Tag: Gordon Starr Town Council

Newsletter: July 24 2023

Fourth of July Parade:  It seems like weeks ago, but thanks to every­one who helped out with the Vil­lage Parade.  And thanks to those who par­tic­i­pat­ed and watched.  We were lucky to get our parade in between the rain.  And Thanks to Kate Arm­strong for this photo.

Office Hours:  I am restart­ing office hours at Stur­gis Library, the first Wednes­day of the month, 3:00–5:00.  Come by with you ques­tions and com­ments on any ideas or thoughts you have.

Town Coun­cil Meet­ing:  Thurs­day the 20th the Town Coun­cil meet­ing last­ed from 6:00 to 11:20.  The room was packed as there was a pol­i­cy change pro­posed that would have changed the lev­el of vote need­ed to approve zon­ing changes for hous­ing in a Reg­u­la­to­ry Agree­ment area.  The effort was to bring the town’s vot­ing into align­ment with the State Hous­ing Choice pol­i­cy.  Instead of a 2/3 vote to approve a reg­u­la­to­ry agree­ment, it would have been low­ered to a major­i­ty vote.  Many res­i­dents came to show their dis­like of the change.  In the end, the Coun­cil vot­ed to with­draw the item.  This change was not man­dat­ed by the State and I did not see any rea­son to change our lev­el of vot­ing.  If a project can­not con­vince 2/3 of the Coun­cil, then maybe it needs to be be redesigned.  As in a sim­i­lar case in Fal­mouth, the devel­op­er may come back with a 40B pro­pos­al, which is a State pro­gram where a devel­op­ere­can include 25% afford­able hous­ing and bypass most town review and zon­ing reg­u­la­tions.  Stay tuned.  The next Town Coun­cil Meet­ing is August 17th.
Sur­vey­ing:  You may have also noticed two sur­vey crews work­ing on 6A west of the Vil­lage. They are doing pre­lim­i­nary work for design of new side­walks. The hope is to keep DOT mov­ing for­ward and to sur­vey, design and per­mit this sec­tion of State road so it is shov­el-ready for con­struc­tion when funds are avail­able. Hav­ing had con­ver­sa­tions with the work­ers, they have to mark every tree and obsta­cle 25′ from the cen­ter line and they still have a lot of work to do.  They have also assured me that the pink spray paint they are using is not per­ma­nent.  
Sew­er work:  The work by Robt. B. Our con­tin­ues on the pump sta­tion at the Old Barn­sta­ble House.  There have been a few work delays wait­ing for parts to be deliv­ered, but work is now pro­ceed­ing. The Freez­er Road Pump sta­tion at the har­bor is also begin­ning a com­plete over­haul due to age.  The first step is to dig a hole in the park­ing lot to install bypass pumps. This is nec­es­sary so the sta­tion build­ing can be shut down as there is a lot of elec­tri­cal work that has to be done inside the build­ing. The tim­ing is not great, but con­trac­tor sched­ules are not always flex­i­ble.
Har­ris Mead­ows Pedes­tri­an Cross­ing:  Last newslet­ter, the curbs were rebuilt and the road was wired for new signs. The flash­ing bea­cons are on order, but they are at least a month out.

Wilkens Lane Hous­ing:  The Fire Depart­ment has been doing inspec­tions and walk-throughs dur­ing con­struc­tion and the water has been turned on in build­ing #1.  As for oth­er build­ings on adja­cent land, there have been no offi­cial fil­ings or inquiries that I am aware of.

BARNSTABLE FIRE DISTRICT
WATER DEPARTMENT

1841 Phinney’s Lane
P.O. Box 546
Barn­sta­ble, Mass­a­chu­setts 02630
Phone: 508–362-6498
Fax: 508–362-9616
www.barnstablefiredistrict.com
bfdwatersupt@barnstablefiredistrict.com

The Barn­sta­ble Fire Dis­trict Water Depart­ment is plan­ning to replace
a Fire Hydrant near 3667 Main Street. To safe­ly per­form this work,
we need to shut off the water main from Com­merce Road to Mary
Dunn Way. This will affect res­i­dents off Main Street includ­ing
Coun­ty Farm Road, Cap­tain Murphy’s Way, and Adri­an Way. This
work is sched­uled for August 2 nd or 3 rd . The Dis­trict is call­ing all the
res­i­dents that will be affect­ed by this shut down. The shut­down
should last 6–8 hours from 9 am to 5 pm. Please call the Water
Depart­ment if you have any ques­tions or con­cerns. Thank you.

This is a new Bridge on the Trayser Trail, behind the Coast Guard Muse­um and the Black­smith Shop.  This bridge spans a sen­si­tive wet­land area and it has been a long-time dream for Doug Payson.  With the help of many peo­ple and groups includ­ing, the New Eng­land Moun­tain Bik­ing Asso­ci­a­tion, the town’s Land Acqui­si­tion and Preser­va­tion Com­mit­tee and the Town of Barn­sta­ble.  Thanks to all.

Newsletter: June 5 2023

Wow, Sat­ur­day was some cold.  The wind blow­ing out of the north, no sun, who would have pre­dict­ed that, espe­cial­ly with the ocean tem­per­a­ture in the mid 50’s.  I vis­it­ed the EV Expo at the Trans­porta­tion Cen­ter and it was wicked cold.  I did get to ride an elec­tric assist bike for the first time and enjoyed it.

Side­walks

Just before I was to send this out, the Town got word that a crew will be mak­ing some side­walk repairs along 6A next week.  The work will take place between 6/7 and 6/13. Three small sec­tions will be improved.  The address­es are 2110 Main Street, 2390 Main Street, and 2875–2895 Main Street.  These may seem like minor work, but it is progress and we are now on the  MA Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion: DOT, radar.  DOT is in the process of hir­ing a design­er for the whole side­walk project.

The oth­er news about the side­walks is that the DOT has con­tract­ed for elec­tron­ic cross­ing signs at Har­ris Mead­ows.  At the same time they are rework­ing the curb and then they will paint the road.  This has been a long time com­ing and I had to push to get them to do it before sum­mer as they were wor­ried about work­ing on 6A in June.  I assured them that the improved safe­ty of the cross­ing would out­weigh any incon­ve­nience for vil­lage res­i­dents and visitors.

You may have noticed the repaving on Hyan­nis Road.  This was nec­es­sary as the Town DPW did so much drainage work along this sec­tion that they decid­ed to repave from 6A south to the rail­road tracks. There is no more planned work here for now.. The rest of Hyan­nis Road and Phin­ney’s Lane still keeps us all awake, but it is minor com­pared the sec­tion of Phin­ney’s Lane south of Route 132.  Con­struc­tion fatigue is a real thing in the active sew­er­ing areas.

Stay in Touch.

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. 

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

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.