Wing Island, Bay And Pond Property Planning Top Brewster Stories

BREWSTER – This past year wasn’t the most momentous in Brewster history, but then with all that’s going on in the world, do we really want the curse of “living in interesting times” in our hometown?

Henceforth a look back on another 12 months logged into the pages of history in Brewster.

Town finances are in good shape and Brewster plans to spend $57.9 in fiscal 2025, which begins in July. Revenues are projected at $58.1 million. Voters passed a $386,878 override to keep FY24 spending on track. That override funded the elementary schools which had a 5.5 percent operating increase. The town also approved a $648,000 override to cover operating expenses for the Nauset Regional Schools.

Over the course of 2023, two town committees continued to hold forums and plan for the future of Brewster’s largest property purchase ever by cost at $26 million, not acreage; that would be the 875-acre Punkhorn Parklands purchased in 1985. The Bay Property and Long Pond portion of the Cape Cod Sea Camps would both house affordable housing and multiple recreation and conservation opportunities if plans devised by consultants from Reed Hilderbrand come to fruition. The 55-acre Bay Property on Route 6A could accommodate 10 acres of nature trails, a pond, nature center and instruction by Mass Audubon, a community center and parking, beachfront parking and the outdoor pool, community gardens, a pollinator meadow and along Route 6A and perhaps 48 affordable housing units. Most of the 92 buildings would be removed. If all plans and renovations were carried out, the total cost could be as high as $66 million.

The 66-acre Long Pond property could be split between conservation, recreation and housing with 40 or so units out by Route 137, with 85 percent kept as woods and pond shore. Mass Audubon could also construct a small nature center near Long Pond and parking for recreation would be constructed.

Short-term rentals, where apartments or homes are leased for less that 30 days, are growing in all Cape towns. Brewster has 1,092, and the thought is they are squeezing out year-round units and pushing housing costs higher, as well as being an occasional nuisance for neighbors. Nevertheless, two citizen petitions to regulate and place limits upon them were indefinitely postponed at the fall town meeting.

One of Brewster’s largest properties is for sale as 2024 looms. Stephan Brown is selling the 15-acre parcel that houses the Great Cape Herb Shop along with the original Snowy Owl Coffee shop and the Fare and Just Kitchen. Behind that are landscaped woods drifting back to the bike shop. The asking price is $4 million.

Brown founded the Great Cape Herb, Spice and Tea Company in 1991. Before that he operated the Eastleigh Nursery on the land that he bought in 1972, and before that he ran a landscaping company. That part of Brewster grew up around him with the hardware store and Foster Square, and depending on who buys it and what they do, that part Brewster on Route 6A could become a commercial center or remain much the same if the Great Cape Tiny Village Co-op succeeds in raising sufficient funds.

This year saw the retirement of the oldest member of the Brewster Town Band. Karl Fehrle, at the young age of 102, is scaling back his activity by stepping down as the band’s first saxophonist. However, he still plays in two other bands.

Town meeting voters in November approved a comprehensive plan for the future after rejecting it in 2022 over concerns about the Wing Island boardwalk.

Voters also transferred the custody of Wing Island from the select board to the conservation commission. That was after a special town meeting in March ended for now any further town expenditures on the proposed Wing Island boardwalk. The project proved controversial as residents felt it would lead to too much traffic on the beach, mar the marsh and adversely affect the migrating and nesting bird populations on Wing Island. While Wing Island is behind the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, it is town property. A citizen’s petition from former assistant Town Administrator Jillian Douglass asked the town to form a committee to revise the Drummer Park master plan and the voters approved that.

After a lengthy race to completion that started in 2015, The Haven Center’s retail cannabis shop finally opened up near the Orleans town line on Route 6A. Final state approvals for a curb cut amongst other things had delayed the opening. Originally, the Brewster Select Board had hoped to have two marijuana outlets in town and devised bylaws for that outcome. However a switch from medical to retail sales by the Haven Center effectively blocked four other applicants. Fears of traffic congestion didn’t materialize and the Haven Center is seeking to have their soft opening restrictions lifted.

Cape Cod Grow Lab also began operations growing marijuana for sale in its new facility off Freeman’s Way. Both businesses will pay Brewster a 3 percent tax on sales.

The select board requested the regional school operational agreement between Wellfleet, Eastham, Orleans and Brewster that created the Nauset system be reopened for negotiation in September. That happened and a new agreement should be brought before the four town meetings next spring. The main issues were representation on the regional school board and the formula for assessing costs among the four district towns.

Plans for the Spring Rock Village housing project off Millstone Road were finalized with 45 units created by a partnership between the town’s affordable housing trust and a developer. The project on an L-shaped 16.6 acres has been in development since 2018. The project will have a 55 percent preference for local residents.

Brewster now has 7.2 percent of its housing classed as affordable, quite good by Cape standards. That allows Brewster to be a “Safe Harbor” wherein the state can’t override Brewster zoning laws. The town has a 10 percent target.

Town meeting voted to add $2 million for the long-delayed Millstone Road upgrade that will widen the road, add sidewalks and improve drainage. The total cost of the work, which will begin next month, is $10.3 million.

The Brewster Conservation Trust celebrated its 40th year in 2023. The group protected an additional 33 acres this year. All told the BCT has preserved 1,683 acres. It’s mostly upland forest but includes ponds, swamps, old cranberry bogs and shoreline.

Ben Szuhaj won his second consecutive Brew Run. Abby Loisell won the women’s race. It was the 45th 5.2-mile Brew Run and it drew 906 runners. The Brewster Whitecaps lost the Yarmouth Dennis in the Cape Cod Baseball League playoffs.

Brewster’s brand new special education stabilization fund performed its duties in 2023. The purpose was to smooth out special education costs at the schools, which can gyrate wildly as students move, graduate or enroll in the local system. This year $67,500 was used to cover a budget discrepancy, leaving $35,000 in the fund. The fund was first approved in 2022.

Brewster lost another longtime institution when Kate’s Fried Seafood and Ice Cream closed this fall after 38 years in operation. Kate is Kate Ohman, wife of John Ohman, who owned Liam’s at Nauset Beach before it washed into the sea. They are looking to sell the business to new owners who will run it pretty much as it was. Before it was Kate’s it was Mike’s.

Ned Chatelain was reelected to the select board in a very close race, besting Laurel Labdon 1,147 to 1,142 in May. That was close enough for a recount. Carol Anderson had 123 votes.

The Latham Center began work on a $9 million expansion at the location of the former New England Fire and History Museum. The Center treats children and adults with Prader Willi Syndrome and has about 170 clients. Work should be complete sometime next year.

Elton Cutler is the new director of Brewster Council on Aging, succeeding Denise Rego, who retired. Cutler formerly worked with the Truro COA.

The Brewster Ladies’ Library also got a new director in Brittany Taylor. She had been the assistant director of the Provincetown Public Library. Taylor is from Orleans and graduated from Nauset High and Middlebury College in Vermont.

Brewster Town Meeting banned plastic nip bottles effective Jan. 1. Brewster joins several other Cape towns in the ban. But the voters opted to keep plastic take out containers and knives, forks and spoons by a 253-134 vote. That measure was pushed by Sustainable Practices.

All school budgets were approved including $13.4 for the Nauset system and $11 million for the Eddy and Stony Brook Elementary Schools. Brewster’s operating budget was $25.3 million.

Perhaps most importantly for the future of the town, last Jan. 5, the first Brewster Town Charter won approval from the state legislature. The charter was actually drafted five years ago, and it made Peter Lombardi the town manager instead of the administrator.