Meetings Ahead
Thursday, Feb. 13
- Nauset Regional School Committee, 6 p.m., Brewster Town Hall
Tuesday, Feb. 18
- Charter Review Committee, 5:30 p.m., Small Meeting Room, Town Hall
Wednesday, Feb. 19
- Planning Board, 5 p.m.; Earle Mountain Meeting Room, Town Hall
- Open Space Committee, 6:30 p.m., Small Meeting Room, Town Hall
Thursday, Feb. 20
- Affordable Housing Trust, 8:30 a.m., Small Meeting Room, Town Hall
Conversation Starters
The Bonds That Tie
The Nauset Regional School Committee is scheduled to vote tonight (Feb. 13) on how many years to bond the proposed high school reconstruction project. The committee’s meeting begins at 6 p.m. at Brewster Town Hall.
Sending a Signal on Signs
Edward Daniels loves Eastham but not the seasonal proliferation of signs at his neighborhood beach, Thumpertown.
“Each year the town seems to add more signs on its recreational facilities,” he wrote to the select board, citing a name sign, a big rules sign at the parking lot entrance, and “a few added signs to reinforce the rules that people ignored in the big sign. Then there is the billboard warning of sharks right on the observation platform. Isn’t there a better place for this? Could there please be a general goal of minimizing the signs ‘yelling’ at us? This isn’t Dennis.”
911 Center Calls for Help
The town’s emergency dispatch consoles were new in the first year of the Bush Administration — the first Bush Administration. “We are one of the few on Cape Cod currently operating on 1989 dispatch consoles,” Police Chief Ed Kulhawik told the select board and finance committee Feb. 3. “The state is going to digital format for the radio system for the entire county. We have to make sure our radios and dispatch center are compatible.”
For $500,000, which voters will be asked to approve as a one-time capital debt exclusion, the center that handles all the town’s 911 calls will be upgraded and new mobile radios secured for the town’s police and fire vehicles. The chief said he hopes the cost will come in “at the lower end, somewhere around $420,000, $410,000.
“We’re dealing now with the county coming down to repair our system,” Kulhawik said. “Many times they can’t even get parts. The technicians will go on eBay to look for departments getting rid of older systems. (The upgrade) is an important thing not just for us at the police department but a true Eastham public safety need put off for many years.”
Still Stopping Speeders
Motorists familiar with Eastham know that it’s a good idea not to speed through town, and Police Chief Ed Kulhawik confirmed their analysis last week.
“We pull over approximately 3,600 cars a year,” he told the select board and finance committee. “We give a lot of citations and warnings. Even with that, people go out there and speed when we’re not there. But accidents are down. That’s an indication of officers being visible. We’re going to continue to fight that fight.” —Ed Maroney
