CRITIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE – BAY/POND BEACHES
Annual Report
Eastham has many and varied beautiful bay and pond beaches. They are visited yearly not only by the taxpayers and residents of the town but by hundreds of tourists who vacation here for a few days, a few weeks or a few months. They are the town’s most valuable resource, generating thousands in fees and fueling our local economy. Our taxes would 30 or 40% higher without this resource. While we all frequently take our beaches for granted, we need to always think of protecting, preserving and enhancing this resource.
The Critical Planning Bay/Pond Beach Committee has been monitoring our beaches for two years. Most of beaches are beautiful and well managed but we do see some areas for improvement. We have met with the Town Administrator and the Recreation Director to discuss the concerns and the solutions. Problems we noted are in 1) signage, often scattered and muddled; 2) litter in the parking lots; 3) the replenished sand dumped each year on the beaches is not always of good quality; 4) poison ivy flourishing at Wiley Pond and in some beach areas; 5) erosion is reducing the amount of space at our public beaches.
We would like therefore to make the following suggestions for the maintaining of the quality of our bay and pond beaches:
1) Improve the signage and make it more welcoming to tourists and guests as well as residents. (The town administrator and the recreation director are planning new comprehensive signs for each beach currently.)
2) For cleaner beaches, a machine can be purchased that would rake all beaches weekly to remove seaweed and cigarette butts. (The latter are a temptation for toddlers.)
3) Remove the poison ivy at Wiley Park near the beach and the walking paths.
4) Provide better quality sand to renourish the beaches. Add some sand to the Wiley Park beach for castle building. (This has apparently been done just recently.)
5) Plan for the future of Eastham’s bay and pond beaches. Increased erosion and the effects of the ever increasing number of revetments are taking their toll. The town should place beach renourishment plans on the capital budget. Recently a coastal engineering firm from Florida with vast experience in this area did a free analysis of all the town beaches of Harwich. They offered to do the same for Eastham. We feel our town should take advantage of this opportunity and we urge the Selectmen to accept this offer.
| 
