With the Dike Bridge on Chappaquiddick needing costly repairs, Edgartown officials are calling on the Trustees of Reservations to dedicate money toward the failing infrastructure.
The select board Monday sent a letter to the conservation commission, urging members to require the Trustees put a portion of oversand vehicle sticker sales toward the bridge’s estimated $4.3 million repairs. The board said the creation of an escrow account specifically for the project should be required for continued oversand access.
The bridge is jointly owned by the town of Edgartown and the Trustees, but the majority of the needed repairs fall on the Trustees’ side. The Trustees went before the conservation commission earlier this month to get approval for oversand vehicle access on its Chappaquiddick properties. The application is still under review and the next hearing is scheduled for Oct. 25.
In the past, the statewide land trust contested its responsibility over the structure, claiming that the Dike bridge and adjoining bulkhead comes under shared ownership between a wide range of parties. In the most recent conservation commission hearing, Trustees attorney Dylan Sanders said the organization was still in the process of identifying and contacting all of those parties.
The condition of the Dike Bridge first raised alarms this past winter, prompting the town to conduct emergency repairs in the spring and commission the engineering firm Tighe & Bond to assess the need for further repair. In June, the firm estimated costs to repair the bridge’s aging bulkhead alone – the least sound section of the bridge – to be over $4 million.
The select board’s letter expressed disappointment in the Trustees’ handling of the situation.
“[The Trustees’] refusal to acknowledge ownership of the causeway, especially when considering the cumulative annual sticker sales and the direct depreciation resulting from their promoted activities, is not only disconcerting but also lacks a sound legal, historical, or common-sense basis for discussion,” the select board wrote.
“While regrettable that matters have reached this juncture, mandating funds toward repairing the causeway in the immediate future will alleviate the Edgartown taxpayer’s ultimate future liability.”
In other news, the select board voted to raise public fees across town departments for the first time in more than a decade. In some cases, the fees had not been updated since 2009, town administrator James Hagerty said, and have been raised to better reflect the rates in other Cape and Island towns.
The fee changes went into effect Monday and it included raising the building inspector rate from $0.75 per square foot to $1 per square foot and the one-day liquor license application fee from $50 to $100.
For the full list of updated fees, visit the Edgartown town website.
