Orleans Begins Readying Spring Warrant

ORLEANS – It may be February, but spring town meeting preparations are already in full swing.

Articles have begun trickling in for the warrant for this year’s annual town meeting, slated for May 11 in the gymnasium of Nauset Regional Middle School. On Feb. 11, the select board discussed six articles that had been submitted ahead of the March 2 deadline for inclusion on the warrant.

The early articles include four spending requests including $125,000 to fund the town’s conservation fund; the transfer of $35,000 in water service connection funds; $45,000 for upgrades to the town’s emergency operations center; and $215,000 to continue water quality programming and monitoring.

The water quality funding includes $24,000 for monitoring at Lonnie’s Pond; $30,000 for monitoring at Namskaket Marsh; $30,000 for the second phase of the Cedar Pond Management Plan; $80,000 for follow up work on the management plan at Baker Pond; and an additional $41,000 for annual monitoring at Cedar Pond.

Michael Herman of the select board said the annual funding of water quality monitoring at Cedar Pond needs to be evaluated, noting that approximately $500,000 has been spent on monitoring the pond over the past eight years.

“I know we’re still testing (with) this $41,000, but I’m not quite sure why,” he said.

Herman said “amazing things” have been accomplished through the Cedar Pond work, including repairs made to stormwater drains and the completion of the first phase of town sewering. But he said with the amount of money spent to date, it’s worth figuring out what the end game is for the monitoring project.

“It’s like monitoring someone after they had cancer,” Andrea Reed of the select board said. “Don’t you want to know that the job is done?”

“It’s nice to know,” Herman said, “but once something gets over a half a million dollars and we continue to spend, I think it’s time to ask, ‘when will that end? What’s the point of this?’”

Board Chair Kevin Galligan, who was a member of the conservation commission when monitoring first started in the pond, agreed, noting that the work was not designed to endure over several years.

“This is more than testing,” he said. Galligan suggested that Conservation Agent John Jannell be asked to provide more information as to where things stand with the monitoring at a future meeting.

The Baker Pond funding would be used for an alum treatment, which Galligan said would be a “short-term management step” for addressing the pond’s water quality until the area is brought onto town sewer. But Herman said it’s important that Brewster help in that effort, given that the pond is a resource it shares with Orleans. He said that members of the marine and fresh water quality committee have been in touch with Brewster officials.

“But I think we might need some help from staff to make sure we’re getting Brewster on board with this,” he said. “We share that pond.”

Discussion was also given to the $125,000 request to replenish the conservation fund. Assistant Town Manager Mark Reil said the fund is designed for “maintenance and modest capital needs” for conservation projects that can’t be funded otherwise through the operating budget.

Lynn Bruneau, who served for many years as chair of the finance committee, said that the committee has supported the request to finance the fund through town meeting.

“We used to encourage them to do this, because they weren’t getting enough money through their regular budget,” she said.

But Herman asked if there is a way of calculating what the commission would need annually in terms of funding based on the existing conservation acreage under its jurisdiction. The board asked that Jannell also address the funding request at a future meeting.

“Michael is asking legitimate questions,” Galligan said. “I think the expertise comes from our subject matter expert.”

The $45,000 requested by Orleans Fire Chief Geof Deering would allow the town’s emergency operations center to be outfitted with video conferencing for use during emergency events, and additional emergency management communication tools.

Other early article submissions for the spring warrant include one seeking approval of a revised local comprehensive plan, and another seeking approval for a number of projects to be funded through the Community Preservation Act.