Brewster Town Meeting Could Extend For Two Days; Comprehensive Plan, Sea Camps Plans On Warrant

BREWSTER – What could be more fun than town meeting day?

Two town meeting days.

The select board has raised the possibility of requiring two days to cover town business this spring. That may not be needed, but it is anticipated that approving the master plan for possibly $55 million or so for projects and work on the 121-acre Cape Cod Sea Camps properties that the town purchased for $26 million may lead to long discussions and a lot of interest.

In addition there are 23 other potential articles at present with the certainty of a couple more. This includes four potential citizens petitions that have yet to be filed; one each on short-term rental regulations and registrations, a home-rule petition on pesticide reduction and a resolution advocating for Medicare for all.

Other town meeting articles include accepting the Drummer Boy Park Advisory Committee report (which led to a long discussion last year), easements for the Millstone Road project, a private road betterment for the Vesper Pond neighborhood, Community Preservation Act funds to buy the Washington Chase bog, approving the town operating budget and the Nauset Regional School budget as well as a possible Nauset School budget override, approving the Brewster elementary school budget and a possible override and the Cape Cod Regional Technical High School budget.

The deadline to print the warrant is April 16. Town meeting will take place Saturday, May 11.

Task one for select board members, which they took up Monday night, is to decide how exactly to present the Sea Camp plans. They’ve been covered in forums and will be gone over again in future information sessions and on site visits to the pond and bay properties, but whether there will be one master plan in one article or two separate articles for the two properties is a question.

“We had envisioned beginning with both properties together and then separating them,” Town Manager Peter Lombardi recalled of the two-year planning process. “But the two were tied together and that didn’t make sense. So we held [four] joint forums. That’s still a consideration in bringing them to town meeting.”

The presentation at the last forum in February had 100 slides detailing the plans, and town meeting can’t go into that fine a discussion, he said. The town attorneys said the article or articles couldn’t be amended at the meeting since an amended article would differ from what the voters were presented with, he added. The board also doesn’t want the discussion to bog down into arguments over whether there should be a bocce court or a tennis court on the bay property.

“That’s less important than getting people to understand this is not a vote to fund anything,” board member Dave Whitney said. “Plans can change as circumstances change. We are not asking for any funds for this.”

He noted that funding for any portion of the plans would need to be approved at another town meeting. And Lombardi added that while approval of the plans required a majority vote, funding authorization would need two-thirds approval.

“When there’s discussion on the floor, if they are separate, would that simplify and focus the discussion?” asked board member Kari Hoffmann.

“I will go for two separate articles,” board member Cindy Bingham said.

The board will make a decision on the presentation over the next couple weeks.

Lombardi also said a discussion of the warrant should wait until final numbers are in from the schools as that could determine the amount of any overrides.

Not included among the warrant articles yet is a childcare and preschool subsidy for Brewster families. Lombardi said there are also two local option provisions for a tax work-off for seniors and veterans that are not in the draft warrant.