Alliance Report 2015

 

Now well into November, the Village has quieted considerably from the noisy summer - at least during the dark hours. Daytime, the streets are still busy, but now with landscapers, builders, and all the heavy equipment that it takes to renovate the few historic homes left.

 

The Alliance for Preservation and Conservation has managed a number of meetings over the past year, between the winter paralysis of snow, and the summer paralysis of traffic. The Alliance, you may recall, provides a forum for the exchange of information between and among the various non-profit citizen organizations in Chatham devoted to matters of preservation and conservation. In effect the Alliance serves as an education and communication forum. It does not advocate for preservation and conservation beyond this. The small number of mostly aging year-round Chatham residents are no match for the powerful moneyed interests that now call the shots on virtually all matters relating to the look and feel of the Town. 

 

Within its narrow boundaries, the Alliance, under the able leadership of the indefatigable Gloria Freeman, has offered a number of interesting and revealing programs to those who stay behind in Chatham to attend. Here is a very brief chronological synopsis covering the period since my last report a year ago:

 

November 2014 - Meeting not held due to cancellation by speaker. 

 

December 2014 and January 2015 - Meetings not scheduled on account of the holidays.

 

January 2015 - A special, unofficial meeting of the Alliance was held, just before the storms came, in response to a request from residents of Stage Harbor Road who wished for guidance in setting up a neighborhood association. To my ears, this was one of the most revealing meetings of the year. The up-shot was that in Chatham neighborhood associations are exceedingly difficult to set up, and once established, of very questionable effectiveness at preserving historic buildings and streetscapes. In this town, renovation (development) masquerading as preservation rules.   

 

February and March 2015 - Meetings cancelled on account of snow.

 

April 2015 - A presentation by Pleasant Bay Community Boating concerning their enthusiastic (and successful) fundraising efforts for the purchase of the McClennen Estate on Pleasant Bay as a permanent home for their program.

 

May 2015 - A q & a session with the two new Board of Selectmen candidates, Cory J. Metters and Dean P. Nicastro, running unopposed. Both came across as reasonable, sincere and experienced.

 

June 2015 - A power point presentation by Kristin Andres, Town Conservation Officer, on "Coastal Processes: Public interests served by preserving the natural shoreline functions." Very effective during her time in Chatham, Kristin has now left the service of the Town.

Sunset Over Mill Pond 2                                                 E. Joan Horrocks 2015

 

July and August 2015 - Meetings not held during the summer months. 

 

September 2015 - Carol Pacun, a founding member of both the Alliance and the OVA, reviewed the beginnings of the Alliance. She read the original mission statement, admitting that it was rather ambitious, even 15 years ago. The original goal was to bring together local business people and preservationists to seek common solutions to the Town's problems. It was noted that the Town is now fast approaching a tipping point between preservation and over-development.   

 

October 2015 - Tim Wood, reporter/editor of the Cape Cod Chronicle for 30 years, shared insights on the changes he's witnessed in Chatham over that period. Most illuminating was the tightrope he must walk between business interests and preservationists to provide fair, even-handed reporting - he is surely a member of a vanishing breed. 

 

OVA Representative to the Alliance

After the Summer Comes the Fall  

 

Summer in the Old Village requires all our energy and attention. In the early morning, the sun slides forth from the horizon over North Beach welcoming us to another near perfect day. Neighbors stream out of newly opened houses, pausing to gossip with friends or pull a few weeds from the garden. Sun worshipers and children of all ages relax on our beaches, or climb on boats to cruise Chatham's waters. If this is not enough to occupy our thoughts, just a moment away, Main Street becomes impassable with bumper to bumper cars, a lack of parking spaces and visitors on foot who do not seem to understand that walking out into traffic is not a wonderful idea. Our life is replete with fun and friendship... and time-consuming battles with overwhelming crowds.

Autumn Beauty                    E. Joan Horrocks 2015

 
Then suddenly - almost without warning - everything stills. Most Old Village houses now are dark, our daily chores accomplished quickly. We walk alone on empty beaches, with time to think about ourselves and the world beyond our borders. This November, our sense of well-being has been jolted by the violence in Paris and the endless masses of emigrants who are running from a reality which is both frightening and incomprehensible. While we are grateful that we live in a small town miles away from danger, mixed thoughts about the suffering of others and our own good fortune are troublesome.

 

Indeed, with much of the world in chaos, how can we be so petty as to worry about what sidewalks need to be replaced, when the bridge will be finished, or who owns a piece of ocean off Monomoy. Shouldn't we.... shouldn't we what?   The problems seem so overwhelming that we are at a loss on how to respond. However, what we can do here in Chatham is to reaffirm the importance of our nation's democratic principles by working together, with reason and fairness, to make our town as good as it can be for all our citizens and for the environment. In Great Britain during World War II, citizens were urged to "keep calm and carry on." Perhaps, at least for now, we should try to follow that advice.       

Carol Pacun 

The Old Mail Route

Fall has been beautiful in the Old Village and the warm days have been ideal for someone who likes to walk. I enjoy walking and particularly in the Old Village. And now that Nancy and I have a little dog, I have even more reasons to walk around. I say often that Monomoy, our year and a half old Jack Russell, wants to see all the streets of Chatham and that I am just following along. That statement may be a stretch of the truth. But, walk we do, and walking this fall has been just terrific.

 

I had the good fortune of walking the streets of the Old Village starting when I was a college student.   We lived

View on Main Street from 1916 courtesy N. Koerner

on Holway Street and just around the corner on Hallett Lane lived Harold Tuttle, who was the Assistant Postmaster in Chatham. Harold or "Tut" was an old Chatham High School friend of my mother's and he was in charge of hiring the summer substitutes for the Chatham Post Office. Those were the days of the walking mailman and all the mail was put out in the blue mail boxes that were found all over town. At the Post Office, the mailman arranged the mail according to how he or she walked the route. The first section was put in the leather bag for delivery. The next two or three sections were wrapped in a leather strap and driven to the mail boxes along the route. The walking mailman had a key and picked up the "relays" as he went along. There was a relay at the Mayflower and one at the corner of Main Street and Shore Road and one more by the Lighthouse parking lot.

The mail was very heavy in those days. No emails existed and magazines and catalogs were very popular. Eugene Love was the mailman for the Old Village and Gene had some minor heart ailment. It was decided that it was best that a summer "sub" walk the route during the heaviest periods of mail. So Gene worked inside the Post Office and I got to walk Route 2 which started at the Epicure and went all through the Old Village and ended at the Beach Club. Some houses had mail boxes by the street and some had mail containers attached to the house. My first day, I was quite slow arranging the mail, so when I started at the Epicure and worked my way east, I walked as fast as I could, taking every short cut through back yards. I didn't stop to talk with anyone for fear I would arrive back late. Well, I arrived back at the Post Office an hour early and was immediately ushered into the Post Master's Office. Tut asked how I got back so soon and I explained what I had done. He laughed and said that the short cuts through back yards were off limits and certainly unnecessary and that in the future I was to arrive back at the proper time. I learned about proper delivery that day and enjoyed walking Route 2 for the next three summers. A little after Labor Day, the mail lightened up, and Gene Love resumed his normal duties and I went back to college.

Chatham Light with view of the Beach Club               courtesy N. Koerner

It was a terrific summer job. I loved walking and I met lots of friends along the way.   Gladys Atwood, at the Atwood's Grocery Store on Main Street, was a very special friend . I would always go in for a short visit and often she would give me some grapes or cherries from their fruit department to eat along the way. I met Bob Ridgely who lives now on Silverleaf Avenue. He was the manager at Mark, Fore and Strike. He and I hit it off right away and he has been a close friend ever since. And at the end of my route, I met Vito Sammartano who was the manager at the Beach Club. Mr. Sam or Vito was a wonderful character and he would give me a Coke and we would sit on the benches overlooking the tennis courts and settle all the problems of the world. For those of you who knew Vito, you know how special those times were for me.

So now when Monomoy and I walk around the Old Village, I remember some of the fun times and great people I knew, and some I still know. Yes, the Old Village has changed in 50 years, but a lot of it remains the same. I credit The Old Village Association for their effort to preserve a beautiful and historic part of Chatham.

John Whelan

Most Skiff Owners Cooperating With New Town Regulations

A year ago, new regulations were instituted requiring all dinghies, prams and tenders used to access moored vessels to display a decal issued by the Chatham Harbormaster, on the port side inside of the transom. The decal must clearly indicate ownership and contact information of the watercraft.

As a condition of each mooring permit, no one is permitted to store their dinghy, pram or tender on town owned property after November 30th or before April 15th of each year, unless the dinghy, pram or tender is in active use by the owner/permit holder. Failure to remove the vessel from town property by those dates will result in being removed, fined or both. Any removal will be at the owner's expense. The two photos below of the Water Street town landing show a big improvement from a year ago, in that almost all skiffs have been removed.

November 30, 2014

November 30, 2015

November 30, 2015

Another photo taken facing south, looking toward the landing, shows that a number of skiffs remain on private property. Most of them have no indication of ownership or contact information. If any of these should break loose in an extreme weather event, the Harbormaster will have no way of returning them to the rightful owner once they're retrieved.

The best option would be for owners to remove their skiffs from the beach prior to the onset of winter weather.

Debbie Aikman

 

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