Choose Granite Countertops in Eastham, MA for Elegance and Durability

Elizabeth Ann (Holmes) Covell of Eastham, Massachusetts passed away peacefully in her home on December 26, 2023. She was the daughter of Lester and Susan Holmes, and grew up in a large family with 4 sisters and 2 brothers. Elizabeth was third to the youngest in the family.

Elizabeth was born in Dover, New Hampshire in 1927 and spent her younger years in Worcester (Mass), eventually moving with her family to Maine and graduating from Waterboro High School in 1945. After High School, she settled in Boston and completed her Nursing Degree at the New England Baptist Hospital School of Nursing in 1949.

Elizabeth was married to Phanuel Bishop Covell Jr, of Worcester Mass. Their wedding took place in Alfred, Maine in June of 1950. Bishop was a Baptist Minister and the couple began their married life in an apartment in Brighton, Mass and continued with stops in Peabody, Mass (1951-1957), Auburn, Maine (1958-1967) and Warwick, Rhode Island (1968-1992). Elizabeth would immerse herself in the church community, joyfully singing in the choir and leading various church committees. In 1993, Bishop and Elizabeth retired and moved permanently to the Cape, settling in their summer home in Eastham and becoming active members of the Brewster Baptist Church. Her husband sadly passed in December 2005.

Though tirelessly devoted to her faith and the churches she served, Elizabeth was most proud of her 6 children. Son Timothy is her oldest, followed by Peter, then Jonathan, David was next, Jean (finally!) arrived and James was the youngest. All named from references in the Bible! Timothy (Kim), Peter (Ellen), James (Nancy) currently reside in Eastham with their families, Jean (Leighton) lives in Orleans, while Jonathan (Sue) is in Brewster, Mass, and David (Diana) lives in Saunderstown, RI.

From 1981 to 2007, 13 Grandchildren were born into the Covell extended family. Erin and Ben (Tim and Kim), Allison and Sarah (Pete and Ellen), Jess and Katie (Jon and Sue), Alicia, Jared, Jake (David and Diana), Megan and Jenny (Jean and Jeff Leyton), Kai and Samantha (Jim and Nancy). Birthday Celebrations, Fourth of July Cookouts and Christmas Parties kept expanding every year, much to the delight of the Matriarch of the family!

From 2009 to 2023, 8 Great-Grandchildren entered the Covell world, lighting up Grammie’s magical blue eyes with every new addition. Grammie adored each of the Great-Grandchildren: Max, Elizabeth, Gabriel (Erin and David Cronen), Vivienne and Thomas (Allie and Chris Dupont), Seamus (Sarah and Matt Schroth), Ari (Jessie and Brandon Raneo) and Addie (Katie and Gus Wollenberg).

While faith and family formed the center of her world, Mom managed to find the time to enjoy several hobbies and interests. She loved to sing and play the organ. In retirement, Mom was most at peace while working in her garden, growing both flowers and vegetables each summer was her passion. Every family visitor would make a beeline to her Cookie Jar, for one of Grammie’s Hermits, Whoopie Pies, Toll House Cookies or perhaps a new Chocolate Square recipe she was trying.

She was a role model of human kindness for all who were blessed to know her and her memory will stay with each of us until we meet her again in Heaven.

Elizabeth’s family and friends are welcomed to attend her Celebration of Life at Brewster Baptist Church on Saturday January 27th at 1:00pm.

In lieu of flowers, donations are welcomed to the organization of your choice, including VNA Hospice and Palliative Care of Cape Cod, The American Heart Association and The Alzheimer's Association of Cape Cod.

For online condolences, visit www.nickersonfunerals.com

The Town of Eastham is a coastal resort community straddling the arm of Cape Cod. Located on the lower Cape, the town is bounded on two sides by land, Orleans and Wellfleet, the other two by water, the Atlantic Ocean and Cape Cod Bay. Eastham is mostly known as the “gate” to the Cape Cod National Seashore. It is a popular place to bring the family for a relaxing vacation. Here are a few things you may not know about Eastham.

Eastham was the site where, in 1620, a hunting expedition landed, comprised from the crew of the sailing vessel Mayflower, which had stopped in Provincetown harbor on Cape Cod Bay after a rough crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. This led to the first encounter of the Pilgrims and the native Nauset people at First Encounter Beach.

Built in 1741, the Swift-Daley House is an excellent place to revisit history. The bowed roof was common with early homes constructed by ship’s carpenters, and the pumpkin pine flooring was hard to come by. Now a museum, the house has stood for 274 years, and is currently operated by the Eastham Historical Society.

The Eastham Windmill was built in 1680 in Plymouth. Around 1770, the windmill was ferried on a log raft across Massachusetts Bay to Truro. The windmill made its appearance in Eastham by ox-cart in 1793 and was placed near Salt Pond. Subsequently, it was sold and relocated to its present site on the Village Green across from Eastham Town Hall on Route 6.

The ocean beaches in Eastham, Coast Guard Beach and Nauset Light Beach, as well as the land bordering them, were incorporated into the Cape Cod National Seashore, under the auspices of the National Park Service, on Aug. 7, 1961.

The Three Sisters of Nauset are a trio of historic lighthouses off Cable Road. Falling prey to coastal erosion and decay brought by time and poor maintenance, they fell into sea in 1890 and were replaced by wooden towers on brick foundations in 1892. In 1911, two of the three Sisters were decommissioned. One of them, known as the Beacon, was moved back from the shoreline and attached to the keeper’s house. It continued to operate for some time, but ultimately, the Beacon was replaced by the Nauset Light, a new steel tower in 1923, which operates to this day.

The Outer Beach, or “backside,” of Cape Cod has been the notorious graveyard for more than 3,000 ships since the wreck of the Sparrowhawk in 1626. The high cost in lives and property led to the establishment of the Massachusetts Humane Society in 1786, the first organization in the nation devoted to the rescue and assistance of shipwrecked mariners. One of the original nine lifesaving stations was constructed at Nauset.

This gem on the map includes something for everyone, from fishing and canoeing, to hiking, biking, and exploring historical landmarks, museums and cemeteries.

EASTHAM — The North Eastham Master Plan, which was created in 2022 to help guide the development of three parcels of town-owned land, will likely need some updates before any shovels hit the ground.

In large part, that is because the pandemic dramatically raised house prices on Cape Cod and made the need for affordable and middle-income housing much more acute.

Zoning in North Eastham is also being overhauled, and the town’s Watershed Management Plan is being finalized. Each affects what can ultimately be built at the 10.9-acre former T-Time driving range, the 3.5-acre Town Center Plaza, and the 2-acre Council on Aging property.

The town has hired the Environmental Partners Group to assess the possibility of a new roadway, parallel to Route 6, that could connect the T-Time property to the Town Center Plaza.

Given all this, the town is at least two years away from hiring a developer, said Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe. Once that goal gets closer, there will be new rounds of community input to help finalize the town’s goals at the properties, she said.

“As we get more information about what’s really possible, what the options are, and how much they might cost, then we’re going to have to do whole new rounds of reaching back out to the public,” Beebe said.

The First Round

The master plan that was published in December 2022 foresees a total of 82 units of housing: 40 at the T-Time parcel, 30 at the Town Center Plaza, and 12 at the Council on Aging. Planners relied on the town’s 2021 housing production plan to assess demand, which, in turn, relied largely on data from the 2019 American Community Survey.

Eastham’s affordable housing trust is set to publish a new housing production plan next month, however. The preliminary findings of that report show that Eastham’s median house price went from $520,000 in 2020 to $775,000 in October 2023 — a nearly 50-percent increase in less than four years.

Carolyn McPherson, chair of the trust, said that the demand for housing in Eastham has skyrocketed, especially following the pandemic.

“The numbers are chilling in terms of how hard it is to find housing in Eastham,” McPherson said. “It’s a whole different level of call-to-action than it was in 2019. We need more housing than there is in the conceptual plan, and I think there is an opportunity for more housing beyond what that plan shows.”

Joan Lockhart, a former member of the T-Time Committee and current chair of the Council on Aging Board, said that there is “definitely not enough housing” in the plan.

“Things have changed in the last four years,” Lockhart said. “Where are we now? In a housing crisis, with a capital C. I now believe that T-Time should be nothing but housing.”

Residents are divided on this issue. In the spring of 2021, the T-Time Committee conducted a survey to assess residents’ vision for that property. Of almost 2,000 respondents, 43 percent said housing was “not important” at T-Time; 39 percent said it was important.

Beyond housing, the master plan for T-Time includes a 25,000-square-foot community recreation center and 8,000 square feet of commercial space. The plan also called for 10,000 square feet of commercial space at Town Center Plaza.

Zoning Update

To expand housing in North Eastham, the town’s zoning codes must be updated. This has been the central focus of those working on the project since the master plan was published.

An RFP for zoning consultants was sent out in June 2023. Town Planner Paul Lagg, the Eastham Residential Zoning Task Force, and consultants from Brovitz Community Planning and Dodson & Flinker Landscape Architecture & Planning have been working on new bylaws for spring town meeting.

If the residential zoning at T-Time were maintained as is, only 11 houses could be built there, Beebe said. With adjustments to zoning, increased residential density and mixed-use structures can be added.

The zoning amendments include a form-based code and a potential 40R Smart Growth Zoning Overlay, which the Independent reported in June.

A form-based code focuses on the look of a development rather than the uses that are allowed there. Emphasizing architectural consistency but being flexible about uses can help maintain local character, Lagg said.

The Smart Growth Overlay could help create compact mixed-income housing and generate state funds for the project.

Zoning is “boring, but absolutely essential,” Beebe said. The technical nature of the work does not demand much community input, which is why there has been a dearth of public updates since the master plan was published in December 2022, Beebe said.

Wastewater, Roads, Funding

The North Eastham Master Plan also relies on a long-discussed town wastewater system. Without it, the T-Time and Town Center Plaza parcels would have to be reconfigured to include undevelopable septic system leaching fields.

“Wastewater has to come first,” Beebe said.

The town finalized its Watershed Management Plan in October 2023 and is now awaiting feedback from the state Dept. of Environmental Protection. Beebe said that the town’s new wastewater system would be in its design phase until May 2025, and that construction will run from 2026 through 2028.

To assess the viability of a new roadway connecting T-Time to Town Center Plaza, the town hired the Environmental Partners Group last summer.

Lagg envisions a roadway that is “lower-traffic, more calm, and could serve local businesses,” although at this point a vehicular road, a shared-use path, or even a bike trail extension are all possibilities, he said.

Last week, Eastham issued an official request for a financial modeler for the North Eastham project, which a March 2023 presentation said could ultimately cost $64 million.

That consultant would assess available state incentives, public-private partnerships, and tax credits to fund the project. Much of the consulting work so far has been funded by a series of state grants, Beebe said.

These elements should all have converged by 2026, when the town could put out a request for a developer to make the North Eastham Master Plan into actual houses and buildings, Beebe said.

By that time, the original draft of the plan “could change quite a bit,” she added. “I don’t think our housing numbers, or any numbers, are fixed,” Beebe said.

In other words, housing needs may be changing rapidly in Eastham — but the town’s development plans are open to change as well.

They were separated from family in a state program ‘past the brink’

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EASTHAM — For nine days at the end of August, after Gov. Maura Healey declared a state of emergency because of a shortage of shelters for unhoused families, six families were placed by the state in an Eastham motel.

The families arrived at the Ocean Park Inn, adjacent to the Four Points by Sheraton (both are operated by Marriott International), on Aug. 21 and departed on Aug. 29 after the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities realized that the Outer Cape posed too many accessibility challenges for the families.

The families were part of the state Emergency Shelter Assistance program, which ensures shelter for eligible families under the state’s . But the confluence of a steady influx of asylum seekers entering Massachusetts and the end of Covid-era food and housing security programs has pushed existing emergency shelters beyond capacity, and the state has been forced to adopt stopgap measures.

“In recent months, demand has increased to levels that our emergency shelter system cannot keep up with,” Healey said in an declaring a state of emergency.

In a to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, Healey called on the federal government to streamline and expedite work authorizations for migrants and to increase funding for providing shelter to families.

There are currently 5,600 families and more than 20,000 individuals in shelters across Massachusetts, an 80-percent increase from last year. And the number of families leaving emergency shelters has declined by two-thirds since 2019, according to Healey’s letter.

Healey blamed these trends on “a confusing tangle of immigration laws, an inability for migrants to obtain work authorization from the federal government, an increase in the number of people coming to Massachusetts, and the lack of an affordable housing supply in our state.”

In the past few months, the state has housed more than 1,800 families in hotels and motels.

“Eastham is the first example of this coming to the Outer Cape,” state Sen. Julian Cyr told the “The administration is drinking from a fire hose here — we are past the brink.”

According to Cyr, four of the families placed at the Ocean Park Inn were Massachusetts residents. Most were from the Boston area, but some were from as far away as Springfield, more than 100 miles away. Two families were originally from Haiti. Together, the group comprised 35 people, with children ranging in age from 18 months to 17 years.

There was little time for the town and the Outer Cape’s food and social services organizations to prepare to help. For the first 24 hours the families were in town, nobody was informed they were here.

“It was a little bit of a mystery how they arrived,” said Eastham Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe. According to Beebe, she received a call from the governor’s office on the afternoon of Aug. 22, a day after the families arrived. “They said to call if I had questions but that the families ‘should be all set,’ ” Beebe said.

But the location of the Inn on Route 6, town officials knew, posed serious problems for the families. “I don’t know if, when the state placed them there, they understood that it was on a four-lane highway, and there were no sidewalks,” Beebe said.

According to Katie Wibby, chief executive officer of the Lower Cape Outreach Council, which helped provide essential services to the families, only one family had a vehicle, and the rest soon learned that “public transportation out here is quite limited,” she said.

Cyr added that one child faced significant health issues and another was enrolled in a special school outside Boston.

“They were just removed from all of their social connections,” Wibby said. “Family, friends, community resources they had in the locations where they lived. Some had never been on Cape Cod in their lives.”

According to Andrea Marczely, food access coordinator for Barnstable County Cooperative Extension, the state contracts with an agency to identify hotels with vacancies to house families in the program. “Wherever there is a first opening available, that’s where they get sent to,” Marczely said.

The town, along with the Lower Cape Outreach Council and several other local organizations and businesses, rallied to help feed the families and provide other basic services, Cyr said.

The following Monday, Aug. 28, the town received word that the state had located rooms closer to the families’ various home bases, and they left Eastham the next day, Beebe said. But during the week the families were there, “they didn’t know where they were going to go next and when that was going to happen.”

Beebe said that while the state paid for the placement of the families, local services also dipped into their own budgets. According to Healey’s press release, the state is spending $45 million a month on programs to help families find emergency assistance. But only $325 million was earmarked for the Emergency Shelter Assistance program for fiscal 2024, according to the State House News Service.

While Eastham is the farthest down Cape the state has found temporary lodging for families, it is not the only town on Cape Cod that has received a call from Gov. Healey’s office. The state was planning to place up to 100 families at the Yarmouth Resort before Healey placed a temporary hold on the motel to examine code-related issues.

According to a from the town of Yarmouth, the motel, which rents out a portion of its units to year-round tenants, is under notice for alleged zoning violations and a lack of certificates of occupancy.

Earlier this summer, Healey the expansion of Joint Base Cape Cod to accommodate up to 60 units of housing for homeless families.

It is unclear whether the state is planning to place more families on the Outer Cape. According to many of the sources the contacted, state officials soon realized after placing the six families in Eastham that the Outer Cape’s infrastructure presents problems of access to those who are housing insecure.

“The state believes that our remoteness makes it difficult to place folks here,” Eastham Director of Health and Environment Hillary Greenberg-Lemos told the board of health during its Aug. 31 meeting. “But if more come, we are ready and available to assist in whatever capacity they need.”

“It’s unclear if it will be on the Outer Cape, but I would expect we will see more families who need shelter coming to Cape Cod,” Cyr said. “It’s important that every part of the Commonwealth helps out here.”

It’s more affordable, but fewer people are adopting it

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EASTHAM — Massachusetts has a problem, and Eastham is here to help.

The state’s Clean Energy and Climate Plan calls for net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050, which the plan says will require solar infrastructure that produces between 27 and 34 gigawatts (GW) of energy statewide.

Currently, Massachusetts has about 3 GW of solar infrastructure.

The problem, say members of the Eastham Climate Action Committee, is that there is a lot of confusion about solar energy. “We’ve heard from a lot of residents that they’re kind of interested in solar, but they don’t really understand it,” said Tom McNellis, a member of the committee and a former electrical engineer with Lockheed Martin.

McNellis and the rest of his committee believe that adopting solar power will help both the climate and townspeople.

Solar power has become increasingly affordable for homeowners. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that the cost of residential solar dropped from about $7.53 per watt produced in 2010 to $2.71 in 2020 — in other words, the cost of solar energy dropped by nearly two-thirds in those 10 years.

The environmental publication estimates that the average solar panel pays for itself within nine years in Massachusetts, and that the state’s average homeowner will save more than $33,000 over a lifetime by installing solar panels.

Despite these incentives, the adoption of solar in Eastham has declined in recent years. According to data on registered solar systems in Massachusetts, 117 residential solar systems were installed in Eastham in 2016. But from 2019 to 2021, fewer than 50 systems were installed each year.

A similar trend played out across the state, with the number of residential solar installations peaking in 2016 and dropping to less than half that rate by 2021.

Why residential adoption dropped off is unclear. McNellis speculates it may be that the state ran out of early adopters. There hasn’t been much of a push since the state’s “Solarize” campaign that lowered installation prices ended around that time.

Regardless of the reason, only about 8 percent of Eastham residences have solar panels on their roofs. “We think residents are missing out on savings,” McNellis said. “There’s enough clean energy right over our heads to power our homes. So why pay the electric company?”

On Oct. 28 the committee hosted a workshop at the Eastham Public Library in hopes of educating people about solar energy and the perks and challenges of adopting it. According to committee chair Roberta Longley, the event was a success, with 80 people attending. Over half reported that they plan on pursuing solar, Longley said.

Speakers included Lesley Maddalena, a solar specialist with the Mass. Dept. of Energy Resources; Mariel Marchand, a power supply planner with Cape Light Compact; and Megan Amsler, the executive director of the environmental nonprofit Cape & Islands Self-Reliance Corp. Industry vendors were noticeably absent.

That was on purpose, McNellis said. People “don’t want a sales pitch. They really are tired of marketing,” he said.

One part of the affordability picture is that the cost of solar panels can be offset partially by tax credits. The Residential Clean Energy Credit is a federal tax credit that allows you to claim up to 30 percent of the cost of a solar system. For the average residential system in Massachusetts, that comes to between $5,000 and $7,000.

The state offers a similar tax credit, though it’s for only 15 percent of the value of the system and maxes out at $1,000. Both tax credits can be claimed at once but apply only to taxes you owe.

In addition, any extra solar energy you produce is converted into net metering credits. These can be used to cover costs when energy consumption outpaces production, which can happen during winter’s short, cloudy days.

Still, the initial cost of putting in a system is high, McNellis admits — generally between $15,000 and $21,000, according to the solar marketplace EnergySage.

McNellis pointed to loan programs whose repayment plans approximately align with the payback period for the system that is installed. Local financial institutions like Cape Cod Five and Seamen’s Bank, as well as the multinationals, have loan programs that can cover solar panel installation costs. “You basically pay the bank instead of paying the utility,” McNellis said. “And from then on, you’re not paying anything.”

Not every house is right for a solar installation, McNellis said. The ideal roof faces south with little or no canopy cover, to capture as much daylight as possible. “We certainly don’t want people cutting trees down,” said McNellis.

Longley said that the committee does not want to push solar energy on residents. “There’s a lot of confusing information out there,” she said, especially concerning costs and financing. “We’re just trying to make it more accessible for people.”