To Members of the Residents Group and Others on the Pine Point Mail List:

 

TOWN COUNCIL MEETING: Wednesday September 6th at 7:30

This is a reminder that your Representatives will be presenting our Pine Point Rd. Study Proposal to the Town Council this Wednesday, 9/6. The meeting is at 7:30 at Town Hall and we expect to present around 8:00.  You may wish to attend or watch on Cable Channel 3. We will send you an email with the outcome of the meeting.  If you would like to read the proposal again, it is online at our web site, www.pinepointbeach.com.  We will be send another email prior to the meeting with our background information for the Council.

 

AUGUST 17th 2006 MEETING REPORT

The Residents Group met August 17, 2006 at the Fire Station. The agenda include an update on the Pine Point Rd. Study Proposal to the Town Council and discussion about the Lighthouse Inn "condo-tel" plan we recently learned about through David Grysk, the Town Code Enforcement officer.

The Town has taken the position that converting the hotel into 22 condominium units ("changing the ownership") would be a "change of use" and require permits and approvals by the Zoning Board of Appeals.  The Residents Group chose not to take a position at this time but to closely monitor the agenda to see if it actually becomes an application to the ZBA.  Paul Kirby agreed to check the agenda through the Town web site every Sunday, and Judy Mushial will check every Tuesday, and the group will be alerted if this plan appears.  The Group also chose not to respond to the article in the Forecaster other than to send a request for correction to clarify that a reference to the "Pine Point Association" was a factual error.  Ed Cleary agreed to send this clarification to the paper.  We will await the public process should it be invoked by the owners of the hotel, consistent with the process from 2005 when we appeared with our positions to the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Patrick O'Reilly presented our agenda request for the Proposal for a Study of the Pine Point Road - Hollis Parcel to the Town Council and it will appear on the September 6th agenda.  The Representatives will present it along with background information.  We are hopeful that it will be favorably received.  Should it be approved and members of our group are invited to participate, Elaine Richer volunteered to join the Representatives.

The Group agreed to provide copies of our email updates to Council Chair Steve Ross, and Councilor Patrick O'Reilly, who was involved in the Special Committee last year and has been Council liaison on this matter. We agreed to avoid political lobbying of individual Council members, but to present our collective views through the Representatives.

We discussed the status of a "study" of the impact of the new barriers.  We don't know if the Town is doing any sort of study of the traffic and use patterns there this summer as we proposed in our letter.  Members provided some photos showing public use patterns, and it was agreed that we would photograph non-identifiable images of how the public is using the street, walkways, barriers, etc., and to provide this anecdotal data to the new study committee, should it be formed. 

The Group brainstormed ideas to bring to the new committee; elements of a design we would like to see for the public property. Ideas to include: green space, safe vehicle turnaround, bike racks, handicap parking, low intensity lighting, signage conveying public access, pedestrian walkways, benches, water fountain, flag.  Items to exclude as inappropriate for the area: food concession, picnic tables, public restrooms, street lighting. 

Tookie Clifford asked to pass the hat to help reimburse the leaders for printing and other expenses and $70 was collected.