Efforts to replace and move approximately 11 telephone poles off of newly-paved Meetinghouse Way in Edgartown are set to finish up next week, town administrator James Hagerty told selectmen this week.
“Brian Sullivan’s crew will be onsite next Monday,” Mr. Hagerty said at Monday’s meeting. “I expect them to be setting poles on Tuesday.”
Town voters agreed to spend $775,000 to pave and widen the roughly two-mile dirt road in April 2015. Although the paving has finished, many of the telephone poles that formerly straddled the narrower dirt road now fall within the new road’s widened boundaries. Mr. Hagerty responded to resident Janice Casey, who asked for an update on when the town planned to move the poles off the road.
“Ideally we’ll be done by the end of this week, but no promises,” he said.
The poles are about three feet from the edge of the new road and are marked with large orange construction barrels or traffic cones.
Ms. Casey also asked for an update on the smaller orange traffic cones that currently line Meetinghouse Way, demarcating sites where the town still has graded the road but still plans to fill it with asphalt.
“The orange cones, the first time we have a good snow, those things will be off in the woods,” she said.
“They’re going to try and do it this fall before it gets too cold,” selectman Michael Donnaroma said. “Otherwise we’ll be waiting until the spring.”
In other business, Edgartown harbor master Charlie Blair said the SeaStreak ferry company wants to offer routes from New Bedford to Edgartown over Christmas in Edgartown weekend to compliment Hy-Line service from Hyannis. The Christmas in Edgartown festivities run from Dec. 6 through Dec. 9.
Mr. Blair said he was contacted by SeaStreak general manager John Silvia last week, whose plan is to run two ferry trips per day over the four-day period. The early trip would leave New Bedford at 9 a.m. and arrive in Edgartown at 10 a.m., while the late trip would leave Edgartown at 7:15 p.m. and arrive back in New Bedford at 8:15 p.m. The ferry would return to New Bedford between trips, making room for the Hy-Line.
“He [the ferry] is not going to stay, he’s just going to drop and run,” Mr. Blair said. “I wanted to hear from you guys before I coordinated the dockage so they’re staggered in channel.”
Selectmen approved the SeaStreak routes, on condition that Mr. Blair “would work out the coordinates to accommodate them.”
“The more the merrier,” Mr. Donnaroma said. “I think this year would be a bit slower. Not as many people know about it, so it would be a good practice run.”
“I don’t have a problem with it,” selectman Margaret Serpa added.
This year will mark the 37th Christmas in Edgartown, an annual holiday event that attracts crowds for shoping, events and the lighting of the Edgartown Lighthouse.
Comments
Comment policy »