1998-Annual Town Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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Administrator, assistance to other boards, depart- tinue to be heavily involved in the permitting process ments,Town Counsel and the public and participation for both Mashpee Commons and the proposed on a variety of Town and regional committees, includ- Southcape Village shopping center, two projects that ing the Mashpee Commons Advisory Committee, will go a long way toward defining what the center of [ Watershed Management Committee(ex officio),Open Mashpee will be like for many years. We will also Space (Land Bank) Committee (ex officio), Mashpee work with the Historic District Study Committee on NWR Management Committee(and Land Acquisition the Town's effort to protect the historic character of and Signage Subcommittees), APCC Cape Cod the Town Hall and Main Street areas. Business Roundtable, Cape Cod Pathways Steering Committee and the statewide ad hoc Task Force for In undertaking those projects, we will sincerely Decentralized Wastewater Management. The appreciate your support and encouragement, as we Department also developed a number of zoning have for the last fourteen years, and look forward to bylaws and amendments, including new bylaws regu- serving you professionally and conscientiously for lating "adult"uses, wireless communications facilities many more to come. and stormwater management. Respectfully submitted, Among our special projects for the year were con- servation purchases of the 11.2 acre Fitch property on F. Thomas Fudala j Meetinghouse Road (the last link in the Town's Town Planner Mashpee River Corridor Protection Project), the 6.2 acre Druley property on Great Oak Road (adjacent to the`Bufflehead Bay"property purchased in 1996)and Report of the the 14.05 acre MacDonald property on Moody Pond. Mashpee Public Library We arranged for the preparation of appraisals, negoti- ated the purchase prices, wrote the necessary articles for approval by the May Annual Town Meeting and prepared county Cape Cod Pathways Program and To the Honorable Board of Selectmen and } state Self-Help program grant applications. Our work the Citizens of the Town of Mashpee: paid off with the announcement by Acting Governor Cellucci in November that the Town would receive I report with pleasure that 1998 was a record year ; l $194,116 in Self-Help grants toward the Fitch and for business at the library. Circulation for FY1998 totaled 100,003 items; the first time that the library Druley purchases and the County Commissioners' approval of a $100,000 Pathways grant toward pur- had over 100,000 transactions in a year. When the chase of the Fitch and MacDonald properties. In addi- library completed its first year in the current location, tion to those purchases, the department also facilitated circulation was about 30,000 items. In just twelve the donation of 18 acres in the South Mashpee Pine years, the number of transactions has increased over Barrens by Mr. Thomas Coughlin to the Conservation 233%. During the year, an average of 1,121 patrons Commission. per week visited the library, making the library one of the busiest places in town.During 1998,58,292 patrons In order to secure the $77,690 in Self-Help grants used the library's services. The library currently has received in 1997 for the Lopez and Ruff properties,the almost 6,853 registered borrowers, up 800 more than Department prepared the "Besse Bog Conservation last year. Area Management Plan" and an update of the "Mashpee River Woodlands Management Plan", cov- As part of a grant application, I had an opportunity Bring the Lopez property, on behalf of the to compare the number of transactions at the Mashpee Conservation Commission. The Department also pre- Public Library with a neighboring community of sim- pared plans for the parking areas and signage required ilar size. The town of Brewster is very similar to Mashpee in number of year-round residents and has by the state on those properties. had the same type of growth spurt. The Brewster During the coming year, we will continue to assist Ladies Library has just completed a major expansion with implementation of the Comprehensive Plan. of the library and now has a facility about four times Working with the Sewer Commission and Watershed the size of the Mashpee Public Library. Brewster's Management Committee, we hope to begin work on a library collection size is about 49,000 items compared Nitrogen Management Plan for the Town's nitrogen- to Mashpee's 35,000 items.According to statistics from sensitive coastal bays. With the Planning Board we the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, will be developing updated subdivision regulations Brewster patrons took out 11.64 items per capita.Using the same source, Mashpee patrons took out and new special permit regulations, including archi- tectural and landscape design guidelines. We will con- 129