Selectmen Tie Up Loose Ends Before Town Meeting

by Alan Pollock

            CHATHAM — With less than a week to go before the annual town meeting, selectmen spent some time at their Tuesday meeting finishing up discussion on several warrant articles.

            The board spent the most time discussing Article 33, a measure to renew the intermunicipal agreement with Orleans, Harwich and Brewster and adopt the 2008 Pleasant Bay Resource Management Plan update.  At any other time, the article might have been an automatic vote, but the agreement has come under new scrutiny after selectmen raised concerns about the town’s right to pursue dredging projects in the Pleasant Bay Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC). 

            Selectmen had sought assurances from the Pleasant Bay Alliance that the group would not hinder any effort by Chatham to dredge certain areas to preserve navigation to Aunt Lydia’s Cove or other town waters.  Chuck Bartlett, one of the town’s representatives to the alliance’s steering committee, said the alliance has to weigh conflicting principles when considering such a request, since it is committed both to encouraging boating on the bay and protecting the bay’s ecosystems.  But the alliance has supported dredging in some areas, and would not seek to block dredging projects outside the ACEC in places like the new inlet or around Minister’s Point, he said.  To help it weigh other dredging proposals, and to help determine the best place for beach nourishment using dredged sand, the alliance is sponsoring a bay-wide sediment management study, Bartlett said.

            Selectman Sean Summers said he appreciates the alliance’s willingness to talk about dredging, but he would rather see the resource management plan itself explicitly endorse the idea of dredging.  Summers asked whether, by reauthorizing the intermunicipal agreement with other Pleasant Bay towns, Chatham might be providing annual funding to a group it might find itself at odds with.  Town Manager William Hinchey replied that, while the intermunicipal agreement would be binding for five years, the town’s annual financial contribution could be cancelled if town meeting voted to do so.

            Alliance Chairman Allin Thompson of Harwich Port, a former Harwich selectman, said he understands Chatham’s keen interest in dredging.

            “You’ve brought it to the forefront.  You’ve given us something to look at,” he said.  But Thompson said it is unfortunate to think Chatham might “hold hostage” its membership in the alliance over the matter.  The alliance is charged with acting in the best interest of the bay and of all four towns which surround it, he said, and has been working with state officials to explore how Chatham might go about obtaining permission to dredge key areas inside the ACEC. 

            “We’re here to work with you,” Thompson said.

            Summers apologized for sounding confrontational about seeking to preserve the town’s right to dredge navigable waterways, “but frankly it’s a cut-and-dry issue for me.” 

            Selectman Ronald Bergstrom said he’s not convinced of the need to dredge in Pleasant Bay.  Most parts of the bay have never been dredged, but have been navigable by small boats for years, he said.  The channels near Bassing Harbor and Minister’s Point have always been tough to navigate, he noted.  The exception, Bergstrom said, is if the new inlet takes over as the primary entrance to Chatham Harbor.  “We have a fleet that’s going to have to get out of there,” he said. 

            The board had voted to recommend approval of the Pleasant Bay plan update article in a previous meeting, and did not change that position Tuesday.

            Another late-breaking proposal, Article 30, won the board’s endorsement Tuesday.  The article would create special zoning on North Beach which would allow four camps from the First Village to be permanently relocated to the Hammatt property, where they were moved in March to keep them from being lost to erosion.  Community Development Director Kevin McDonald told selectmen the zoning bylaw revision is written narrowly enough that it would not apply to other properties in the district, or to structures other than the camps in question.  Selectmen voted unanimously to recommend approval of the article, having learned that the planning board took a similar vote after holding a public hearing on the proposal.

            The board was slated to discuss possible changes to the town’s affordable housing trust fund, based on recommendations which were to have been made by the finance committee and the community preservation committee.  But Hinchey said those two panels were unable to reach agreement on the matter, so there was no action for selectmen to take Tuesday.  Selectmen previously supported a town meeting article contributing community preservation money to the fund.

            Last week, the board opted not to support Article 36, the petition article which seeks to carry out immediate alum treatment of both Lovers Lake and Stillwater Pond.  Following the advice of a consultant hired to study water quality in the ponds, town officials included $100,000 in the fiscal 2009 budget to be voted next week to begin treatment of Lovers Lake.  The consultant, ENSR Corp., recommended treating Lovers Lake with alum to reduce phosphorous pollution, and then recommended waiting two to three years to see if water quality improves in Stillwater Pond, since both ponds are connected.  Only if no improvement is noticed should the town treat Stillwater Pond with alum, the consultant recommended.

            Neighbors of the ponds petitioned to have both ponds treated at the same time, saying that any delay might cause water quality to deteriorate beyond repair in Stillwater Pond.  Herring Warden Donald St. Pierre said the nutrient pollution might result in fish kills, harming the brood stock in the ponds. 

            Dr. Robert Duncanson, director of the town’s department of health and the environment, said seven years of data show that water quality in the ponds is poor, but steady over the years.  “Neither pond is going to get drastically worse over the next decade,” he said. 

            Hinchey said, given that likelihood, it makes good financial sense to see if the first round of treatment clear up the problem, rather than spending $105,000 more to treat both ponds. 

            Summers said it makes no sense for the town to hire a consultant for $77,000, “and then say, well, that’s fine but let’s treat both of them anyway.”  Summers said he has an underlying concern about using public funds to improve ponds where there is very limited public access.  An angler, Summers said he used to fish those ponds, but was confronted by a resident who asked him to leave.

            Despite her own concerns about public access to the ponds, Selectman Debbie Connors said she favors the article.  But a majority of the board—Whitcomb, Summers and Bergstrom—voted against Connors’ motion to support the article.

5/8/08