Public Meeting

Wednesday November 1, 2006

Meeting Room A

Town Hall, 260 Commercial Street

Time: 4:30 pm

 

 

Members Present:          Mel Cote, Marty Huey, and Gerard Irmer

 

Members Absent:                 Philip Scholl (excused absence)                                 

 

Advisory Staff:           Rex McKinsey and Doug Taylor

 

Others:                           Heather Bruce (ex-member) and Pru Sowers (reporter)

 

 

The meeting was called to order at 4:30 p.m. 

 

AGENDA

 

Review/amend/approve minutes of 10-4-06

Motion:  Accept the minutes as revised.

Motion:  Jerry Irmer      Seconded:  Mel Cote    Vote:  unanimous

 

Public Statements

There were none. 

 

Unfinished Business:

There was none.

 

Old Business:

· Review 2005 Amendments to the Harbor Plan status

Town counsel will be meeting with us on these amendments.

 

· Washington Ave. Town Landing Status

Nothing has changed.

 

· Good Templar Place Town Landing status

An e-mail was received from the DPW.  Good Templar Place is not one of the landings that the BoS thought was most critical.  The problem will not be attacked immediately.  A meeting with the abutters to the landing will be held on November 27th. 

 

Another temporary solution happened, the DPW took more sand from Ryder Street on Monday and put it on Good Templar Place to shore up the former quick-fix which washed out on the first high-course tide.

 

· Beach cleaning status

It was decided that it's a little late to deal with it.  Jerry may call Dennis, MA and ask them what they do with seaweed that they rake? 

 

ConCom has passed a new set of regulations.  The regulations state that you can’t remove seaweed from the beach. 

 

· Status of obtaining copies of maps of the harbor

Nothing new for this subject.

 

New Business:

· Mass. Estuaries Project

Rex is not prepared to speak on it.  Jerry will put it on the agenda for next meeting.

 

· Chapt. 91 license database status, Marty Huey

Marty Huey, the newest member of the Committee, started working as a volunteer in February on the Chapter 91 database.  He was shown to several boxes of papers in the nether regions of Town Hall and basically the assignment was to build a database of Chapter 91 licenses.  Marty then went to a hearing led by Lou Gitto.  MH thought Chapter 91 only applied to west of Howland Street and at the hearing they were discussing a property located in the 600 block of Commercial Street.  Thus he is able to understand the frustration of the Harbor Committee.  He personally applied for amnesty for his waterfront property and gave a broad history of his back and forth messages to attain his amnesty.

 

He now realizes that Chapter 91 is a 3-headed monster and no one has a good handle on it.  He is about to build a database that will be a useful tool for this committee.  The only working definition is that every property south of a line down Commercial St. is on the waterfront and his data is coming from the Assessor's Office.  Licenses were granted back to 1860.  Even some on Ryder St. extension.  Gosnold St. also has properties listed as Commercial St. 

 

He will indicate those east and west of Howland St.  Jerry asked if he had license numbers?  His work now is to create a format and record that format.  What was done…. When applied for and by whom.  Some covenants carry through to successive owners and some do not. 

 

The whole chart will have all the information per Huey and will be completed by the end of the year.

 

· W96-5487-N, 161 Comm’l St., Boatslip, Draft Special Conditions

Where do we go from here?  HB said they can’t have it both ways.  HB says you pick one line and go with it.  HB says you have to pick one line for everyone and not go arbitrarily property by property. 

 

Jerry wondered if he should reply to the October 12, 2006 letter sent to him by Lou Gitto?  We have a fundamental jurisdictional decision that needs to have an opinion. 

 

· W96-8218-N, 75 Comm’l St., Barnes, Draft Special Conditions

Any comments?  Will be sending a letter out for this. 

 

· W96-5023-N, 623 Commercial St., adjacent ROW, public access?

Next to Norman Mailers house.  This property does not have public access but the right-of-way was just given to neighbors across the street.  Rex is concerned – because in the past every side street going toward the water had a right-of-way right to the water.  When deeds turn over, many rights-of-way have disappeared. 

 

HB said that if you did a deed research you could probably uncover rights-of-way. 

Rex said that Americorp did research in the past and found no right-of-way to "uplanders."  Lawyers have to be careful when they register deeds. 

 

· Any other business that shall properly come before the Committee

Rex is planning more accessible floats to accommodate tourists and townfolks among others.  Rex won’t know what the final plan is until January or February. 

 

Jerry wants to ask KAB if legal counsel could spare an hour to meet with the Harbor Committee. 

 

Heather Bruce's appointment to Harbor Committee

It was decided to table this until the next meeting.  The e-mail from MaryJo that was shared with the group advised against Heather's appointment but also clearly stated that it was the Committee's call.

 

Adjournment happened at 5:18 p.m.

 

 

Next HC meeting: November 15 in Town Hall at 4:30 pm.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Evelyn Gaudiano

Evelyn Rogers Gaudiano

Approved by ____________________________on ______________, 2006.

                             Gerard Irmer, Chair