Field Notes
by Peter B Brace

BYOK (BRING YOUR OWN KAYAK) Kathleen Fee's idea of renting kayaks from the beach between the ocean and Miacomet Pond will likely drown in a swirl of bureaucratic rip currents when the Board of Selectmen take up this matter at its Jan. 17 meeting.

After Fee proposed her plan to the selectmen last summer, the board instructed the Beach Management Advisory Committee to research the ramifications of such a commercial activity on town pond property. Acting on BMAC's advice, according to Town Administrator Libby Gibson, the selectmen are holding a public hearing on amending the town's regulations on uses of town-owned beaches to prohibit all commercial activity.

The meeting is at 6 p.m. in the Town & County Building at 16 Broad St.

MUNICIPAL GREEN The Energy Study Committee would like to paint the town's motorized fleet green with its proposal for fuel-efficient vehicles.

The ESC is asking the selectmen to sponsor an article for Town Meeting in April that would authorize the purchase of hybrid vehicles in an effort to save the town money and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere. This committee cites 12 cities and towns in the U.S. that already have such ordinances, and says that this would satisfy the selectmen's goal of fleet management and fuel efficiency.

ARE YOU IN OR ARE YOU OUT? Beach Plum Village, the 40-unit 40B residential development currently under construction between Rugged Road and Scotts Way, is the site of 10 affordable units reserved for qualifying Nantucketers.

But just what does it mean to qualify and how do you do it? Get answers to all your questions at the Beach Plum Village informational session on Jan. 10 at 6 p.m. in the Large Group Instruction Room in Nantucket High School at 10 Surfside Road. Before you go to this meeting, if you haven't already, get an application for this housing just to the left of the door to the Town Clerk's office in the Town & County Building at 16 Broad St.

Applications must be received by Jan. 22 and should be mailed to JTE Realty Associates, P.O. Box 955, North Andover, MA 01845. The lottery awarding these 10 houses is on Feb. 8 at 6 p.m. in the same location as the informational session. For details call Aaron Marcavitch at the Nantucket Housing Office at 228- 4422 or the lottery telephone line at 978-258-3492.

SPEAK UP, PLEASE Despite its goal of getting the harbor plan to the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management by the Dec. 31 deadline the town wants more public and municipal comment to go along with the completed plan before turning it in to CZM.

That "last chance" is a week from tonight at the Board of Selectmen's meeting at 6 p.m. in the Town & County Building at 16 Broad St. And just so you don't show up for this public hearing unprepared, having ignored all the articles covering the plan in both papers over the last year, you can download the plan from the harbor plan Web site, www.nantucketharborplan. com/. Copies of the plan are also available

on CD by calling the Marine & Coastal Resources I