Category: Barnstable Village

Newsletter: February 27 2023

Com­plete Streets
Many vil­lage res­i­dents have already shared their views about need­ed improve­ments to our roads and side­walks.  This is one more chance to raise aware­ness con­cern­ing the safe­ty issues on Com­merce Road and the need for a com­plete side­walk to 6A.

Complete Streets

Updates

In col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Cape Cod Com­mis­sion and based on pub­lic feed­back col­lect­ed this past Sum­mer, Town staff have worked to devel­op a Draft Pri­or­i­ti­za­tion Plan: a list of pri­or­i­ty road­way improve­ment projects through­out the Town of Barn­sta­ble ranked by defined eval­u­a­tion cri­te­ria includ­ing safe­ty, mobil­i­ty, abil­i­ty to imple­ment and com­mu­ni­ty support.

The Town of Barn­sta­ble and the Cape Cod Com­mis­sion want to hear from you. Does the Pri­or­i­ti­za­tion Plan reflect our com­mu­ni­ties’ pri­or­i­ties? Are there any road­way improve­ments that should be added to the Pri­or­i­ti­za­tion Plan? The pub­lic com­ment peri­od is now open through Wednes­day March 15th. To view the map of pro­posed pri­or­i­ty projects and to sub­mit com­ments, please vis­it the Cape Cod Com­mis­sion’s web­page: https://www.capecodcommission.org/our-work/barnstable-complete-streets/ 

Newsletter: January 19 2023

Christmas lights formed to look like a pick up truck

Thanks to Ray and Pip­pa for their cre­ative and enter­tain­ing addi­tion to our vil­lage hol­i­day lights.

Real Estate Taxes

A num­ber of res­i­dents have reached out to me with con­cerns about their tax bills. 

The best place to start is to either look at your bills from last year, or prefer­ably, look up your Prop­er­ty Record on the Assessor’s sec­tion of the Town of Barn­sta­ble website.

Go to  https://town.barnstable.ma.us   then go to Depart­ments: then Asses­sor:: then: Prop­er­ty Look Up.  From there you can access your prop­er­ty infor­ma­tion, includ­ing assessed val­ues for pre­vi­ous years and your tax info for the last two years.

The present tax assess­ments are based on the real estate sales mar­ket in 2021.  This is the last year with com­plete infor­ma­tion.  On aver­age assessed val­ues rose 27% from the year before.  Assess­ments for most peo­ple rose, but the res­i­den­tial tax rate itself actu­al­ly decreased from $8.64 per $1,000 in 2022 to $7.07 per $1,000 in 2023.  Many peo­ple had their home val­ues rise and their tax­es remained about the same, while some saw high­er home val­ue increas­es and high­er taxes.

While you are look­ing at your prop­er­ty infor­ma­tion, check the bot­tom of your Tax Infor­ma­tion to be sure that, if this is your pri­ma­ry res­i­dence, you are get­ting a Res­i­den­tial Exemp­tion.  This reduces your assess­ment by 20% before your tax­es are cal­cu­lat­ed.  You should have a line at the bot­tom of your tax infor­ma­tion that says: Res­i­den­tial Exemp­tion Received.  You need to have owned your home since the begin­ning of 2022, but call the Assessor’s Office to get check all of the par­tic­u­lars.Exam­ple:

2023
Assessed Val­ue:
$669,800Barn­sta­ble FD Tax (Com­mer­cial)$ 0Barn­sta­ble FD Tax (Res­i­den­tial)$ 1,279.32Com­mu­ni­ty Preser­va­tion Act Tax$ 109.91Town Tax (Com­mer­cial)$ 0Town Tax (Res­i­den­tial)$ 3,663.56 Total: $ 5,052.79		2022
Assessed Val­ue: 
$ 548,900Barn­sta­ble FD Tax (Com­mer­cial)$ 0Barn­sta­ble FD Tax (Res­i­den­tial)$ 1,383.23Com­mu­ni­ty Preser­va­tion Act Tax$ 111.40Town Tax (Com­mer­cial)$ 0Town Tax (Res­i­den­tial)$ 3,713.31 Total: $ 5,207.94
Res­i­den­tial Exemp­tion Received= $151,616Res­i­den­tial Exemp­tion Received= $119,119

You can also review your Prop­er­ty Record Card for accuracy.

If you see a prob­lem with your Prop­er­ty Record Card or you feel your assess­ment is not accu­rate, you have until the end of Jan­u­ary to file for an abatement. 

Ques­tions regard­ing: Res­i­den­tial, Vet­er­an, Senior, Blind Exemp­tions and Defer­ral appli­ca­tions can be direct­ed to the Town Asses­sor’s Office by call­ing: 508–862-4022 or email assessor@town.barnstable.ma.us
Here is a link to a recent­ly pro­duced video which explains how our prop­er­ties are assessed: AN OVERVIEW ‑VIDEOFISCAL YEAR 2023 RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE TAX:

2022 Is Winding Down, But…The Days Are Getting Longer

Gordon Starr
Precinct 1
Town Councilor

Decem­ber 28, 2022

At this time of year, I always enjoy say­ing, “See you next year.“
I hope to see you many of you at the Annu­al Barn­sta­ble Har­bor New Year’s Day Splash, on Sun­day the 1st of the year.  Bring your bathing suit and then join us at the Dol­phin.  There will be music, raf­fles, and many vil­lage friends to begin the new year with.  The funds raised will go to fam­i­lies in need in Barn­sta­ble Vil­lage.  I want us all to rec­og­nize the efforts of Dan Phi­los-Jensen for tak­ing over and orga­niz­ing this fun and worth­while vil­lage event. He has put in many hours and he is a role mod­el for all of us.
There is also a series of First Day HIkes, orga­nized by the Barn­sta­ble Land Trust.
I hope you are all stay­ing warm and if I don’t see you this week, See you next year.

Stand Outs & Media Events

As the ear­li­er post indi­cates, Gor­don Starr Precinct 1 Town Coun­cil Can­di­date is on the move. As well as Stand Outs & Media Events, Gor­don is knock­ing on doors across Barn­sta­ble Vil­lage, Cen­ter­ville, and Hyan­nis’ “Vil­lage Green” and ask­ing the ques­tion “do you know who is your town councilor?”

Gordon Starr with Vote Button on a backgroudn of Barnstable Harbor satellite image

Stand Outs

We need lots of people!

It is crunch time for the Barn­sta­ble Town Coun­cil elec­tion on Novem­ber 5.  And we need your help hold­ing signs from 7:30–9:00am and 3:30–5:00pm on elec­tion day. 

Please con­tact Cyn­thia Cole at cbc33@comcast.net. Text or call her at 508.280.8979.

Please give us an hour or two of your time! 

BTW, for those not sure, stand outs are when you stand on the cor­ner, or at a poll hold­ing a Vote for Gor­don Starr Town Coun­cil sign. It’s fun. You get to wave a lot and peo­ple smile back at you. Some­times they even honk their horns! 

Media Events

Newradio 95 WXTK Logo: Stand Outs & Media Events

Sun­day, Novem­ber 3rd @ 12pm – 1pm

First, tune in to hear Precinct 1 Town Coun­cil chal­lenger Gor­don Starr con­verse with incum­bent John Flo­res on FM 95.1 News­ra­dio WXTK host­ed by Patrick Desmarais.

Next, call in and engage in the debate between these two town coun­cil can­di­dates. The num­ber to call is 508–775-9985.

More Ways to Support Gordon Starr

Vis­it our Sup­port Gor­don Starr page, or to learn about more upcom­ing Stand Outs & Media Events sign up for Gor­don’s newsletter. 

Keeping Up With Gordon

It’s not easy keep­ing up with Gor­don. He’s all over town!

Knock­ing on doors, town meet­ings, and now, radio shows, he is on the move. His signs are show­ing up all over the precinct as he reach­es out to vot­ers across Barn­sta­ble Vil­lage, Hyan­nis, and Centerville.

Elect Gordon Starr sign on a neighbor's lawn with a handsome cream colored retriever sitting next to it. Keeping Up With Gordon is not for the feint of heart.

As busy as Gor­don is, so are his sup­port­ers. Click the links below to read Let­ters to the Edi­tor sup­port­ing his can­di­da­cy and pub­lished by the Cape Cod Times this past week.

Asso­ci­a­tion to Pre­serve Cape Cod’s Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Andrew Got­tlieb had this to say in his “What I’m think­ing” newsletter…

If you start at the local lev­el, and let’s face it that most of the action on mit­i­ga­tion and adap­ta­tion are going to hap­pen as local gov­ern­ment projects, your vote real­ly counts. I was elect­ed a select­man by 6 votes. In local scale elec­tions, sin­gle votes mat­ter and can­di­dates know it. So, don’t waste your pow­er. Put peo­ple in office at the local lev­el who take the sci­ence seri­ous­ly and under­stand the urgency.

… Don’t think for a minute that who you elect local­ly doesn’t mat­ter. Even if your local select per­son doesn’t move up the polit­i­cal food chain, they will be decid­ing what your town does or doesn’t accom­plish on cli­mate and water qual­i­ty. Barn­sta­ble vot­ers, you have an elec­tion soon, so it is not too late to flex your envi­ron­men­tal mus­cles.

Gor­don cares about Barn­sta­ble Vil­lage. He is look­ing for­ward on all issues impact­ing our vil­lage and our town. Vis­it About Gor­don and learn why he should be our next Precinct 1 town councilor.

Endorsed by Senator Ed Markey

Yes­ter­day, Gor­don Starr Barn­sta­ble Town Coun­cil Can­di­date Precinct 1 was endorsed by U.S. Sen­a­tor Ed Markey at Nir­vana Cof­fee Shop in Barn­sta­ble Village. 

“We need lead­ers at the local lev­el to influ­ence poli­cies that are going to help us to avoid the worst and most cat­a­stroph­ic con­se­quences of cli­mate change, we need to think glob­al­ly but need to act locally. ”

U.S. Sen­a­tor Ed Markey

Endorsed by Senator Ed Markey

Here’s the Cape Cod Times article:

Markey Makes Unusu­al Endorse­ment on Cape Cod Visit

The Cape Cod Times arti­cle notes that the town coun­cil elec­tion is not a par­ti­san race. Gor­don is reg­is­tered as “un-enrolled” nev­er­the­less, Gor­don’s strong record of sup­port­ing the envi­ron­ment caught Sen­a­tor Markey’s atten­tion for an endorsement.

Markey was on the Cape to attend the Net Zero Con­fer­ence being held at Cape Cod Resort and Con­fer­ence Cen­ter in Hyannis.

Gordon has lived in Barnstable Village for over 40 years

Gor­don knows Barn­sta­ble Vil­lage. He val­ues its tra­di­tions and respects its char­ac­ter. Gor­don under­stands what is impor­tant to the vil­lagers. He is a great lis­ten­er and wants to hear what mat­ters to you!

Vis­it About Gor­don to learn more about Gor­don’s sto­ry. Aside from being endorsed by Sen­a­tor Ed Markey, Gor­don has cur­ried favor with towns­peo­ple across the vil­lage, as indi­cat­ed by the many lawn signs lin­ing route 6A.

What’s Happening…

Dear Vot­ers,

As a town coun­cilor, I will com­mu­ni­cate & engage reg­u­lar­ly with Precinct 1 con­stituents to keep them up to date on “What’s Hap­pen­ing”. It is one of the most impor­tant roles of a town coun­cilor to engage the peo­ple in their district.

This is the first install­ment of week­ly updates on vil­lage and town issues. 

The town coun­cil vot­ed to approve CPC (Com­mu­ni­ty Preser­va­tion Com­mit­tee) fund­ing for “improve­ments” to The Hol­low. I hope you can come to the next Hol­low meet­ing at the Uni­tar­i­an Church this Wednes­day (see below for more information).

On August 20th, Dan San­tos, head of DPW, spoke at the old Jail about the Streetscape, the Hol­low and Maraspin Creek. There is a nice syn­op­sis of the meet­ing on the Friends of Barn­sta­ble Har­bor Web­site.

I am devel­op­ing a plan for “face to face” meet­ings for the Barn­sta­ble Vil­lage Streetscape Project. As the project pro­gress­es, I believe it will be impor­tant to have a forum to voice our con­cerns about the project. These con­cerns will be shared with the Town of Barn­sta­ble.  And please, feel free to update me on any con­cerns you may have about the BV Streetscape Project ongoing. 

Look for­ward to see­ing you at these impor­tant meet­ings and hear­ing your con­cerns regard­ing the Streetscape Project. And thank you all for being inter­est­ed in our vil­lage be sure to check in reg­u­lar­ly to learn “What’s Happening”!

Sin­cere­ly,

Gor­don

P. S. Thanks to Ann Canedy for these links.

HOLLOW UPDATE MEETING SCHEDULED:

Precinct 1 Town Coun­cilor John Flo­res will be host­ing a meet­ing for local cit­i­zen­ry input with mem­bers of the DPW depart­ment and CPC regard­ing the ren­o­va­tion of the Hol­low Field on Wednes­day , Sep­tem­ber 4, 2019 at 6pm. The meet­ing will be held at the Uni­tar­i­an Church War­ren Hall next to the Hol­low Field.

John Flo­res will put togeth­er a sub com­mit­tee to talk about improve­ments at the Hol­low.  If you would like to join, con­tact him at:  johnflores3105@gmail.com

Barnstable Village Streetscape Project

Construction worker at the Barnstable Village Streetscape Project

WANT TO BE INFORMED ABOUT THE BARNSTABLE VILLAGE STREETSCAPE PROJECT?

The Town of Barn­sta­ble Dept. of Pub­lic Works wants you to be updat­ed in a time­ly, accu­rate, infor­ma­tive way regard­ing the upcom­ing streetscape project.  If you want to receive reg­u­lar updates direct­ly from DPW, sub­mit your email address to :
bvproject@town.barnstable.ma.us

The Hollow Open Space “Improvements”

Gordon believes that communication with the villagers is the number one job of a town councilor

Picture of a green grassy field, The Hollow August 2019
The Hol­low ‑August 2019

This past Thurs­day evening, Gor­don Starr called a meet­ing to at the Stur­gis Library where Town of Barn­sta­ble archi­tect Mark Mari­nac­cio pre­sent­ed the plans for “improv­ing” The Hol­low”. The town’s Com­mu­ni­ty Preser­va­tion Com­mit­tee has slat­ed a $162,000 com­mit­ment to this “open space” project. The town coun­cil will vote on appro­pri­at­ing these funds at Thurs­day’s (8/15/19) town coun­cil meeting.

The more than thir­ty atten­dees were con­cerned about the plans. After much dis­cus­sion and the over­whelm­ing sen­ti­ment that “The Hol­low isn’t bro­ken, so please don’t fix it”, atten­dees large­ly agreed that improve­ments to the turf, updat­ing of the ball field mate­ri­als, and hand­i­cap access improve­ments would like­ly be good for The Hollow.

In Gor­don’s words…

Thanks for com­ing out to lis­ten and share your mem­o­ries and visions for The Hollow. 

I orga­nized this meet­ing to assure that we learn about this project before it is final­ized, and I think we have a sense of how to pro­ceed.  On Thurs­day, August 15th, the Town Coun­cil will have a hear­ing and a vote about approv­ing funds to improve The Hollow. 

My read­ing of our group is that there is  gen­er­al sup­port for improve­ments, but it is imper­a­tive that we have a seat at the table as the plan is final­ized.  We sup­port this appro­pri­a­tion with the under­stand­ing that the com­mu­ni­ty will be involved in the devel­op­ing of the final plan.

The Town Coun­cil meet­ing will start at 7pm at Town Hall.  There are two chances to speak.  There is a time ear­ly in the agen­da for any cit­i­zen to speak dur­ing pub­lic com­ment time. … If you can not make it, you can go on the Town of Barn­sta­ble web site and email the Town Council.

Thanks again for your pas­sion and will­ing­ness to step up.If you have any thoughts or ques­tions, please email me at starrbarnstable@gmail.com

Gor­don Starr

2019 One Cape Summit

Kris Clark (left) & Gordon Starr (right) at the One Cape Summit
Barn­sta­ble & West Barn­sta­ble Town Coun­cil Can­di­dates Gor­don Starr & Kris Clark at the 2019 One Cape Summit

I spent Mon­day and Tues­day at the Cape Cod Com­mis­sion’s 2019 One Cape Sum­mit. Work­shops addressed cli­mate change through adap­ta­tion and mit­i­ga­tion. Also fan­tas­tic dis­cus­sions about the issues con­cern­ing year-round hous­ing on the Cape.

Picture of the patio of the Wequasset Resort where the 2019 One Cape Summit was held.
2019 One Cape Sum­mit: Wequas­set Resort patio over­look­ing Pleas­ant Bay 

This year’s One Cape Sum­mit focused on Envi­ron­ment and Econ­o­my. Day #1 fea­tured speak­ers on envi­ron­men­tal con­cerns. Eric Fish­er, CBS Boston’s WBZ-TV’s chief mete­o­rol­o­gist recount­ed not only the con­di­tions lead­ing up to the pre­vi­ous week’s tor­na­does, but also stat­ed that July 2019 was the hottest July on record for Boston. In fact, the Wash­ing­ton Post reports that June was the 414th con­sec­u­tive month with above-aver­age glob­al temperatures.

The One Cape Sum­mit Day #2 agen­da includ­ed pre­sen­ta­tions on town plan­ning tools. These tools inte­grate design, eco­nom­ics and pub­lic input to devel­op strate­gies for improv­ing qual­i­ty of life while increas­ing liv­ing space den­si­ty. Town of Barn­sta­ble plan­ners are look­ing to the future to ensure that afford­able work­force hous­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties are created.

Final­ly, a pre­sen­ta­tion by the US Cen­sus Bureau empha­sized the need for our par­tic­i­pa­tion in the 2020 cen­sus. The impor­tance of keep­ing respon­dent data strict­ly con­fi­den­tial was both empha­sized and reit­er­at­ed. And, the US Cen­sus Bureau is offer­ing cen­sus tak­ers jobs at $19/hour. Here’s a link to see if you qual­i­fy 2020 US Cen­sus Job Oppor­tu­ni­ties.