Our Preparations For This Year’s Annual Town Meeting

To the editor: We have important issues coming on May 3rd. The Island Home, the evolution of Town Governance, consideration of waste treatment and the frightening and fatiguing topic of Nantucket rental practices top our list.

The Island Home has been a critical element in so many members of the community’s lives in the 50 years we have been here. Perhaps our interest is heightened as we approach our 80’s. Select Board/Town Meeting vs. Council is something we should all be careful to understand as Nantucket’s success continues to make effective governance ever more critical. It is good to see waste management on the agenda as it is just the beginning of so many sustainability issues we are facing. So PLEASE do your best to attend, participate, and vote.

For us though, the immediacy of the Nantucket rental practice warrants needs to be top priority. Over the past few weeks, we have taken several actions to prepare. First, we contacted the health department and then called the STR complaint line to learn of the level and nature of this past years’ complaints. When there was no information available, despite by-law 123 provisions, and 13 months of STR registry operation.

We contacted the town Information administrator. She helped submit a town wide information search, with emphasis on the police, health and fire departments. Thus far only the police department has responded noting that they do not currently track complaints by STR’s.

Then, we re-read the applicable rental warrants several times and assessed their impact on our situation. We are fortunate to have two dwellings on three acres in Quidnet. Our investment is in our family as the description of our 50 year journey embedded in the photo below describes.

We read recent Inky, The Current letters and ATM post cards which had been mailed to us. The most striking card was black on one side; white on the other. The White side urged support for the article 67/68 combination citing straightforward regulation and simplicity. Well, that is true. In simple and straight forward terms: the inability to rent both our dwellings flexibly intermingled with family and friend use reduces our annual income 40 percent.

The Black side of the card castigates Investors’ Dreams. Note the position of the apostrophe… very cleverly referring to absentee Investors; which already have been prohibited by bylaw in the last two STM/ATM’s. At recent Select Board meetings, commitment to enforcing these provisions has been thoroughly discussed and affirmed.

As to the Q&A on the Black side of the postcard [echoed by the prolific recent roadside signage.] We can only speak factually to our situation. 66 could protect us from predatory lawsuits; …and protect the town from significant expense exposure which could divert attention to critical issues and raise the tax levy need on all of us.

Financially, we have broken even on our property for 25 years. We keep our rental charges somewhat below average for its capacity. Over 80 percent of our expenses go to Nantucket businesses, services, individuals and town taxes [more than double our property levy.] We attract multi-generation family renters who love and respect the island, don’t have need of a pool, enjoy our fire pit, games and books in the tradition we established over 20 years as renters ourselves. We have plenty of off street parking, but encourage walking, cycling, and use of island transport. We do not rent to groups under thirty, avoid Figawi [memorial day] weekend and the like. We have had no neighbor complaints with our renters in 25 years. After discussing expenditure patterns with the Chamber of Commerce, we estimate our Nantucket home contributes more than a quarter of a million dollars to the local economy each year.

One Size Does Not Fit All when it comes to Traditional Nantucket Rentals. We are just one example. Our home is now filled with our three generation family which has grown to 17. It seems very unfair to us, to have ‘the rug pulled out’ from under our 50 year efforts to provide this home for our family, by Articles 67, 68, or 69.

Thank you for reading about our preparation and our thanks to the Current for enabling us to share it with you. Unfortunately, we lost a dear friend earlier in the week. As a result we will not be able to be with you on Saturday, but available if the discussion extends to Monday. Please raise your own situations during the ATM dialogue. Our hope is that these three warrants with serious, perhaps, unintended consequences will not pass and that healthy enforcement will deliver us a factual basis on which to further govern Nantucket rental evolution moving forward.

Respectfully,

Mike and Penny Herlihy