Harwich Select Board Votes 4-1 to Accept Board of Health Chair's Resignation

HARWICH — July 13, 2026 — Harwich Select Board voted 4-1 to accept the resignation of Board of Health Chair Kevin Dupont, with one member openly refusing to support a vote they said endorsed the conduct that drove Dupont out. The dissenting member also apologized publicly to former Board of Health member Sharon Fleger, whose resignation had been accepted weeks earlier as a consent agenda item without discussion or acknowledgment. In a lengthy joint session with the Board of Water and Wastewater Commissioners, GHD engineer Jeff Gregg presented an update to the town's Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan, placing Harwich at roughly 37 percent of total nitrogen TMDL compliance, with a state watershed permit application due by 2030 and future sewer phases carrying planning-level cost estimates in the hundreds of millions of dollars in 2025 figures. Town Administrator Jay Packett said the town is drafting a moratorium policy on additional sewer capacity requests from properties in the already-sewered phases, warning "imagine the disaster we'd have on our hands if we sell capacity we don't have." The board also unanimously approved $982,200 in routine year-end budget transfers, including a $591,000 snow and ice deficit funded entirely by underspent departmental lines with no impact on the tax rate.