Voters OK 90 Bridge St. By An Ample Margin

CHATHAM – Prompting a chorus of cheers and applause, special town meeting voters threw their support behind the 90 Bridge St. waterfront project Monday evening. 

On a 462-99 vote, they authorized spending another $4 million to finish building the pier, floats and new shellfish upweller in the restored Coast Guard boathouse near the Mitchell River bridge.

 The article won the endorsement of the select board, finance committee, shellfish advisory committee and other groups like the south coastal harbor plan committee, on which Ernie Eldredge serves.

 “We have been in full support of this project from its conception, which was 10 years ago,” he said. “Also, I’m here as a longtime fisherman and shellfisherman. And I would ask and encourage everyone here to vote in support of this, so that future people can enjoy what I’ve enjoyed all my life.”

 The article sought $4 million to complete all three phases of the $11.03 million project; the first phase, the dredging and bulkhead replacement, are expected to be complete by the end of the month. In the second phase, contractors will install new piers and floats that will provide space for recreational and commercial boaters. The final phase involves the installation of the historic boathouse and its renovation to house the new upweller.

  “The upweller’s the most important tool in the town’s propagation system,” Shellfish Constable Renee Gagne told voters. Used to grow seed quahogs large enough so they can be released to the wild for harvesting, the current upweller at Old Mill Boatyard is jury-rigged and unreliable. The program ensures “that Chatham remains the most lucrative wild-caught commercial quahog shellfishery in the state of Massachusetts,” she said. “This program directly supports our local commercial shellfishermen, all of whom are year-round domiciled residents.” Housing the new system in the restored Coast Guard boathouse, which stood guard just across the harbor for many decades, “will bring back a piece of our waterfront history and its connection to our rich maritime history that defines our coastal communities,” Gagne said.

 Opponents of the article focused largely on its cost, which is expected to add between $25 and $50 to property tax bills starting in fiscal 2026. Resident Debbie Swenson said she cannot support the project.

 “It is not a vote against shellfishermen or the need for shellfish seed,” she said. “It is a vote against the project, with a building that is beyond repair and too large for the site and has an exorbitant cost.” 

 Swenson and others at the meeting argued that the town is using a dubious approach to authorizing the borrowing for the project. In May, annual town meeting voters rejected an $11 million bond issuance for five waterfront projects, including 90 Bridge St., but in the town election that followed, voters approved the necessary Proposition 2½ debt exclusion. On the advice of town counsel, town officials are using that debt exclusion vote to authorize the new, stand-alone 90 Bridge St. article.

 “It seems that the town government representatives selectively choose which of our votes to accept,” she said.

 “I can’t vote for it. I just can’t,” resident John Huether said. The cost of the project is too high, he noted. “Hardly any people in this lobby here have had a say about putting this old building on that property,” he said. “If I was going to spend $11 million dollars, I would’ve voted for the council on aging,” Huether said. That project also failed after the town relied on a previously approved bond authorization.

 “Using this loophole that we used for the council on aging, which was a new discovery, is setting a really bad precedent,” resident Elaine Gibbs said. “Town meeting is not a suggestion.”

 But the project’s merits swayed the majority of voters, like Frank Messina of the historical commission, who said the town struggled for years to find ways to preserve the Coast Guard boathouse. “It looked like it was finally going to be demolished and put away. And then, serendipity. All of a sudden, the town of Chatham needed a 30-by-60 building. The boathouse happens to be 30 by 60.” The town has a historic connection to the Coast Guard, including the famed Pendleton rescue in 1952, and the adaptive reuse of the boathouse would deepen that connection, Messina said. As for the sturdiness of the building, Messina said he’s not worried. “They built ‘em to last,” he said. Similar boathouses remain in place on Nantucket and Cuttyhunk, he noted.

 Ellen Briggs of Protect our Past said the town turned down the chance to save the historic CG36500 rescue boat used in the Pendleton rescue, which is now being preserved in Orleans.

 “You all know we lost the boat, and I can tell you, Orleans is not going to give it back,” she said, to chuckles from the audience. “We have an opportunity here. Please, let’s not lose that.” 

 Resident Tracy Shields, a member of the finance committee, said the 90 Bridge St. project is important to preserving what makes Chatham special. She’s been coming to Chatham since her great-grandparents bought a home in North Chatham, “and each grandparent teaches the next grandchild about Chatham and going clamming. It kept us all coming back here. And I’ve now raised my son here, who has now spent his third summer as part of the commercial fleet and he loves it. It’s a cultural part of keeping us tied to physical land and waters,” she said. 

As a restaurateur, Shields sees value in having locally-sourced shellfish, particularly when the food supply chain is disrupted as during the pandemic. Then, she and others turned to shellfishermen for fresh protein for people who were struggling. “We donated time and we made huge batches of clam chowder and distributed them to our seniors and to some families struggling with food insecurity,” she said. 

 Voters cut off further debate in less than an hour, approving the project on a vote of 462-99, “more than the requisite two-thirds,” Town Moderator Bill Litchfield noted.