Eastham Town Meeting - Oh What A night!

To borrow a catch phrase from the Bee Gees, we had 'Oh What A Night'. Our night, however, was the annual Town Meeting in the gym and auditorium of the Nauset Regional High School with about 800+ of our closest friends. We plowed our way through about 35 resolutions, ranging from matters of taxation of our tourists to water to relinquishing control of some Town of Eastham property to a conservation group. The meeting started at 7 PM (more or less) and broke up just 20 minutes before midnight. Ugh.

The highlights (lowlights?) ...

• We voted down a 5% tax on vacation rental properties
• We voted down a $32 million water system for the town, scaled down from $111 million
• We voted down a resolution that would turn control of the Roach property, off North Sunken Meadow, over to a  to-be-named conservation group
• We took money out of the long term budget for the North Eastham town center project

The evening wasn't entirely negative. We voted in budget items for the schools, fire and police, information center, water treatment for the ponds, and affordable housing. All in all - although loud at times, everyone behaved themselves and we got through all the resolutions.  Democracy at work.