Posted on May 5, 2016
By Doug Fraser, Cape Cod Times
Voters at town meeting Monday night almost unanimously approved borrowing $7 million to replace all floating docks, most supporting pilings and the electrical, fire-suppression and other aging infrastructure at the Saquatucket Harbor marina.
“It’s an important contributor to the economic vitality of our community,” Peter Hughes, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, told the audience.
The project also will add wireless Internet service and a handicap accessible ramp system for the harbor’s four passenger vessels, and will dredge 12,000 to 15,000 cubic yards of material to bring portions of the harbor back to depths of 6 feet at low water in the marina portion and to 8 feet in the area used by the larger passenger vessels.
The harbor has not been dredged in nearly 40 years, and vessels in the slips closest to the shore are in the mud at low tide.
Harwich already approved $500,000 at last year’s town meeting to do the design and engineering work for the marina and the town recently had a $1 million grant approved by the state Seaport Economic Council. Town officials committed to using money generated by the harbor to pay 75 percent of the annual loan payments. They also said the $1 million would be deducted from the overall amount borrowed.
Harbormaster John Rendon said construction would be done in the off-season and the marina would reopen on Memorial Day in 2017.
Voters also unanimously approved $250,000 for design and engineering for an estimated $2.5 million renovation of the landward portion of the marina. The project will expand parking, provide better visitor access, relieve crowded conditions in the harbormaster’s office and add a cafe-restaurant and ticket office.
The town purchased an adjacent waterfront property with approval from town meeting last year, and that would be used for additional parking and to build a workshop and garage for the harbormaster’s office and as a consolidated ticket office for the passenger boats.
The request also needs approval at the May 17 annual town election to finance the project.
Voters approved the town’s total budget of $59.1 million, a $2.77 million increase from the previous year.
“We have turned a corner,” Finance Committee Chairman Dana DaCosta said. He recalled that, in recent years, the town had to tighten its belt as it prepared for the regional school system with Chatham and construction of a new high school.
“During this time employees went without raises, there was less attention paid to town buildings and we attempted to do more with less,” DaCosta said.
After a rocky start, the regional high school budget has stabilized. Although the Monomoy Regional School District assessment to the town was almost $1 million above last year’s assessment, it could be accommodated in the overall town budget.
The town’s operating budget was up $1.38 million, but for the first time in recent memory the town has not had to seek an override or debt exclusion to finance needed equipment. For the first time in two decades, DaCosta said, the town had $4 million surplus in certified free cash.
DaCosta noted that nearly $1 million in free cash was being sought in town meeting articles for building maintenance this year. Monday night, voters approved spending $561,000 for a variety of maintenance tasks to town buildings and dredging, including $125,000 for the maintenance of the mothballed former Harwich Middle School. The fate of the middle school is a referendum question on the May 17 town ballot. It asks voters if they prefer demolition, conversion to town offices, sale to a private developer as senior housing, or holding onto it to sell or lease to a private organization as a cultural center or educational facility.
Late votes:
Town meeting will reconvene Tuesday at 7 p.m. to finish the last 13 articles on the warrant. It was a long night, but town meeting nearly wrapped up business, voting on all 56 articles Monday.
These are the articles that were approved after the Cape Cod Times press deadline.
$316,500 to purchase heavy equipment for the DPW.
$188,209 to buy equipment for lawn and building maintenance.
$2.2 million to replace the Lothrop Avenue water tank.
$18,700 for restoration work on the Albro House.
$25,000 for a solar powered crossing light on the Cape Cod Rail Trail at Queen Anne Road intersection.
$188,000 to resurface 4 tennis courts, basketball court, tennis practice wall and picnic pavilion.
$540,000 for restoration work at Brooks Free Library.
Voters unanimously approved $800,000 to purchase a 17 acre property at the headwaters of Muddy Creek. The Harwich Conservation Trust has promised to reimburse the town $300,000 and would own the property which will have a permanent conservation restriction.
Two historic structures experienced highly different outcomes at the hands of voters. An article asking for $100,000 for renovation work on the South Harwich Meeting House passed unanimously.
But, in a close vote, the historic West Harwich schoolhouse did not get the $203,500 requested for preservation and rehabilitation. Proponents were hoping to turn the schoolhouse into a boat building workshop and museum but many came forward to say that, while a good idea, the project had too many unanswered question.
Two articles involving an inter-municipal agreement with Chatham for transport and treatment of wastewater were indefinitely postponed and will likely come up at a special town meeting in the fall.
A proposed charter enforcement commission drew the ire of elected and appointed officials. The article wanted to create a committee to sit in judgement of those who were accused of violating the town charter.
Most suggested changing the charter for needed clarity to prevent misinterpretation and that there was no avenue of appeal. They said that education should replace prosecution, especially for volunteers.
“We know the charter has to be followed but to follow it you have to know what is being said,” said Selectman Angelo LaMantia. He said the education was underway but that it would take a couple of years to clarify the charter.
The article failed.
Source: Cape Cod Times
