SUMMER RESIDENTS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Chatham, Massachusetts
Minutes of Meeting of July 13, 2007
Present: Don Edge, Jill MacDonald, Hugh Moulton, Nell Pinckert, Roy Sheldon, Arnold Trebach.
Also present: The Honorable Douglas Bohman
The meeting was called to order by Chair Don Edge at 9 am.
1. The minutes of the previous meeting of July 6 were approved.
2. Dr. Robert Duncanson provided a comprehensive review of recent efforts of the town to deal with the matter of water quality and waste water management. Among the major points he made were the following:
A. There has been a great deal of work done by town staff and by consultants to analyze important practical issues and to come up with sensible engineering solutions, including disposal of the effluent. Plans are moving forward and it is quite possible that a Comprehensive Waste Water Management Plan will be ready by the end of this year.
B. He and other town officials considered the position of the SRAC last year calling for the sewering of the entire town and for the job to be done within eight to ten years. However, while a total sewer system was accepted as a good idea, the view of town officials was that the time frame for completion of even 70 percent would be about 20 years – and completion of the whole town, about 30 years.
C. Town officials and consultants continue to wrestle with a host of perplexing scientific and practical problems. In doing so, Chatham appears to be leading the way for other towns on the Cape.
D. The future of Chatham’s management of wastewater appears optimistic.
3. Jill McDonald gave a report on her preliminary study of the matter of affordable housing. She suggested that it might be a good idea to develop some basic guidelines to assist the town in responding to proposals that plan to develop such housing.
4. The chairman passed out a corrected group of papers which provided basic information about the operation of this committee. He noted that the date for the Summer Town Meeting of August 7 is near at hand and it would behoove those members making presentations to get their ducks in a row. After some discussion, it was observed that the program for that meeting contained in the group of papers would need a few changes.
5. Nell Pinckert indicated that she thought that downtown parking could be improved by the marking of individual parking spaces and better enforcement of the rules on parking. Since she is a member of the Transportation and Safety sub-committee, she was encouraged to pursue the matter.
The meeting adjourned at 10:50 AM.
The next meeting will be on July 20, when the guest presenters on the matter of the breach and related issues will be Ted Keon, Director, Coastal Resources, and Richard Miller, community spokesman on the breach.
Respectfully submitted,
Arnold Trebach
Recording Secretary
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