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Cape Cod Living

July 28, 2010
8:24
This great weather just won't quit
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: July 28th, 2010, 8:24am EDT
It's been a little difficult to get all fired up about politics in this weather. It is just so damn perfect. I got a little break from work and I've been hanging out at the house, putzing around in the garden and swimming two or three times a day. Last night we were on Long Beach around sunset. We floated in the water like lobster buoys until dark. The weather is just so damn perfect. The papers are full of good news about the economy. The tourists are back and they are spending. The last...
July 21, 2010
7:22
Water, Water, everywhere, and not a drop of common sense.
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: July 21st, 2010, 7:22am EDT
The boil water notice in Barnstable Village is front page news. There's a picture of folks picking up crate of free bottled water on the front page. In Hyannis, we've been drinking bottled water every day since the town acquired the Barnstable Water Company five years ago. Our water is undrinkable due to excessive chlorination and a soup of chemical additives intended to limit erosion in our largely asbestos/concrete pipe distribution system. The fee structure for drinking water in Hyannis...
July 11, 2010
8:01
Barnstable Sewer Financing - The Greatest Show on Sand
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: July 11th, 2010, 8:01am EDT
A few years back then-Assistant Town Manager Paul Niedzwiecki procliamed that Barnstable's wastewater financing would require "numbers of biblical proportions." This week we'll see, if Moses can part a sea of red ink. The long awaited sewer financing plan is up for a vote at the July 15 town council meeting in the Knight Lecture Hall at Barnstable High School. The plan is so complicated - and convoluted - that the local papers have had difficultly reporting on the details. Much to my surprise...
June 29, 2010
7:41
What's with the baseball bats?
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: June 29th, 2010, 7:41am EDT
It's hilarious to watch all the would-be fiscal conservatives parading around Hyannis these days. Carrying a baseball bat at a sparsely attended fundraiser makes for good political drama, but can any one of you actually point to a single successful vote by any politician of any strip which actually lowered the cost of government on any level? I can't. I can't point to a single piece of legislation which lowered the cost of living or the cost of doing business in Massachusetts in recent...
June 23, 2010
6:45
Hey brother, can you spare 28 cents or more?
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: June 23rd, 2010, 6:45am EDT
Shall the Town of Barnstable be allowed to assess an additional $3,750,000 in real estate and personal property taxes for the purposes of funding the sewer system stabilization fund ($750,000) and for the purposes of funding the private road stabilization fund ($3,000,000) for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2010?The Barnstable Town Council will be conidering sewer and road financing at their July 15th meeting. Thanks to the Patriot for posting this late file to their website. See:...
June 22, 2010
7:55
Psycho blogger plays with turtles
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: June 22nd, 2010, 7:55am EDT
It looks like Loopy Lopez is on the war path again. In a recent post, Mr. Lopez calls me a snob because he doesn't want a homeless shelter in HIS swanky neighborhood. If I recall, he'd rather box turtles to affordable homes in Centerville. This is the problem with Hyannis. We have whackos like Centerville resident Gary Lopez telling us what's good for our village. Chief MacDonald specifically said "that the Noah Shelter for the homeless on Winter Street in Hyannis 'in its current format...
June 17, 2010
18:48
If it was an ark, we could cut the lines and push it out to sea
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: June 17th, 2010, 6:48pm EDT
I've avoided any discussion of the Noah Shelter and the efforts of the Main Street Initiative on Homelessness for the very simple reason that I don't consider Deb Krau, Deborah Converse,and Sue Rohrbach to be like minded souls. I doubt their best intentions. None-the-less, I agree with Chief MacDonald who reportedly said "that the Noah Shelter for the homeless on Winter Street in Hyannis 'in its current format should be closed.'" Rick Presbrey reportedly responded to the Chief by saying...
June 06, 2010
7:58
Bob Ciolek's pipe dream
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: June 6th, 2010, 7:58am EDT
Bob Ciolek wrote yesterday to correct "misinformation" published by my dog on this blog. Mr. MWRA wrote:Eric: I read your blog today and saw that I was mentioned several times. It is important, Eric, to publish correct information when it is attributed to someone. 1.Contrary to your assertion, I have never expressed or wrote with respect to my thoughts on central sewers versus alternative forms of treatment. To the extent I have spoken it was to simply raise questions about each treatment...
May 21, 2010
6:54
So it goes (again)
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: May 21st, 2010, 6:54am EDT
It was difficult to hear the din of tax equity under the roar of Clean Power Now last night at Town Council. One last Creeker made her stand and was ignored. Mark Ells and Greg Milne were heard extolling the aesthetics of an object which will become ever present in our lives - the mechanical pump station. No end to the lawsuits against Cape Wind, no natural attenuation, and no accuracy in our annul property tax bills. I'm not sure who lost last night. I think it was everyone. Thanks to the...
May 19, 2010
18:15
Citizen Advisory Committee marches toward foregone conclusion
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: May 19th, 2010, 6:15pm EDT
What are you gonna do? I mentioned the other day that the Barnstable Citizens Advisory Committee on Comprehensive Wastewater Planning has posted their minutes and video to a page on the town website. I made the request for more documentation from this committee a few weeks again and after a little wrangling a dozen of so files were posted. See: [town.barnstable.ma.us] If you wish to observe a lesson in futility, check it out. At one meeting, Oliver...
May 16, 2010
9:51
Barnstable Sewers - Override this
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: May 16th, 2010, 9:51am EDT
I got my paws on a big 'ol stack of paper from Don Grisson this week including DRAFT minutes and a couple of handouts from the Town Council Sewer Subcommittee. The town does a good job of preparing very elaborate spreadsheets. It's a shame that they have not learned to email these, so that I can share them with you. The GOOD NEWS is that months of political wrangling has put the issue of 100% betterments to bed. The sub-committee has advanced to the full Town Council two proposals which...
May 14, 2010
6:45
For what it's worth
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: May 14th, 2010, 6:45am EDT
The Barnstable Patriot was kind enough to publish this letter to the editor: Avoid wasteful wastewater management I'd like to express my frustration with the craven political calculus on display at the recent Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) on Nutrient Management. I agree with the Town Manager's recent initiative to link the cost of sewer line expansions with road repair. After all, you have to fix the roads after you tear them up to run your lines. But, the recent emphasis on removing...
May 10, 2010
21:18
Silent Spring (Breast Cancer + Water Quality) = $265 million Sewer Override
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: May 10th, 2010, 9:18pm EDT
It is difficult not to be cynical about the craven political calculus of Barnstable Town Hall. After years of ignoring the concerns of Hyannis water users, John Klimm has embraced the issue of water quality. Silent Spring will be releasing a new study on the occurrence of PPCPs in Cape Cod water supply wells this Wednesday on the steps of Barnstable Town Hall. Here's the press release:Silent Spring Institute Researching the Environment and Women's Health 29 Crafts Street, Newton, MA...
May 09, 2010
9:00
George Heufelder's funny farm
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: May 9th, 2010, 9:00am EDT
Why are we not considering I/A technologies as part of a Cape-wide wastewater plan? Every time we try to promote a discussion of innovative and alternative wastewater technologies on the Cape, the results of George Heufelder's funny farm get tossed at us. They say, "You see, those widgets of yours don't work." The funny farm in question is the Massachusetts Alternative Septic System Test Center in Sandwich, Massachusetts managed by the Barnstable County Department of Health and...
May 06, 2010
21:42
Lake Wequaquet sewer expansion to proceed in FY 2012
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: May 6th, 2010, 9:42pm EDT
Those of you who were expecting manna from heaven to cover your betterment costs in Stewart's Creek had best take a look to the town's FY 2011 Capital Budget and FY 2011 – FY 2015 Capital Improvement Plan. See: [www.town.barnstable.ma.us] There is no mention of the $1.5 million needed to reduce betterments for the Creekers. And, there is a little surprise in there for the residents of Lake Wequaquet. See page 50. PROJECT: DPW-11-04 (WASTE WATER)...
7:55
Does anyone have a clue?
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: May 6th, 2010, 7:55am EDT
A Cape Cod Living reader stopped by the other day to ask a few simple questions. I couldn't answer them. Maybe, you can. Observer wrote:Does anyone have a clue as to what is happening on the sewer funding issue in Barnstable? When will the people in the Stewart's Creek area be told what they must pay and by what method of assessment? Is there any place on the Town website where we can find the agenda and minutes of the committee created to resolve the funding issues?I've checked the...
May 03, 2010
19:49
Will you have tea with me?
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: May 3rd, 2010, 7:49pm EDT
I stumbled across a reference to Doug Bennett in the current issue of the New Yorker. Jill Lepore describing a scene at the Green Dragon Tavern, just a few steps from Faneuil Hall, wrote:Doug Bennett, a candidate for Boston City Council, was there courting voters. He fumbled in his pockets and handed me a crumpled slip of paper. On it, he had pencilled a few lines from Oliver Wendell Holmes’s 1873 “A Ballad of the Boston Tea Party,” which he recited, with feeling: No! ne’er was mingled such a...
May 02, 2010
9:52
Cape Cod Sewer: Leveling the playing field for alternative, cost-effective design
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: May 2nd, 2010, 9:52am EDT
State Rep. Matthew Patrick is causing quite a stir in the "big pipe" engineering community. Patrick is seeking to prohibit engineering firms that consult on a community's wastewater plan from participating in the design or construction of any associated projects. According to a report in the Cape Cod Times:The proposal, which Patrick introduced as an amendment to the state budget earlier this month but now plans to file as separate legislation, could help reshape the wastewater landscape on...
April 29, 2010
20:36
Cape Wind - How much will it cost?
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: April 29th, 2010, 8:36pm EDT
While the anti-Cape Wind crowd is thumping their chests and threatening all manner of lawsuits, let's take a moment to consider the impact of Cape Wind on your pocketbook. How much will it cost you to buy Cape Wind's power? I refer you to a post from May 22, 2006 entitled Cape Wind by the Numbers which includes an excerpt from Tilting at Windmills by William Koch which appeared in the Wall Street Journal. This paid editorial reportedly cost the author a cool $30,000 and is considered a...
April 28, 2010
19:49
Cape Wind: Jerry Mander is right.
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: April 28th, 2010, 7:49pm EDT
I was in a foul mood all day today. I awoke to headlines predicting the final, final approval of Cape Wind. Some dude in a cowboy hat made the announcement. When I was a kid only the good guys wore cowboy hats. More recently the only people I've seen wear them are George Bush, the aptly named "Dick" Cheney and now Ken Salazar. Why is it that all public officials from west of the Mississippi wear cowboy hats? I think we should string a line of barbed wire fence the full length of the...
6:57
Decision on today on Cape Wind
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: April 28th, 2010, 6:57am EDT
You can expect an announcement today from U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar approving the Cape Wind project. There is an off-chance that the project may be scaled back somewhat, but the project a a whole is expected to move forward. Without Delahunt and Kennedy, the opposition has all but faded. We've covered the Cape Wind controversy from time to time on this blog. I think locating a wind farm in Nantucket Sound is the worst possible choice, but it is the only choice which has advanced...
April 25, 2010
9:35
Cape Cod Water Protection Collaborative cost analysis flawed
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: April 25th, 2010, 9:35am EDT
A recently released study for the county's Cape Cod Water Protection Collaborative compares the costs of centrally located sewer systems and I/A systems that collect, treat and disperse wastewater on a neighborhood level. The 75-page report supports the contention of town officials that big pipe sewers are the most cost effective method for removing excess nitrogen from Cape waters. The report was produced by a task force of county and state officials and paid for by the pro-business...
April 19, 2010
18:25
James Munafo, Jr. faces challenger
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: April 19th, 2010, 6:25pm EDT
I sometimes get the feeling that I'm the only person who reads Mike Bailey's smart-mouth blog, Snark Infested Waters, so I'll pass on this little tidbit. The Snark-fest wrote:Another Republican is eyeballing State Representative Demetrius J. Atsalis’s (D – Barnstable) seat. Charles C. Case Jr. of Centerville, an attorney, filed his paperwork with the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance last week. This sets us up for a primary race as James F. Munafo Jr., a Barnstable town...
April 17, 2010
6:34
No Sewers - No Way - Goes Nowhere
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: April 17th, 2010, 6:34am EDT
Those of you who were expecting James Munafo, Jr. to do more than sit on his principals learned an important lesson Thursday night. Munafo is an invertebrate. You can back him into a corner and prop him up against a wall, but it's just a matter of time until he flops like a rag doll. You see, Munafo sold his spine to the Hyannis Area Chamber of Commerce. With the folding of the Munafo circus tent all organized opposition to Barnstable's sewer expansion has dissipated and Hyannis...
April 13, 2010
7:00
Who is the enemy of my enemy now?
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: April 13th, 2010, 7:00am EDT
We snuck over the bridge on Saturday to open up the "cottage" and take a tour of the many and varied construction sites which have sprung up in the neighborhood. It is amazing how many holes you can dig with borrowed money. You gotta hand it to our Town Councilor, Jim Munafo. He's sure down a bang up job of stopping the sewer expansion into our neighborhood. The GOOD NEWS is that most of my neighbors are working again. Despite a few foreclosure notices and the threat of liens for unpaid...
April 10, 2010
7:55
They believe they can
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: April 10th, 2010, 7:55am EDT
I caught the Cult of Klimm on re-run this morning. You'll have to excuse me, I'm still in shock. I'll never understand how a community which CAN NOT afford roads, libraries, or school bus rides for children CAN afford to spend thousands and thousands of dollars staging events and producing cable programming. It's dumbfounding. The good news is that Town Manager John Klimm has identified 12 new town employees who have volunteered to be trained in video production. Soon we will have have...
March 31, 2010
19:33
Can you say, Senator Crocker?
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: March 31st, 2010, 7:33pm EDT
I'm catching up on reading and found this little blurb in the Enterprise about the State Senate race to fill Sen. Robert O'Leary's vacant seat. Mike Bailey wrote in Snark-Infested Waters: "Word is that Barnstable Town Councilor James Crocker Jr. has taken out nomination papers." Speculation is running rampant as to why Jimbo advocated on behalf the Creekers at the recent "sewer" workshop. Could it be that Stewart's Creek has become such a liability that both Munafo and Crocker just want...
March 28, 2010
11:45
Shootflying, don't bother me.
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: March 28th, 2010, 11:45am EDT
Have you ever wondered why they call it Shootflying Hill Road? Shouldn't it be called Shoo-fly Road? I ask, because some of the most annoying bloggers in Barnstable live west of this road. Thankfully, sewer-mouth and the Munafools have found a new rat hole. Let's hope they stay there. After a couple of months of playing possum, I figured the coast was clear and we ventured over the bridge to catch a calm, brisk, sunny day on our beloved Cape. The roads and beaches were empty and we had an...
March 07, 2010
7:57
Will the last Democrat on the Cape, please turn off the lights
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: March 7th, 2010, 7:57am EST
Robert Isadore's statement that Cape Democrats are "up and raring to go" was quite unconvincing. How do you get excited about higher taxes, zero growth and more regulation? clash of titans wrote the other day:It sounds like O'Leary is considering a run for Delahunt's seat. It seems like this could open up the Cape state senate seat. Will Atsalis make a move to move up? This could free up a political process that has festered in gridlock for years. When O'Leary took over there seemed to be a...
February 27, 2010
7:20
And, you think we've got it bad
» ‎ Cape Cod Living

Posted: February 27th, 2010, 7:20am EST
Check out this video from Chatham's recent Board of Selectmen meeting: Barnstable residents will have their "chance" to discuss their concerns at a special Town Council meeting and workshop scheduled for Thursday, March 11th. The Town Council will be discussing a CFAC sewer financing sub-committee recommendation found here: See: CLEAN WATER CAPITAL COSTS IN BARNSTABLE The CFAC sub-committee concluded that:Given the huge cost of the program the Town of Barnstable should devise a layered...

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