BCN Forum: Fall Town Meeting: Consolidating Schools, Funding Housing, Banning Bottles & More

November 14, 630 – 8 pm
Brewster Ladies’ Library

Brewster Community Network is sponsoring a November 14 forum from 630-8 pm at the Brewster Ladies’ Library to help voters understand and ask questions about articles to be considered at the November 18 Special Town Meeting. The forum will feature a number of citizens and town officials, as follows:

Citizens Adam Lange and Helga Dyer will make their case for petitioned Article #10, “Elementary School Consolidation and Creation of a Community Center.” Jessica Larsen will present perspective as a parent and member of the School Committee, and Town Administrator Peter Lombardi will discuss whether the $150,000 community center feasibility study proposed under Article 3, “Capital and Special Expenditures,” can also explore the complex of issues associated with possible school consolidation.

Sharon Marotti of the Community Preservation Committee (CPC), Housing Coordinator Jill Scalise, and Ben DeRuyter of the Brewster Affordable Housing Trust will introduce and help answer questions about Article 5, including the use of $80,000 in CPC funds to support the FORWARD (Friends Or Relatives With Autism & Related Disabilities) project in Dennis and $502,500 in CPC funds to protect the stock of existing affordable housing in Brewster.

Karen Whitney of the Charter Committee will provide a brief update in support of the request for $5157 for community outreach under the much larger Article 3. Sponsors of the petitioned Article 9, “Bottled Water and Beverage Ban,” have been invited to present the status of the Cape-wide municipal bottle ban and planned amendments, through which portions of the Select Board’s recently adopted plastic bottle reduction policy could be adopted as a new town bylaw.

And Mr. Lombardi has agreed to field questions on additional articles and place them in context with the town’s FY20-21 Strategic Plan. All in all, the forum is intended to help citizens in making informed decisions at Town Meeting on November 18.