DUXBURY — September 21, 2026 — The Selectboard adopted a seawall easement license policy Monday over the objections of shorefront property owners, who argued that stripping decking, fences and other temporary structures out of the easement every off-season imposes cost and labor for no safety gain. The board’s answer: without the license, the easement allows nothing at all.
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The easement town meeting approved for the new seawall permits nothing inside it at any time of year. The policy the board adopted Monday carves out a seasonal window when shorefront owners may use that strip and makes an exception for beach stairs, while requiring decking, fences and other temporary items to come out the rest of the time. Four owners asked the board to soften it. The board declined.
Brendan McLaughlin joining online asked for a single added sentence letting anything that comes apart quickly and is not fastened to the ground or the wall stay year-round, under the same 48-hour removal notice the stairs carry. Paul Donovan called the fixed date range arbitrary and proposed tying removal to scheduled town work instead. Michael Sheehan said the policy sets out no clear path to getting beach stairs approved before the deadline. Rocco Piccirillo put the cost of an aluminum structure built on the building department’s advice at $15,600, and said it cannot come down in two weeks.
The vice chair proposed abandoning the policy rather than keep renegotiating it.
We’re trying to be flexible. We’re trying to meet you halfway, but you want everything, right?
— Vice Chair Fernando Guitart 2:03:59
Chair Amy MacNab answered that dropping the policy would mean every set of stairs comes down.
MacNab defended the seasonal window as the product of a long negotiation with the DPW director, who had questioned granting owners any rights inside a town easement, and said the board can revisit the terms after a season 2:06:15. Members then floated extra time for the first year: November 1, then October 31, then October 30, then five weeks. The motion that carried approved the draft policy as presented and set no date. It passed on a voice vote.
The board also voted to sign a 25-year intermunicipal agreement for a regional household hazardous waste depot at Hanover’s transfer station. The project needs 12 South Shore municipalities before construction bids can be awarded, and three had signed as of Monday; South Shore Recycling Coop Executive Director Claire Galkowski told the board the project fails if all 12 do not. MacNab said the handout put Duxbury’s current cost at $8,600 a year against $11,000 under the agreement, an increase of about $2,400. Duxbury would go from six collection days a year to seven at one fixed site, open in summer and winter as well as spring and fall. Member Brian Glennon confirmed a town may withdraw at the end of any fiscal year on eight months’ notice.
