Businesses Brace For Shoulder Season Sewer Work

EAST ORLEANS – The most disruptive construction work related to the sewer installation project has been suspended during the peak summer season. Some businesses along East Main Street are eager to see that the road isn’t closed during the late summer and early fall shoulder season.

On July 12, Assistant Planner Mike Solitro shared a memorandum with East Orleans businesses proposing a draft schedule for sewer construction in the weeks ahead. A fine-print annotation on one of the maps accompanying the memo forecasted that crews from contractor CC Construction, Inc., would be carrying out work on Main Street between Meetinghouse Road and Great Oak Road for 25 days between Sept. 16 and Oct. 11. The work includes the installation of lateral sewer lines, necessitating the closure of both lanes of the road.

Peter Gori, owner of Nauset Farms, said September and October are still prime months for tourism, weddings, golfing and some vacationing.

“It is a massive revenue center for, I would daresay, 100 percent of businesses on Cape Cod,” he said. “If I don’t have September and October, I will not survive the winter.”

Solitro said the proposed work schedule is only a draft, aimed at soliciting feedback from the public, two months before that work would begin.

“The 60 days was to have that dialogue,” he said. The town and the contractor are reviewing public comments before finalizing a plan, he said. “We’re trying to be as collaborative as possible, understanding that there are a lot of interests to balance,” Solitro said.

Orleans Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Judy Lindahl said she doesn’t believe the draft plan will go forward exactly as-is.

“Our first position would be, please don’t do any of this work until Dec. 26,” Lindahl said, but it’s clear that there is pressure to complete the project on time. “We’re fully understanding that the town wants to have the paving done by June 2025,” she said, and the draft work schedule aims to achieve that target. The goal is to have much of the work done by the end of March, to give the road time to settle before final paving ahead of the summer season.

“I’m sure that the town is taking everything into consideration, and they’re willing to work with the businesses,” Lindahl said. “We have a great partnership right now.”

Gori said local businesses like his need time to plan, particularly if it means scaling back employees’ hours, changing restaurant menus, buying stock, or even closing for a period of time.

“We’ve been asking for a seven-to-nine-to-12-month look-ahead” for the entire wastewater project to inform those kinds of business decisions, he said. Last winter, East Orleans businesses took a hit when Main Street was closed and traffic was essentially detoured around the business district. “We got hurt because they didn’t plan properly last time,” Gori said.

If the project needs more time to complete work without disrupting the shoulder season or the holidays, Gori said he would favor extending the project by another construction season.

Lindahl said some people might favor that approach, but others likely wouldn’t.

“I know that the town’s position is that the residents want that road paved by June 2025,” she said.

The proposed work schedule for the fall and winter will be the topic for discussion at a public meeting on Aug. 13 at 11 a.m., Solitro said, and the schedule is open to adjustment.

“Obviously there are things that cannot be changed,” he said, but some parts of the project can be adjusted “if we hear from enough stakeholders.”