The crane was used by Mike Winkler to demolish and remove erosion-threatened beachfront cottages. The beach is shared by Chatham and Orleans, which had blocked the move.
(Steve Heaslip/ Cape Cod Times)
Orleans board changes its tune, allows removal of $800k crane
Town sets limits to protect plovers
The crane was used by Mike Winkler to demolish and remove erosion-threatened beachfront cottages. The beach is shared by Chatham and Orleans, which had blocked the move.
(Steve Heaslip/ Cape Cod Times)
The Orleans Board of Selectmen voted yesterday to reconsider a vote that prevented a Truro contractor from removing his $800,000 crane and $100,000 excavator from a Chatham barrier beach shared with protected shorebirds, said Jon Fuller, the board chairman.
The state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, which had previously advised the Town of Orleans against allowing the removal of the crane until nested piping plovers and their chicks flew away, will now allow the Orleans parks superintendent to determine when it is safe for the crane to move, Fuller said yesterday.
“[The Division of Fisheries and Wildlife was] worried the crane might run them over, or about certain conditions like if it was raining, or sunny, or windy,’’ he said. “Now they left it up to us.’’
Orleans selectmen voted on July 15 against allowing contractor Mike Winkler to remove his crane after he had missed a July 1 town deadline to remove the equipment.
Orleans then wanted Winkler to wait until the nested plovers had flown away, or the wildlife division had determined that it was safe to move the equipment.
“I would have never gone out there if I knew it was such a short time period,’’ said Winkler, who contends that he was not told of the deadline.
Winkler was hired by a group of Chatham homeowners to demolish and remove their beachfront cottages, which were in danger of falling in the ocean because of beach erosion
Winkler, who was at yesterday’s selectmen meeting, said he would accept the moving parameters set by the Orleans parks superintendent.
He hoped to begin moving the crane off the beach last night.
“I just want to get the machine off the beach; that was my ultimate goal,’’ he said.
The beach is shared by Orleans and Chatham.
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