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January in Town From the Desk of Town Manager Libby Gibson.

What's up in Town Administration?

In November, we reviewed a proposed Communications Plan with the Board. We also executed a contract with a communications firm to assist us with a variety of communications issues. One of these is how the Town can communicate more effectively with citizens to convey information. The firm (Pierce-Cote) conducted a communications audit for us and findings included:

  • make the Town Manager e-newsletter shorter, more “digestible”
  • provide brief weekly updates as to what happened at the Wednesday Select Board meetings
  • provide profiles of municipal employees as to what their jobs are

Beginning with this January, 2023 edition of e-news, we are going to try some new and different things in consideration of the findings. If you would like to give us feedback on our changes and/or specific suggestions along the lines of Keep It, Toss It, Add It or Change It, please email: pr@nantucket-ma.gov Thank you! On Thursday mornings, I give a recap of the Wednesday Select Board meeting on 97.7 radio – soon, we are going to tape the recap and issue it on social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter) on Thursdays.

Now, on to e-news:

Saturday, May 6, 2023 Annual Town Meeting (ATM) and Tuesday, May 23, 2023 Annual Town Election Warrant Adopted by the Select Board on January 25th
  • The warrant will be published in the Inquirer & Mirror on February 2nd
  • The Finance Committee will hold a public hearing on the warrant articles on February 6th and is meeting each week to review the articles - please check here for the meeting schedule
  • The Planning Board also has public hearings scheduled for zoning articles
  • By the end of March, Finance Committee and Planning Board motions to the articles will be final and the Select Board will have completed any comments it may have on articles or motions. These three groups will have a joint meeting to review motions on Monday, March 20th at 4:00 pm. The warrant booklet with motions is expected to be mailed to voters prior to mid-April.
More information on the 2023 Annual Town Election HERE.
Other activities that Town Admin has been busy with include:
  • Baxter Road Alternative Access Planning: An update was provided to the Board on January 11th. Just before that, the Sconset Beach Preservation Fund (SBPF) announced that it will withdraw from the erosion control project at Baxter Road and begin planning for removal of the project in compliance with a Conservation Commission Enforcement Order. The question we would all like the answer to is: “What will happen when the project is removed?” Right now the answer is “no one knows”. However, we are working to schedule a joint workshop with the Select Board and Conservation Commission in February to discuss this and other potential ways to proceed.
  • Our Island Home – new facility planning
  • FY 2024 General Fund Budget Message – endorsed by Select Board on January 11, 2023
  • Short-term Rental Certification Program. Call the Health Department with any questions you may have
  • January 23rd visit with Nantucket High School Hispanic Leadership Group and Students attending upcoming United States Hispanic Leadership Institute at Our House. Watch a video here.
Watch Only The Meetings Items You Most Care About

With the new year, NCTV Government Services is implementing Video Chapters for all Select Board and School Committee meetings on the Town of Nantucket YouTube channel. This enables viewers interested in a particular topic to jump right to the discussion of the item they care about.

Just open any of those meeting videos and click "show more" in the video description underneath the play window to see the Chapter links next to each agenda item considered at that meeting. Alternatively, you can move your mouse along the video timeline at the bottom of the play window and each Video Chapter will pop up as they occurred in that meeting.

Please contact Charles Douglas (charles@nctv18.org) with any questions!

Faces in Town Government

Wednesday, February 1: Meet Gary Roberts, the New NRTA Administrator!

Public Works

STEPHEN

Stephen Arcenaux joined the Department of Public Works (DPW) in 2018 as Deputy Director. In 2021 was promoted to Interim DPW Director and assumed full responsibility for the department in February of 2022. He is responsible for the administrative and technical management of the department, including forestry, facilities, mosquito control, cemeteries, as well as construction and maintenance of the Town’s public infrastructure. He also administers the solid waste enterprise fund planning and operations. The DPW Director is an integral part of Town leadership.

PAUL

Paul Berard joined DPW in 2012 and is the Deputy Director of Facilities at the DPW, responsible for the overall function of the Facilities Department. In his role, Paul oversees vendors and management of the Facilities’ budget. The town owns many buildings and important assets, and the Deputy Director works closely with other town departments to fulfill our facility maintenance needs. Specifically, he is working on improving and repairing Town-owned decorative streetlights and coordinating with engineers to improve the Town's public restrooms.

Paul shares that he is both proud and lucky to work as part of a team of talented people that can fix anything from a broken handle to a full renovation.

MO

Richard Moore is the Deputy Director of Operations and has been a Town employee since 2009. DPW Operations is responsible for many things that are critically important to people’s everyday lives. As Deputy Director, he collaborates with the Director to administer, coordinate, review, and evaluate day-to-day operations and long-term projects of the public works function. Richard, who is known by many as “Mo”, also provides administrative management support to the Director and oversees all operational divisions, including highway, fleet maintenance, and public ways.

Mo considers as his primary responsibility the safety of employees and the public. This winter Operations are focusing on sight-line views to ensure the safety of pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles. This work will be focused on Milestone, Polpis, and Wauwinet roads.

CHARLIE

Charlie Polachi is the Manager of Parks and Recreation having joined DPW in 2021. He is responsible for the oversight of the Town’s parks and recreation areas, which includes the implementation of the Parks and Recreation Master Plan and overseeing the town-wide landscape, irrigation, and field maintenance contracts. He is also responsible for the creation and management of the Parks and Recreation budget/capital planning, scheduling field usage for Nantucket youth sports and summer camps, Jetties tennis court usage and assisting in events that take place on parks and recreation properties. Charlie works alongside other town departments to plan and execute events such as 4th of July and Boston Pops. He partners with the Natural Resources, Planning and Real Estate departments on projects such as the beach concessions study. Finally, he acts as the DPW liaison to the Cemetery & Parks and Recreation Commissions. Charlie current project oversight includes: Nobadeer Athletic Support Building (near completion), Delta Field Renovation and Improvements, Tom Nevers solid waste removal and bank stabilization, and cemeteries restoration.

Trending….

Should I feed the deer?

Answer: No. Best not to:

  • Deer are wildlife that do not need human assistance for their food. Their diet is best not supplemented by food they cannot find in their habitat. Feeding them may cause more harm than good as they may not be able to properly digest what is being fed to them
  • Feeding them will create an atmosphere of dependency. They will come to be more dependent on the food being fed to them instead of foraging for their own food.
  • Habitat intrusion. Deer will move closer to human living areas as they become more comfortable with being fed. Thus they will cause more nuisances by intruding into the roads, town, and other properties. Ticks and other parasites will become more common.
  • Deer intrusion into yards can cause a lot of damage – because they traverse not just the deer-feeder’s yard but other yards to get there.
Upcoming Events

Human Resources

Personnel:

Health & Human Services: Heather Nardone joined the Health Department on January 23rd as a Public Health Coordinator. Welcome, Heather!

Our Island Home: Lauren Leamy returned to Our Island Home as a full-time RN. Welcome back, Lauren!

Public Works:

  • Tomeka Gary recently started working at the DPW as an Administrative Clerk. Tomeka and her husband, Ardis, have been a part of the community for the last 16 years. They have two sons they are raising on Nantucket and are proud to be a part of this community.
  • Richard D’Auteuil has been working for the DPW for the past year and he recently transferred from Laborer to Senior Equipment Operator. He moved to Nantucket in 2006 and is married with two children. He enjoys hunting and fishing. Good luck in your new role, Richard!
  • Phyllis Ruguaru transferred from Office Manager to the Permit Service Coordinator position at DPW this month. Good luck in your new role, Phyllis!
DPW Senior Equipment Operator Richard D’Auteuil; DPW Administrative Clerk Tomeka Gary.
Afternoon at Madaket Harbor.

Community Resilience

Sustainability on Nantucket

The Town of Nantucket has numerous sustainability related initiatives underway. Coastal resilience and planning for sea level rise are methods of working toward sustainable communities with a view to sustainable waterfronts, downtown area and alleviating flooding and erosion problems around the island. Energy management is another arm of sustainability and this encompasses everything from daily energy usage to understanding how we as a community can reduce our carbon footprint. Good water quality in the harbors and great ponds is essential to have sustainable habitats for fisheries, shellfisheries and our near pristine aquatic habitats. An equitable housing stock is critical for a sustainable year round population to maintain and enhance our diverse community. Environmental justice is also a developing field that needs to be understood in the context of sustainability.

With all this in mind, we need to pull together and find a coherent path forward for all of our sustainable projects currently underway and to be developed in the coming years. To that end, we need to understand some sustainability principles to work within. In essence, there are three pillars to sustainability: Environmental, Social and Economic.

To build on these three pillars and the existing and future sustainability related projects, the Town has created a new Sustainability Programs Manager position to coordinate these efforts. Sustainability is a goal of the Select Board and in February 2020 the Town completed a sustainability study. Covid-19 hit in March 2020 and derailed these efforts. This is now getting back on track. To that end, community feedback and involvement will be crucial. Please send any thoughts or comments on sustainability and desired outcomes to vmurphy@nantucket-ma.gov or email to arrange a meeting.

Vince Murphy, Sustainability Programs Manager

MIRACLES

Making Island Resources A Collaborative Local Effort for Sustainability

Image from SNC Lavalin.
Island-Wide Survey Plan and Pilot Survey of the Fish Lots Neighborhood Historic Properties Survey

The Town of Nantucket, with the Nantucket Historical Commission (NHC) and through the assistance of the Town’s Preservation Planner engaged Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. (PAL) to develop a comprehensive Island-Wide Survey Plan and Pilot Survey of the Fish Lots Neighborhood Historic Properties Survey. PAL created 97 Form Bs and 1 Form A (aka HDC Surveys) within the Fish Lots Neighborhood. They are currently wrapping up the Island-Wide Survey Plan by the end of January -finalized based on MHC & NHC’s review comments. You can read more about the Island-Wide Survey Plan HERE.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Office - Year-in-Review

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Friday, January 27, 2023 was International Holocaust Remembrance Day. “On this annual day of commemoration, the UN urges every member state to honor the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of Nazism and to develop educational programs to help prevent future genocides.” To learn more, visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Meet NEET - PLUS Administrative Specialist Nickesha Sheriff

Everyone’s journey to Nantucket is unique and their reasons for staying also differ. Yet, for Meet NEET participants to date, a sense of belonging or feeling a part of the community have been one underlining thread as to what that makes this island special. This sense of belonging was also shared throughout this month’s interview with Nickesha Sheriff.

Born and raised in Jamaica, Sheriff first visited Nantucket in 2015 and moved to the island permanently in 2016. Today, Nickesha is an Administrative Specialist at the Planning and Land Use Services (PLUS) department, the interview on her personal story and Nantucket work experiences was filled with highs and some lows. Read more about Nickesha's work at PLUS and life on Nantucket HERE.

DEI Workshops for Town Employees

The Town of Nantucket is pleased to offer professional development workshops to town employees on a variety of topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The workshops are a part of the final phase of DEI consultation with Tangible Development LLC. Workshops are voluntary and they include: Inclusive Leadership, Implicit Bias, Engage Allyship / Being an Upstander, and Exploring Identity & DEI. Read more about the DEI workshop HERE.

Aerial views at Cisco Beach.

Energy Office

New Energy Efficiency, Electric Vehicle & Renewable Energy Incentives available in 2023 through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)

Signed into law earlier last year, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) has been hailed as the most significant climate legislation in U.S. history, offering funding, programs, and incentives to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy.

The Act reinstituted and increased the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit, which allows households to credit up to 30% of the cost of energy efficiency home upgrades against their taxes. Starting in 2023, this credit can total up to $1,200 per year for weatherization and up to $2,000 for electric heat pumps and heat pump water heaters starting in 2023. In addition to these newly enhanced federal tax credits, National Grid customers can still take advantage of generous Mass Save incentives for energy efficiency improvements, such as $10,000 for air-source heatpump systems.

Mayflower Wind community engagement events: February 8th

On Wednesday, February 8th, representatives from Mayflower Wind will visit Nantucket to conduct a series of community outreach meetings, including displays of photosimulations, for their proposed wind turbine farm to be located approximately 20 nautical (23 statute) miles south of Nantucket.

A community drop-in session is scheduled from 2-4pm at the Chamber of Commerce conference room. A formal presentation will be delivered to the Nantucket Select Board at its weekly meeting, which begins at 5:30pm. Find out more about this event here.

Fire Department

  • Deputy Chief Sean Mitchell has been recently granted accreditation by the Massachusetts Fire Service Commission. Reading Fire Chief, Gregory Burns, who serves as the chair of the commission says “This program establishes requirements based on education, experience and training in areas relevant to serving as a fire chief. It establishes benchmarks for training in fire and emergency service management so that chiefs may be better prepared to serve their department and their community”.
  • Mario Cameron graduated from his career recruit training at the Massachusetts Fire Academy on January 9.
  • To start the year, the NFD welcomes four new firefighters: Raymond DeCosta, James Topham, Joshua Sibley-Liddle, and Alvin King.
  • Over 20 new candidates were interviewed to be call firefighters and existing call firefighters were called upon to take part in the upcoming call firefighter recruit training program. This program will take place two nights a week at the Fire Station, and upon completion, the recruits will be able to test for Firefighter I and II certification.

Health & Human Services Department

PFAS - Nantucket at the New England Water Environment Association (NEWEA) Annual Conference

The Town and CDM Smith made a 30-minute technical presentation at the New England Water Environment Association (NEWEA) Annual Conference in Boston last week (January 22-25). Presented was Town’s approach to conduct an initial and proactive a town-wide assessment of PFAS, the creation of a PFAS-Cycle diagram unique to Nantucket, and information to better understand the needs for source identification and control to reduce PFAS contamination. Highlighted was planning and work underway to identify PFAS sources coming into the Wastewater Treatment Plants and preliminary findings. Information was presented on the Town’s approach to a PFAS communication plan, fact sheets, public outreach and resources for public use on the Town’s website.

COVID Vaccine Clinic

The Town of Nantucket, in partnership with the State of Massachusetts, is offering all COVID doses to all qualified residents in scheduled clinics held at the Elementary School Cafeteria on Backus Lane.

All ages COVID vaccines are available on Saturday, February 4th from 9 am to 2 pm at the Elementary School Cafeteria.

  • 1 and 2 dose pediatric (6mo to 5 year) will be offered alongside other boosters
  • If you are over 12 and are more than 2 months from any COVID vaccine dose, you are now eligible for a bivalent booster
  • If you are over 12, don’t have your primary series, get two doses of an mRNA vaccine as soon as you can

Housing

Are you subscribed to our Housing Newsletter? You can subscribe via this link to receive it in your mailbox!

Public Works

Public Works Crew Busy at Work
  • It is always sad to see a tree come down, but in this case, it was necessary. The Elm tree at 73 Easton Street had become dangerous to public safety because, in short, it was dying and rotting from the inside out. Three years ago, the DPW crew installed a high strength steel cable in it to limit movement and to bring support to branches. When a tree is dying, it's a slow death, and, although on the outside the tree can appear to be very healthy, the inside of it can be a very different story. This was the case of this Elm tree. Another thing to consider is that a weak and distressed Elm tree is a potential host for the Dutch Elm disease. This disease is a danger not only to the public, but also to Nantucket's healthy Elm trees population. It is believed that Nantucket has one of the largest inventories of old-growth American Elms in the country. Let's protect our trees!
  • The DPW team out on Milestone Road doing roadside brush cutting in order to keep our roads and sidepaths safe.

Planning & Land Use Department

Stretch Code Training on February 8th!

On February 8th from 5pm to 8pm, join members of the Nantucket Building Department and local HERS Raters community for a virtual presentation on the new residential stretch code, which took effect on January 1, 2023 with no concurrency period.

The training will highlight the salient changes to the base energy code, new requirements for prescriptive path users, and changes to ERI and Passive House documentation requirements. EV-ready and solar-ready requirements will also be covered. For more information including how to register click HERE.

Sewer Projects

Sea Street Pump Station Force Main No. 3

During the month of January 2023, Robert B. Our (RBO) began work on Sea Street between N. Water Street and the Sea Street Pump Station. RBO will continue to work on Sea Street (sewer force main, water main, and gravity sewer) for the month of February. A second crew will begin sewer force main work on South Shore Road near Correia Lane mid-February and will progress towards Surfside Road. For more information on this project, visit its webpage.

Sewer work happening at Sea Street.

Saltmarsh Senior Center

Are you subscribed to the Saltmarsh Senior Center Weekly Newsletter? Make sure you are! It has great information about fitness activities, community meals, winter games, and all the work the Saltmarsh does for Nantucket senior citizens.

Thank you for reading the Town of Nantucket January 2023 News!
Town of Nantucket - 16 Broad Street Nantucket, MA 02554

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Public Outreach Manager Florencia Rullo