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Here are excerpts from editorials that addressed some of the Cape’s top issues in 2011:
NStar postpones
herbicide spraying
March 10: It was a pleasant surprise to see NStar acceding to the environmental concerns of Cape Codders, even temporarily. Last week’s decision to place a year-long moratorium on the use of herbicides on the company’s rights-of-way will hopefully provide enough time for a full examination of the effects of such chemicals on our sole-source aquifer. It’s the second such suspension in as many years.
NStar’s decision came one day after Cape lawmakers unveiled legislation that would force utilities to work with communities that did not want herbicides used.
NStar’s use of herbicides may be in the spotlight now because their name is writ large across our electric bills, but the responsibility for protecting our ground water is something that cannot be relegated to corporations. Herbicides are used on our golf courses, our local farms, and on too many of our own lawns. As long as we as individuals are willing to roll the dice with our ground water, we all run the risk of poisoning our future.
‘Black-robe’ solution?
March 17: What a difference six months can make. In late August, the executive director of the Cape Cod Commission said he feared a court-imposed solution to the Cape’s wastewater problems may not be in the best interests of the Cape.
“You don’t want to wait for a black robe to tell you what to do,” Paul Niedzwiecki said.
When environmental groups filed suit to force the clean up Boston Harbor, it resulted in the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, a multi-billion agency with authority to tax thousands of homeowners in the Greater Boston area.
To avoid a similar fate, Niedzwiecki said in August that the Cape Cod Commission supported a grass-roots, watershed-based regional solution to the wastewater problem.
But now, with few state and federal dollars available to help the Cape tackle the multi-billion problem, Niedzwiecki said he sees the courts as the Cape’s best and only chance to get federal help.
“I’m hoping that the lawsuit puts a spotlight on this for state and federal lawmakers, so they will bring back the kind of financial relief that (will prevent) the Cape from becoming a drastically gated community,” Niedzwiecki said.
Only 15 percent of Cape residents are served by public sewers. Because of that, Cape towns have a much steeper and proportionately more expensive hill to climb to protect their bays and estuaries from nitrogen and phosphorous that leach from septic systems.
But while the Cape faces an exorbitant wastewater treatment bill, the cost of doing nothing is priceless.
The essence of Cape Cod
May 28: Imagine Cape Cod, indeed imagine America, if there were no National Seashore.
The 43,000 acres that comprise the Cape Cod National Seashore from Eastham to Provincetown represent nothing less than an ornate bridal veil that gently protects golden strands of beach, curling surf and bejeweled ponds and hills.
Legislation providing for the establishment of the Cape Cod National Seashore was introduced in the Senate on Sept. 3, 1959. On Aug. 7, 1961, seven months after moving into the White House, President Kennedy signed the Cape Cod National Seashore bill.
Today, 50 years later, because of the untiring efforts of citizens and community leaders, a vista, a place, a park has been permanently protected.
An age-old challenge
June 5-7: For a region that has one of the densest populations of senior citizens in the country, Cape Cod lacks a fully developed chronic-care network for the elderly.
Our long-term care system here is under- and unevenly funded, uncoordinated, beset by parochial turf wars, biased toward institutional care, and plagued by significant gaps in essential services.
These problems can lead to reduced quality of life, unnecessary health problems and premature disability.
Factors that contribute to the problem include a fractured health care system, the shortage of primary care physicians, the near absence of geriatricians on Cape Cod, the prevalence of seniors with multiple medical conditions, the increase in life expectancy, but not necessarily quality of life, and the lack of surround-care case management.
“From our perspective, what Cape residents don’t currently have is a global, flexible, coordinated system of care — finance, delivery and management,” said David Rehm, executive director of Hospice Palliative Care of Cape Cod. “Hospitals, home care and hospices are all important components of a care system, but there is no structure here that ties them together in a coordinated fashion.”
Alisa Galazzi, executive director of Alzheimer’s Services of Cape Cod the Islands, said she is frustrated that the Cape does not offer a comprehensive chronic-care program that helps the middle class.
“The rich have long-term-care insurance, the poor have Medicaid and Medicare programs, but the families in the middle are seriously shortchanged,” she said.
Support Klimm
June 28: The long-term contract of Barnstable Town Manager John Klimm was inexplicably abbreviated last week by a majority of the town council.
In 2009, the council and Klimm agreed to a six-year contract. Now, by a 6-5 vote, with two absent, the council wants Klimm out by the end of September. This despite glowing annual reviews.
So what has happened since the 2010 evaluation?
“There has been a toxic environment that has permeated this town since November which has made it difficult to move forward,” Klimm said.
In recent months, the council has been bitterly divided over leadership, personnel and open meeting law matters. We won’t get into all the details here, but most of the rancor has been the result of petty politics and personal vendettas.
Beyond the general description of a foul political atmosphere, there has been little explanation to the voters about why Klimm was ousted.
And that is a violation of the public trust that the voters should not tolerate. Klimm should remain on the job until after the November elections, when four of the six who voted against him are up for re-election. We’re confident that the voters will support Klimm, who has been one of the most professional and effective town administrators on the Cape for the past 11 years.
Cops behaving badly
Aug. 28: Drunk driving. Assault charges. Vandalism.
Although it may sound like a listing from the court report, it is instead a sad recounting of recent charges against area law enforcement personnel.
The truth is that over the past few years there has been no shortage of news stories about a member of the local police community breaking the very laws they are sworn to uphold.
One of the most disturbing aspects of this recent spate of reports is how often officers sought to use their position as a way of sidestepping responsibility. It is equally disappointing that in at least a few of these cases they were aided and abetted by other officers. This does nothing but foster the impression that police are more than willing to cover up for their own, and leads one to wonder what other incidents may have occurred about which the public knows nothing.
Amid all the headlines, it’s easy to forget that the vast majority of officers go about their day-to-day jobs with no recognition for the excellent work they do. They, obviously, do not grab the headlines for doing what is arguably one of the hardest jobs imaginable.
But if law enforcement is to retain any sense of credibility, it is imperative that those who are sworn to uphold the law are never seen as thinking they are above it.
Keep turbines in the mix
Sept. 15: It’s no secret that there are vocal constituencies in virtually every Cape town who oppose land-based wind turbines. From Falmouth to Brewster, opponents have launched scathing attacks on wind turbines. Some cite health concerns, but others seem content to use the same not-in-my-backyard logic that has thwarted countless other worthy projects, such as affordable housing, over the years.
We applaud Brewster’s possible foray into solar power, and urge other municipalities to consider joining the drive toward turning open spaces, such as our capped landfills, into fields of photovoltaic arrays. This will help provide towns with desperately needed revenue and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, all while helping the United States move toward true energy self-sufficiency.
Still, our energy future requires a multifaceted approach. The fact is that wind, when appropriately sited, remains an attractive and even vital element in a green energy portfolio that also includes geothermal and solar power. To focus exclusively on any one form of environmentally-friendly power would be as limiting and, in some ways, irresponsible as relying solely on oil or coal for all of our energy needs.
Certainly, wind turbines are not the appropriate approach for every location, but the preponderance of cloudy days on the Cape suggests that we may need more than one form of green energy to generate independence from fossil fuels.
Rolling the dice
Nov. 22: After all these years, Massachusetts has bowed to the inevitable: casino gambling.
And, given that casinos have been operating for years in both Rhode Island and Connecticut, the decision by Gov. Deval Patrick and the state Legislature to enact legislation permitting legalized gaming represents a relatively small bet.
We don’t much like the final piece of legislation, starting with the premise that three casinos and a slots parlor will be able to operate successfully in direct competition with other established venues near our borders.
The problem is that the legislation will create winners and losers, and the special treatment afforded the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe is likely to mean one or more lawsuits that could further delay a Massachusetts gaming industry that is years behind everyone else and facing an increasingly tough fight for market share.
This five-act play that has brought us gaming legislation is not yet over. The real work starts now: Creating a new industry that operates within the law to the benefit of as many in Massachusetts as possible.