Nantucket Town Government Roundup, July 10 - 23

While Nantucket’s municipal government slows down in the heart of the summer season, it never stops. This edition of the Current’s government roundup features new information on efforts to create year-round housing and jet fuel storage at the airport.

• Dave Iverson was re-appointed as chair of the Planning Board, and Joe Topham was appointed vice chair. Brian Borgeson was appointed as the Board’s representative to the Coastal Resilience Advisory Committee after saying he disagreed with “about 97.75 percent” of its recommendations.
• The Planning Board approved the creation of several year-round housing units. One, on land owned by James and Denise McCarthy at 2 Crestwood Circle, will be a so-called covenant lot, restricting it to 150 percent of Nantucket’s area median income. Another, on land owned by Peter Kyburg at 37 Somerset Lane, was part of a rear-lot subdivision. Others are owned by the Affordable Housing Trust.
• Despite a concerted effort to increase the airport’s jet fuel storage capacity and avoid rationing, airport staff told the Airport Commission that jet fuel sales were briefly restricted over 4th of July weekend after reserves reached critically low levels.
• The Sconset Beach Preservation Fund told supporters that it does not expect a Special Town Meeting this fall related to its controversial geotube erosion control project and is planning for the next Annual Town Meeting in the spring.
• Board of Health member Bob DeCosta suggested reintroducing guinea hens to Nantucket in an effort to control the tick population, now that the island’s feral cats are more under control, a suggestion that was met with broadly positive feedback from town staff.
• Nantucket’s 2027 Annual Town Meeting will be held on Monday, May 10th, likely continuing to Tuesday, May 11th. It will start at 5:00 p.m. The subsequent election will be held on Tuesday, May 25th.
• The Select Board took a preliminary look at the town’s 10-year capital improvement plan, which prioritized over one billion dollars in spending, but the substantive discussions on the plan are still to come later this summer.

And here are the local government stories we covered in full over the last two weeks:

• A long-awaited report on the town’s investigation into the 2018 African Meeting House hate crime found “no evidence suggesting the incident was ignored or intentionally minimized,” but did suggest that the investigation failed to follow up on all potential leads, which could have hampered efforts to identify the perpetrator. Responses at the Select Board meeting held after the report’s release were mixed.
• The town of Nantucket has hired Aleesha Nunley Benjamin as its new municipal finance director. 
• A Superior Court judge remanded a Historic District Commission decision from 2024 after a 19-month legal battle.
• The Board of Health lifted three restrictions it had previously placed on a proposed housing development on Woodland Drive.
• Steamship Authority general manager Alex Kryska received a 12 percent raise after just seven months on the job. He is now being paid $251,513 a year.
• Key stakeholders in the debate over the controversial erosion control geotube installation along the Sconset Bluff met behind closed doors in an attempt to chart a mutually agreeable path forward for the project after an expansion plan failed at Town Meeting.
• The Select Board plans to award eight rental car medallions a year after receiving them, but did not do so this week after a late-breaking email from the airport raised concerns about available space for new businesses.
• The Board of Health has allowed a Polpis homeowner to not connect to the town sewer system because of financial hardship, possibly setting a precedent as the town seeks to expand sewer to the Somerset area.
• The Select Board answered questions from the community at the Civic League’s annual summer forum.