Brewster Around Town

Brewster carols in Eastham

The Visitors Services Board in Eastham announced that back again, after a year's hiatus, is Eastham's annual Carols on the Green this coming Saturday, Dec. 4, from 4 to 5 p.m.

The event also promotes "bring a toy"  for Toys for Tots. 

Headed up by the Nauset High School Honors Chorus, which will contribute their own selection of holiday tunes under the direction of Tom Faris. The carols sing also offers the opportunity to hear the charming children's voices of the Eddy School of Brewster.

Sea Camp to have property manager

Brewster has completed the purchase of the 121 acre Cape Cod Sea Camps.

On Monday the Select Board voted to create a new position of property manager to maintain and provide security for the two properties. There are 90 buildings on the bay-front property. This would be paid for out of free cash and will be added to the operating budget and short-term rental revenues will be used to offset the expense..

The Select Board will also be forming two committees to determine future use of he properties. The board opted to include more at-large members rather than more designees from various committees.

The makeup should be 11 members for the bay-front property with two members from the Select Board, one from the Vision Planning Committee, one from Natural Resources, one from the Recreation Commission and six at-large members with liaisons from other groups such as the Affordable Housing Trust, Finance Committee, Council on Aging and Open Space Committee.

The Long Pond Committee would include two select board members, one from the Vision Planning Committee, one from Natural Resources, one from the Open Space Committee, one from the Affordable Housing trust and three at-large members with liaisons from the Finance Committee, Water Commission and Recreation Commission.

Serenity Housing

The Serenity Housing project for seniors is now partially open with 40 people moved in. Eventually there will be 132 units to house people age 55 and over. Elevation Financial, the developer of the former Wingate property that was an assisted living facility, opted to provide 20%t affordable units instead of the required 10%. The Select Board voted to request 50% local preference for the units from the state. Those units would be deed restricted as affordable but the local preference would only apply to the initial renter. That works out to 27 affordable units for seniors.

This project, combined with 30 units from Brewster Woods, will bring Brewster’s total of affordable units to 327 or 6.8 percent of the total units.

Out of the initial 40 units at Serenity that have been filled, 18 percent have gone to Brewster residents, 31 units were rented by Cape Codders. There will be a lottery for the affordable units.

Gretchen Riley honored

Firefighter Gretchen Riley has been honored as a Firefighter of the Year by the Massachusetts Office of Public Safety and Security. While driving back to Cape Cod on March 17, she witnessed an accident involving a tractor trailer and car. The truck was on fire and the driver trapped. She used her extinguisher to put out most of the fire and then assisted in caring for the driver and extracting from the truck.

Blood donations needed

Cape Cod Hospital and Falmouth Hospital are in urgent need of blood donations. While all blood types are needed on a regular basis, type O and type A are especially needed. Numerous blood drives are being held across Cape Cod in December.  Donors to CCHC blood drives in December will receive a Target gift card. The Nicholas G. Xiarhos Blood Donor Center inside Cape Cod Hospital is open by appointment only from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. Appointments are required at all blood drives. To make an appointment for the Nicholas G. Xiarhos Blood Donor Center, please call us at 508-862-5663. To make an appointment at an upcoming blood drive, please visit www.capecodhealth.org/give-blood  

Blood drives will be held Dec. 8: 10 a.m.to 4 p.m., at Northside United Methodist Church, 701 Airline Road, Brewster and Dec. 22: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., at Brewster Police, 631 Harwich Road, Brewster