogs increased at this time of year. “Think clam pie, stuffed clams, and chowders,” she wrote.

    Orleans, which has a joint fishing agreement with Eastham, was expected to be included in the increase. But the Orleans Select Board was unable to get the proposal on the agenda for a vote in time to participate the two-week program.

    “We just didn’t get it to them in time for them to vote on it as a board because it wasn’t advertised,” said Beebe.

    “The timing just didn’t quite work out. Next year we’ll have it together,” Demetri said on Tuesday.

    —Linda Culhane

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