Attaquin Park Closes October 26. It's the Third Mashpee Pond Landing to Be Rebuilt This Year.

Why would Mashpee close Attaquin Park on Monday, October 26, months after the last swim? Starting now lets the town finish everything except the final paving this fall and wrap up the rest before Memorial Day. Attaquin is also the last of three pond landings the town has rebuilt this year. The Town of Mashpee's closure notice says the park will close for up to six weeks for a stormwater improvement project, barring bad weather, with the reopening date to be announced.

The state boat ramp at Fisherman's Landing reopened in June with new stormwater systems, and Santuit Pond Town Landing off Timberlane Drive came out of its rebuild this summer with a concrete ramp and new public art. Attaquin is getting the same treatment, and its planting plan is meant to match the one at the boat ramp.

What is wrong with the Lake Avenue lot today

The problem at Attaquin Park, 35 Lake Avenue, is easy to picture if you have parked there after a heavy rain. When the project came before the Mashpee Conservation Commission, Tighe & Bond Senior Project Manager Kristopher Houle walked commissioners through the design, and CapeNews reported that the lot has a single catch basin in the center, so all of the drainage runs to the middle and floods it.

"Right now, there's one leaching catch basin system and, to our knowledge, within that is ill-functioning. Any excess water beyond what the parking lot can accommodate will flow over the beach or off to the sides."

That is Houle, as quoted by CapeNews. The fix changes the ground itself. The design adds two bioretention areas and an underground infiltration system, repaves the lot, and cuts about 2,587 square feet of hard surface. The lot will also sit two to three feet higher than it does now. Houle said that rise is needed both for the added treatment and to keep the system above seasonal high groundwater.

The underground system is sized for a 10-year storm. Houle called that a conservative estimate given that "it is straight sand out there," and he said the modeling shows a 75 percent reduction in peak flow for a 100-year storm. When a storm exceeds the 10-year capacity, the overflow goes through a pipe at the far west end of Lake Avenue toward the woods, and no groundwater is discharged to the pond. Houle described the goal as better water quality for Mashpee Pond and the Mashpee River.

Visitors will notice a few other changes. New ramps will improve beach accessibility, the portable toilets move to where the existing shed stands, and a guardrail will run along the western edge, where Houle said there is a steep drop.

Fisherman's Landing already shows what Attaquin will look like

The boat ramp at the end of Fisherman's Landing Road uses the design Attaquin is getting. Houle told the commission that Attaquin's bioretention planting plan was chosen "to try to mimic the plants that are used nearby at the Fisherman Landing Boat Ramp," partly so the two sites can share a maintenance program.

The boat ramp work was finished in June 2026. The town worked with the state Office of Fishing and Boating Access, the Association to Preserve Cape Cod and Horsley Witten Group, and the ramp reopened in time for peak summer use. According to the project summary on the town's site, the site now has five planted bioretention areas built to treat the first inch of rainfall, which typically carries the most pollutants. Two underground infiltration systems take the overflow from bigger storms.

The funding came from several places. The state's Mashpee-Wakeby Boat Ramp Stormwater Project page lists three Coastal Habitat and Water Quality grants from the Office of Coastal Zone Management, spread across fiscal years 2023 through 2026. It also lists an EPA Southeast New England Program grant, boating access funds, Mashpee Community Preservation Committee money and private foundation support. Those grants paid for the boat ramp only. No funding source or budget has been published for the Attaquin project.

Santuit Town Landing took the same idea further

The Santuit Pond Town Landing off Timberlane Drive changed the most of the three sites. DPW Director Catherine Laurent told the Select Board, as CapeNews reported, that the old landing "basically was an unimproved road going down a gravel ramp with limited parking right at the pond." The design added a concrete ramp, porous-pavement parking set back up near Timberlane Drive, kayak launches, a seasonal dock for shore fishing, and picnic tables and benches. Tighe & Bond, the same firm that designed Attaquin, installed the dock.

The art is new to the site. Mashpee Wampanoag artists Tia Pocknett and Natasha Frye painted the retaining-wall mural, which shows pond wildlife and the Wampanoag story of Ashoo and a giant trout. About 55 Tribal children helped paint fish along the wall. Artist Steve Swain added a 14-foot steel sculpture of a sea-run brown trout with herring, other local fish and an osprey. The Cape Cod Times covered the mural in September as part of the town and Tribe's partnership to restore the pond's health.

The next step at Santuit happens in the water. At the Conservation Commission's June 25 meeting, TRC's Matt Ladewig described an alum treatment slated for November, with a second treatment a year later. Ladewig said Santuit is known for "recurring and prolonged cyanobacteria blooms." He estimated that more than 70 percent of the pond's yearly phosphorus comes from its own sediments, which is why fixing the shoreline alone will not clear the water. The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe has taken the lead on the in-pond work after dredging was found not to be feasible, and the treatment is funded through MassDEP's 319 grant program, CapeNews reported. The November date comes from that June plan. Check with the town for the actual schedule.

The Attaquin calendar, step by step

The town has set the closure up as a fall phase and a spring phase.

1. Monday, October 26: The park closes for up to six weeks, weather permitting.
2. This fall: Crews dig only as much as they can finish in a day, so open trenches are not left sitting. Laurent's stated goal is to have everything through binder paving done before winter.
3. After that: The park reopens on a temporary basis. The town has said it will announce the date.
4. Late spring 2027: A second closure for final paving and striping, finished before Memorial Day, with advance notice once it is scheduled. Laurent said the final coat waits until spring to allow for settling.

Parking will be a little tighter when the lot reopens. The design presented to the Conservation Commission cut spaces from 46 to 41 and narrowed each space from 10 feet to nine. Later reports to the Select Board describe a loss of three spaces from the original design. Either way, expect the summer lot to fill a bit sooner. Send questions to the DPW at 508-539-1420 or [email protected].

Reaching the water while Lake Avenue is fenced off

Fisherman's Landing is the closest swap. The state's Mashpee-Wakeby Ponds page lists a town-managed paved ramp with a 30-vehicle lot at the end of Fisherman's Landing Road on the southeast shore, plus shore fishing on state land along the eastern shore. Mashpee and Wakeby Ponds are on MassWildlife's trout-stocked waters list for both spring and fall.

Lowell Holly Reservation on South Sandwich Road is a quieter walk to the same water. The Trustees list it as free and open daily from sunrise to sunset. After Labor Day only the six-car year-round lot is open, since the 20-car beach lot runs Memorial Day to Labor Day. The Trustees note that from the year-round lot, Mashpee-Wakeby Pond is "much further away along a circuitous trail," so plan on at least an hour and a half for the visit.

Santuit Town Landing is the place to see the new mural and sculpture during the closure. If the alum treatment begins in November as planned, watch for town notices about the pond before launching a kayak there.

A fourth project is coming on the refuge side of town. On October 5, the Select Board approved a license for the Friends of Mashpee National Wildlife Refuge to turn the town-owned building at 475 Nathan Ellis Highway into a visitor outreach center. The center would use three of the building's four units, and the next step is an updated agreement between the town and the Friends, CapeNews reported. No opening date has been set.

If you own a home near Mashpee-Wakeby, Santuit or Johns Pond and want to know how this year's town projects nearby might affect its value, Glenn Knapik and The Sandyside Team are happy to talk it through. Start with a Free Home Valuation.