Town Seeks Grants To Offset Sea Camps Costs

BREWSTER – Last fall, residents voted against an $11.4 million debt exclusion requested to fund the implementation of the Sea Camps comprehensive plan. Now, officials are back at the drawing board, seeking external funding to implement parts of the plan.

After the December special election, the select board and the Sea Camps advisory committee decided to press pause on looking for grant funding in hopes of realigning goals with the general community. Multiple surveys and in-person forums were conducted with Brewster residents to find out where their mindsets were when it came to the project. 

Over the last six months, town officials, the Sea Camps advisory committee and the consulting team on the project started to look into grants that might be beneficial to the project. At its May 14 meeting, the Sea Camps advisory committee recommended a number of grant opportunities that would help offset the costs for both the bay property and the pond property, including one centered around coastal resilience. 

As part of their work, engineers Weston & Sampson will be preparing a list of grants and their conditions as they become available that would fit the phasing timeline of the Sea Camps project. 

According to select board policy, all grant applications exceeding $25,000 must be approved by the select board before the application process begins. On Monday, the  board green-lighted several applications.

The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management has an established coastal resilience grant program that looks to address current and future coastal flooding, erosion and sea level rise issues, protect public facilities and critical infrastructure, provide broad public benefits and access and support adaptation of environmental justice communities. 

According to a memorandum, the town is hoping to use this grant to cover costs associated with engineering, final design and permitting of three related resilience-based tasks at the Sea Camps bay property. These were determined to be the biggest priorities after officials worked with the engineering team on the project. 

Town Manager Peter Lombardi said town administration met with state officials over the last two months to discuss the application and to ask whether packaging the three tasks together will make the application more competitive. 

The first task will include engineering design plans and permitting of a new water main on the property. The water main will provide safe drinking water and fire suppression connections from Route 6A and the distribution system to the east. The exact connection points will be part of the design process. 

There is currently an existing water main network that was built on the bay property in the mid 1970s that sits under the dunes and will be affected by coastal erosion. 

“At the time, I guess it made sense because it was really easy digging,” said Lombardi. “But realistically, now it is nowhere you would ever put infrastructure.” 

The updates will help prepare a solution before the problems with the existing water mains arise. Incidents have already occurred with water main breaks a few miles west near Ocean Edge. 

A second task will focus on the permitting and design needed to remove the existing tennis court. This will have a direct impact on the coastal resiliency of the property since the courts sit too close to the dunes. Developing a natural habitat will buffer the property and the Cape Cod Bay. A parking lot located next to the courts will also be enhanced for resiliency purposes. 

Select board member Caroline McCarley was adamant about clarifying the state of the tennis courts up for removal. 

“Those that would be removed, we’ve never planned to use,” she said. “These are not playable tennis courts and desperately need to get out of the dunes.”

The third and final task that will round out the application will center on beach nourishment. 

The town has been participating in a multi-year, inter-municipal shoreline management project with Dennis and Orleans. Brewster, as the lead community, has secured grant funding from the same coastal resilience grant program for the project. Over the last few months, as a result of the work, they’ve identified numerous sites along the shoreline that would benefit from beach nourishment. The request will seek funding for the design and permitting phases of beach nourishment.

The total estimated cost for the three projects is around $180,000, and the town has already committed to an in-kind match of staff time for services related to the projects. 

“I think this is right in line with what we’ve been hearing for the last few months,” said Pete Dahl, select board member. “Looking for alternate sources to start these things that need to be done. Not the big things, but the things that have to be done right away [like] the infrastructure. This just makes a world of sense.” 

If the grant is awarded, the town will apply for a second round of the same program to cover the costs of construction for the three projects. 

Lombardi estimated there could be an additional savings of around $1.2 million if the town is awarded the second round of funding, with departments providing in-kind matches, including water department staff installing the new water main and town staff completing the tennis court demolition. This would save roughly $550,000 if the town didn’t have to put the projects out to bid. 

Officials are anticipating the winners of the grant will be announced in September.