Field Notes
by Peter B Brace

COUNTING CARS While crawling through downtown Nantucket in near-gridlock conditions last summer, you may have seen the minions of Milone & MacBroom, Inc. of Cheshire, Conn., the traffic consultants hired by the Nantucket Planning & Economic Development Commission to complete a summer traffic congestion study.

Standing at 18 downtown intersections at peak weekend and weekday times during June, July and August, they were there to take note of the intensity and kind of vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian traffic heading to and from the Hy-Line and Steamship Authority ferries. In gathering this information, the NP&EDC is trying to find a way to break up congestion during Nantucket's most hectic season.

To do this, Milone & MacBroom were hired to analyze Nantucket's two waterborne transportation zones and the island routes connected to them. At a special Planning Commission meeting on Nov. 5 the traffic consultants revealed some of their early recommendations. Their recommendations include delineating a downtown arrival/departure gateway by providing appropriate signs leading people to and from ferry terminals; getting NRTA bus stops closer to ferry terminals; creating preferred passenger vehicle routes in and out of town; providing better maps and visitor information on how to get to and from the boats, perhaps showing this information on ferry televisions; building a parking garage behind Grand Union and providing an offstreet location for moped and bike training, among many other ideas.

Milone & MacBroom will be following up last week's initial presentation of its findings with a public hearing sometime in March. Call Transportation Planner Michael Burns at 228- 7237 to learn more about this study.

OUT OF THE WIND It's a good bet that the scallop seed rescued by scallopers and the Marine & Coastal Resources Department in the wake of Hurricane Noel are not the town's hatchery-raised seed.

That's because Marine Superintendent Dave Fronzuto and his staff spent much of Nov. 2, the day before the hurricane-cum-nor'easter struck, moving the remaining 450,000 hatchery seed from upwellers off the pier of the Brant Point boathouse to floating cages and the harbor bottom in Second Bend. The first 400,000 seed had already been moved to this seed sanctuary in which no scalloping of any kind is permitted prior to the storm.

According to Fronzuto, these scallops, which the town had spawned with adult Nantucket bay scallops at a hatchery in South Dennis, Mass. this spring, were quite safe from being blown ashore from within Second Bend.

Protected by a long sand spit that juts southwest off Third Point and another submerged peninsula stabbing eastward from Second Point, Second Bend is the safest location in the harbor for Nantucket's scallop nursery, Fronzuto believes.

PLANNING MEETING MOVED TO NOV. 15

The first regular meeting of the Planning Board for November is tomorrow night at 7 p.m. in the garage at 2 Fairgrounds Road. The board moved its meeting to Nov. 15 because the town took Monday off for the Veterans Day holiday. For details, call 228- 7233.

ROAD TO NOWHERE Saying that it felt Building Inspector and Tuckernuck Island property owner Bernie Bartlett does have adequate access to the proposed re-subdivision of his land on the north shore of Tuckernuck, the board approved his approval-notrequired plan for Sandbar Lane, 5-0.

Bartlett, who got Planning Board approval for a nine-lot subdivision in 1977, is further subdividing the northeast lot into two lots. Planning Board Member Sylvia Howard objected to the plan because his original plan was never recorded at the Town Clerk's office. Fellow member John McLaughlin, however, said recording Planning Board decisions at the Town Clerk's office in the late 1970s was not mandatory.

"In those days, it was not a hard requirement to record everything, but it doesn't mean it wasn't approved," said McLaughlin.

Planning Director Andrew Vorce assured the board its decision was legally defendable.

"The Planning Board approval from 1977 was not appealed," he said. "I don't think you as a board should be looking at every single detail."

On Oct. 16, 1998, Bartlett sold the southernmost six lots, totaling 18.4 acres, to the Tuckernuck Land Trust, which then sold the land to Laura Hussey for $550,000.

Bartlett has said he has no immediate plans to build on either of the new lots that now bring his total number of lots up to five.

BACK IN THE SANDBOX WITH SBPF The Conservation Commission hearing on the 'Sconset Beach Preservation Fund's beach nourishment proposal resumes tonight at 4 p.m. in the Large Group Instruction Room at Nantucket High School. SBPF plans to present modifications to the project based on requested changes from the public and the Conservation Commission and on its initial cobble habitat survey results. Five days later, on Nov. 19, the hearing resumes with SBPF's detailed presentation on its cobble habitat survey results and mitigation.

On Nov. 26, a third meeting is scheduled for SBPF's revisions to its regulations compliance and for a question-and-answer session. SBPF Executive Director Cheryl Bartlett expects there to be yet another continuance of the public hearing to discuss the order of conditions SBPF expects to get from the commission.

The ConCom urges those who can't make any of these meetings to send or drop off comments at the commission's office in the Town Annex building at

37 Washington St. For details, call 228-7230. I