Bourne Officials Moving Forward on Highlands Beach Stair Repairs

BOURNE – An unsafe staircase leading from a Sagamore Beach neighborhood down to Highlands Beach has been causing Bourne officials headaches for several months now, but may soon become a thing of the past.

Proposals came due on Friday for contractors interested bidding on the Highlands Beach stairs repair project. Officials have said that they will consider plans which call for the repair of the existing structure or those that seek to replace it entirely.

Bourne Town Administrator Tom Guerino said that it is hard to anticipate what the final cost will be until they begin to review the bids.

“Since we have to go from up above, and we didn’t get access from some of the neighbors down below, I’m not sure where the bids are gonna be on this because it’s a lot more hand work to go from up above. We’ll have to see where it goes at that point.”

Over the summer, town employees placed signage and fencing in the area to inhibit the use of the stairs, but it appears to have been of little use.

DPW crews have spent a considerable amount of time making repairs to the vandalized chain-link fence or replacing stolen signs and barriers as pedestrians appear to be flagrantly skirting the municipal trespassing ordinance for the sake of convenience.

Officials with the town’s Department of Public Works say that they are working closely with the Bourne Conservation Commission, who manage the cliff area.

They say that they are optimistic that the effort will be completed by April 1st, a deadline imposed by the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program citing the staircase’s location as a “priority habitat for rare species.”

By DAVID BEATTY, CapeCod.com NewsCenter

About CapeCod.com NewsCenter

The award-winning CapeCod.com NewsCenter provides the Cape Cod community with a constant, credible source for local news. We are on the job seven days a week.



CapeCod.com
737 West Main Street
Hyannis, MA 02601
Contact Us | Advertise Terms of Use 
Employment and EEO | Privacy