Term Limits Lead Longtime Barnstable Town Councilor Ann Canedy To Step Down

PHOTO BY KRIS CLARK Barnstable Town Council Vice President Ann Canedy receives a citation from State Representative Tim Whelan at an appreciation day that was held for Canedy earlier this month.

PHOTO BY KRIS CLARK
Barnstable Town Council Vice President Ann Canedy receives a citation from State Representative Tim Whelan at an appreciation day that was held for Canedy earlier this month.

BARNSTABLE – After twelve years, Barnstable Town Councilor Ann B. Canedy of Cummaquid is stepping down from her council seat to focus, she said, “on being a grandmother.”

Term limits restrict councilors from serving more than 12 consecutive years on the town council.

But the longtime Precinct One representative says she intends to stay involved in civic affairs, particularly the homelessness issue and wastewater issues.

She is also, she said, involved with a Barnstable County building needs assessment committee that is looking at the future of the county complex in Barnstable Village.

“I’ll be around,” she said.

Precinct One extends from Barnstable Village and Cummaquid on the north side of town, west to parts of West Barnstable, and south to Hyannis and even Centerville.

John G. Flores of Cummaquid is running unopposed for the open seat at the November 3 election.

Canedy said she has enjoyed being vice president of the council in the final year of her term, being involved in decision making but also not obligated to refrain from comment as the president sometimes does as part of parliamentary procedure.

“I’m not a backseat sort of person,” she said.

In recounting accomplishments during her term, Canedy said, “There’s been a lot of highlights. One has been getting to know the people in my precinct.”

Canedy also pointed to the organizations she has helped to form that she hopes will live on long after she is gone from office.

“I think that’s the best thing, that there are a lot of organized groups in Barnstable Village especially, and Precinct One, that will carry on past my term,” she said.

Among those new or revived groups that Canedy listed are the Barnstable Village Civic Association, the Barnstable Village Business Association, the 6A Committee and Friends of Barnstable Harbor.

The new Barnstable Village Association has combined the civic and business groups.

Canedy first directed her efforts towards the Barnstable Civic Association, which, she said, was faltering. That group was revived, she said, with Matthew Bresette.

The Friends of Barnstable Harbor was started by Ted Theodoris, with, Canedy said, her encouragement and the encouragement of others.

Canedy said she started the 6A Committee, which is not a town committee, to work independently with the state to capture a promised grant after trees were removed from Route 6A.

Protecting the historic tree-lined canopy along Route 6A has been a big focus for Canedy. “We’ve had to work with MassDOT to educate them to be sensitive to the Old King’s Highway,” Canedy said of the department of transportation’s work on the state road.

She has also worked with the electric utility Eversource, formerly NStar, and Canedy spoke highly of the replanting process that the utility does in addition to trimming the trees.

Besides trees, sidewalks along Route 6A have been a focus. A major sidewalk project is ongoing, but, she said, the sidewalks have been built or rebuilt from Commerce Lane east to the Yarmouth line, a project that is finishing up this week.

In the late fall or early spring, the sidewalk project will go from the Barnstable Village line west to Route 132, she said.

Canedy said the sidewalk project is one of her pet projects that give her mixed feelings about leaving, since she wants to see it through to completion.

Other issues she wants to resolve before leaving are issues with the Scudder Lane Landing and also creating a permanent presence for charter fishing boats in Barnstable Harbor.

Through all the new groups, Canedy has been involved in a long-range planning process to work on the future of the village.

“I think it’s a model for other villages in that there is an energy in Barnstable Village,” she said.

Canedy said much has changed in the village from when she first came into office and Barnstable Harbor was, she said, “a mess.”

“I remember Kate Van Duzer Plettner [co-owner of Barnstable Marine Services] saying to me, with tears in her eyes, the harbor used to be a jewel in Barnstable and that it had been so tarnished,” Canedy recalled.

A major $3.5 million project to rebuild the harbor’s bulkhead in 2011 was made possible through a state grant.

It wasn’t just the harbor that was in trouble. Barnstable Village had abandoned businesses and looked to be slowly dying around the time of the recession in 2009 and 2010. But with a buyer for the general store and other newly opened businesses and restaurants, the area seems to be prospering now.

“So there is a new energy that has come together in the last few years. I’m very proud of the work that’s been done by the people that live there,” she said.

Canedy said her last town council meeting will be on November 5 and her last official day of duty is November 16, when her replacement will be sworn in.

She said rules allow councilors to take a term off and run again.

But at age 67, she said, she does not see herself seeking office again. “You never say never, but right now, no,” she said.

By LAURA M. RECKFORD, CapeCod.com News Editor

Comments

  1. Ann Canedy says

    Thank you Laura for this nice tribute!! However…..the bulkhead did not cost 5 million dollars!!! This is a statement that is incorrect which has been repeated enough that it has somehow become truth. The fact is that the bulkhead AND the inner harbor dredge were paid for through a hard fought $3.5 million dollar environmental state grant.

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