Brewster voters reject push to delay, pass plastic-bottle ban
By Ethan Genter
Posted Sep 12, 2020
BREWSTER — Town meeting under a tent on the Stony Brook Elementary School ballfield went smoothly Saturday morning. Voters breezed through the streamlined town meeting warrant, approving almost every article and pausing only a handful of times for discussion.
The New England tradition of direct democracy government has been changed due to COVID-19, with many towns meeting outside.
“It’s been delayed and it’s a bit different, but we’re all here,” Town Moderator Charles Sumner said from his lectern just behind the pitcher’s mound where the Brewster Whitecaps would have played this season if not for the virus.
Voters sat in rows of chairs set up in socially distanced pairs. In the past they would have been packed into the gym on a Monday night to go over the town’s business.
Most of the articles that would have stirred robust debate were pulled from the warrant to make the meeting as brief as possible. Only articles deemed essential to town business were kept on the day’s docket.
With little chatter, voters approved the budgets for the town and the schools, appropriated $395,000 for a 10-acre parcel on McGuerty Road to protect wellfields on Freemans Way and created an enterprise account for the Water Department. The last was a recommendation from the Department of Revenue in the aftermath of errors found in the town’s 2018 books.
The most debated article was a ban on the sale of single-use plastic water bottles in town. The ban brought forward by Sustainable Practices, a nonprofit that is pushing the issue across the Cape, was passed overwhelmingly and is the first of its kind on the Cape — though Wellfleet passed a similar measure later in the morning.
At first, there was a push to refer the article to committee, basically putting it on hold until the next town meeting in order to allow more debate at a more normal town meeting. But several proponents said the time to act was now and rejected the delay tactic.
“We have an opportunity today to set a trend for the entire Cape,” said Madhavi Venkatesan, the executive director of Sustainable Practices. “Please think beyond the moment.”
The ban will go into effect on Sept. 1, 2021, making it unlawful to sell noncarbonated, unflavored drinking water in single-use plastic bottles of less than one gallon in town. Violations can end up in a written warning for a first offense, a $150 fine for a second offense, and a $300 fine for a third.
The push was made to help the environment and reduce the town’s need for plastic. Most plastic is not recycled and ends up in the landfill, said Victor Roberts, who sponsored the petition article on the warrant.
“After today, drink tap water, not bottled water,” Roberts said. “Buy foods stored in glass or metal and don’t assume what we do only impacts you. Our plastic consumption is hurting us and future generations.”
Wellfleet town meeting approves water system upgrade, plastic-bottle ban
WELLFLEET — Nearly 200 voters spread out on the ballfield at Wellfleet Elementary School on Saturday for a four-hour town meeting under a beautiful, late summer sky.
Moderator Dan Silverman opened the meeting with a moment of silence for essential workers, those lost to the pandemic, and those suffering from poverty and inequality.
“Democracy is not a state. It is an act,” he said, quoting the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, before going through the articles.
The town’s budget of $20.23 million, a 4.77% increase from fiscal 2020, passed after a lengthy discussion about an amendment offered by Bill Dugan. The last-minute amendment would have decreased the Nauset Regional School District Assessment by $1, which would have been the legal equivalent of disapproving the budget.
Dugan cited the 219 school-choice students currently enrolled in the district. He said the difference between the $20,700 cost per student and the $5,000 that each choice student brings to the district means Wellfleet residents have to pay massive subsidies.
Former town administrator Harry Terkanian said the amendment would have a pernicious effect, fomenting chaos in the four-town district. The regional district operating budget requires a two-thirds majority to pass. If one of the other three towns doesn’t approve the budget, new town meetings would be required.
The article ultimately passed.
Article 10, a water system upgrade estimated at $3,843,438, passed by two-thirds majority after a long discussion.
Supporters favored the article because it would allow for increased hydraulic flow and redundancy, an additional 80 water connections, fire suppression along a section of Route 6, and the development of an affordable housing project on Lawrence Road.
Select board member Helen Miranda Wilson called the upgrade a bad idea, environmentally. She said the town should first address its wastewater problems, and that it shouldn’t recruit new connections to pay water bills. She called for replacing the undersized water main from Gristmill Way to Route 6.
Board of Water Commissioners Chairman James Hood said the cost savings between the article as it was written and Wilson’s suggestion was “insignificant” at $117,160. He has submitted a MassWorks grant application for the full amount. The program has been a boon for many communities connecting economic development, infrastructure and affordable housing projects.
Voters also adopted a ban on commercial, single-use plastic water bottles.
“This is about changing behavior,” said Christine Shreves, co-chairwoman of the Recycling Committee. Eleven of 15 Cape towns have similar articles on their town meeting warrants. She noted the amount of plastic that finds its way into the marine environment, the part plastic plays in greenhouse gas emissions and the community’s responsibility to address the problem.
Some wanted the general bylaw to go further.
Some thought that banning single-use plastic water bottles would have unintended consequences, such as benefiting the carbonated drink industry or making it more difficult for laborers.
The article passed and will go into effect Sept. 1, 2021. Wellfleet has the option of moving out the effective date if other Cape towns vote down the petition article.
Several articles were indefinitely postponed, including funding for a Shellfish Department pickup truck, a police cruiser, a fire-and-rescue command car, a DPW backhoe, and the replacement of a guard shack and canopy at the transfer station.Voters also approved a climate policy amendment to the town’s General Bylaw. The Town will adopt as its policy an objective of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by the earliest technically and economically feasible time, but no later than 2050. The Bylaw parallels the state’s goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
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