Progress and delays in Bourne marked 2022. What to expect in 2023.
BUZZARDS BAY — Looking back on 2022, there was progress on many fronts in Bourne — as well as a lack of it that seems familiar.
Select Board Chairman Peter Meier says newspaper year-end-in reviews can often be misleading and not include wider details about continuing issues in a range that might at first glance represent a lack of progress or why they persist.
“You can say there was little progress to upgrade Four Corners (in Pocasset center) and Trading Post Corners (in Bourne village) and say we came up short, but with Four Corners you could also consider the DPW having some time now to devote attention to other issues; such as continuing to make minor repairs on private and unaccepted roadways that residents say are important.”
Meier said, board goals in the coming year include preparing for a May town meeting to seek money to improve motoring and pedestrian safety at Four Corners where Barlows Landing and Shore Roads intersect. Goals also include money for a land purchase and firehouse construction south of the Bourne Bridge. Both efforts are years in the making.
Here, with no accommodation of tuneful contingencies or surrounding issues, are 15 examples of progress in 2022. In the year ahead, the wider framework involves coordinated attention to shoreline projects, Buzzards Bay sewerage allocations, reducing nitrogen in bays and new attention to workforce housing needs as well as energy savings.
Bourne designated as Green Community
The town received a formal Green Community designation in November and with it a $170,000 energy savings grant. Voters also authorized a $5 million contract with Trane Technologies of Wilmington to implement energy-saving upgrades in all town buildings and schools.
New Bourne department heads, town officials hired in 2022
On the personnel front, Marlene McCollem started as Bourne’s fourth town administrator in March. Hires included an assistant town administrator, police chief, human resources officer, town planner and information technology director; and a new town counsel was retained.
This, Meier said, will mean that in personnel structural terms “the town will continue to operate far more efficiently."
New equipment, projects and a Supreme Judicial Court decision
Pocasset River, meanwhile, was dredged. The 20-year-old private dock construction ban was lifted. And ARPA funds were tapped for three new ambulances.
A Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan to battle nitrogen impacts in bays went from an advisory committee to the Select Board. And the state Supreme Judicial Court ruled a Bourne general bylaw trumps a zoning bylaw on the town’s recreational marijuana sales front.
New attention is being paid to lingering Community Center problems and inadequacies, while negotiations started to sell the closed Hoxie School at North Sagamore to a children’s charity.
Cumberland Farms project moved forward on Bourne Rotary
The Cumberland Farms court case was resolved. The convenience chain will construct a new complex off the Bourne Rotary. To alleviate traffic problems, patrons will enter Route 28 southbound to get to the convenience store, rather than back into the traffic-choked traffic circle at the Bourne Bridge.
Bourne Conservation Trust added to its open space portfolio, buying wooded acreage off Megansett Road’s east side in Cataumet. Plans progressed for landfill expansion off Route 28. And most of the work to revamp Belmont Circle in Buzzards Bay has been completed, making it safer for pedestrians and bicyclists.
The select board, McCollem, the recreation committee and the recreation department as well as youth basketball coaches all tried to reconcile issues about the use of the Community Center gym by groups preparing youngsters to play the game.
Bourne School Choice program levels enrollment
The School Choice program helped Bourne keep student enrollment at the previous year’s level, but rising numbers of students with numerous other education options beyond Grade 8 could still adversely affect the Bourne district. The system as such is widening its offerings, including hands-on learning experience
Lack of progress on Bourne projects, issues
The middle school roof repair project was again ruled out in 2022 and 2023. Meanwhile, the price tag mounts.
The new intermediate school on Trowbridge Road in Bourne village, is still not turned over to the town by Brait Builders, the general contractor. School Department officials hope the final sign-off comes early in 2023.
Roof, gutter, cupola and window repairs at the Sandwich Road library, for the most part, seem dependent on a total building assessment, which might be funded during 2023.
Bourne dredge permit pending
The 10-year comprehensive dredge permit is at the state Department of Environmental Protection for water quality certification review. In draft form. Once DEP issues the combined permit, Coastal Zone Management should follow suit.
“The last to issue will be the Corps of Engineers,” Natural Resources Director Chris Southwood said. “They’ve been waiting on DEP and CZM to issue before they can issue a permit. My best guess is we would have the Corps permit sometime in early spring if everything goes well.
“We already met with the Corps to answer questions and review the project,” Southwood said. “So, I don’t expect many more questions or issues from them.”
U.S. Environmental Protection Act review of a National Guard machine gun range at Camp Edwards, is still pending.
Buzzards Bay apartment move-in date delayed
Work continued on Calamar Apartments construction off Perry Avenue, Buzzards Bay, but a Thanksgiving Day move-in for tenants was not met. Calamar officials promised an opening by Christmas.
There was progress on Phase 1 of the Bourne Rail Trail from the canal to Gray Gables, but Cataumet villagers registered reservations about Phase 4 from Scraggy Neck Road to North Falmouth. Rail-with-trail aspects of total planning are embracing the point that the project would become too costly if the bike path deviates from the railbed due to geographic obstacles in Phases 2 and 3.
Engineering Technician Tim Lydon in November told Cataumet residents the bike path, in the works since 2016, would become “a world-class amenity.”
The discussion evolved about additional treatment capacity at the new wastewater treatment plant at Queen Sewell Park in Buzzards Bay. Should more daily capacity be planned and funded to help lower nitrogen levels in Buttermilk Bay at the Wareham line? That's a subject for the coming year.
Another question. Will U.S. transportation officials clarify funding options for the planned replacement of the Bourne and Sagamore Bridges? In September, the project failed to get grant money from the federal government INFRA — officially, Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight and Highway Projects — program, one of two bids to secure more than $1 billion. U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Mass., said more funding options are being sought.
The cost to replace the bridges increased from $1.5 billion to $4 billion this year because of inflation.
And finally, when will wastewater officials around the Buzzards Bay rim acknowledge the Buzzards Bay Coalition idea for a regional sewage outfall into the canal at Taylors Point is not viable? A formal announcement to that effect is expected in the new year.
Stay connected with Cape Cod news, sports, restaurants and breaking news. Download our free app.
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Projects and issues facing Bourne in 2023
