Letters To The Editor: July 11, 2024

OPC Monitors Orleans Ponds

Editor:

In reference to the article in last week’s Chronicle titled “Officials Say Alum Unrelated To Pilgrim Lake Bloom,” I’d like to add a point of clarification. The Orleans Pond Coalition (OPC) monitors selected ponds and lakes in Orleans for the risk of cyanobacteria blooms. This year OPC is monitoring six “ponds” which have been approved by our town’s select board: Crystal and Pilgrim Lakes and Boland, Cedar, Bakers, and Uncle Harvey’s Ponds. OPC board member Jamie Demas leads this program and has recruited an army of volunteers, our citizen scientists, to sample these ponds on a biweekly basis. The Association to Preserve Cape Cod (APCC) conducts the testing of our samples and alerts state and town authorities if results indicate elevated levels of cyanobacteria. This week all ponds tested were acceptable.

The cost of this program is wholly supported by OPC membership donations. We are grateful for membership support to fund this program and are also deeply thankful to all our citizen scientists for taking the time to help monitor our ponds’ health. Thank you!

You can find more information about the test results on our website, www.orleanspondcoalition.org. In addition, for those seeking more information on cyanobacteria, I refer you to last week’s Chronicle Conservation Conversations column by Kristen Andres, APCC Education Director. She wrote an excellent review on this topic.

Eric Spengler, president

Orleans Pond Coalition

Questions Reviewer’s Judgment

Editor:

The June 27 edition of The Cape Cod Chronicle printed a review of the Chatham Drama Guild’s current production “Lovers and Other Strangers.”

The reviewer claimed the play offered a “disturbing look” at “disturbing vignettes” that leaves “audiences horrified” since “this production is shocking.”

Maybe not, or not at all. It depends, for example, on whether the Christmas song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” with its “nonconsensual undertones” is too upsetting for you, as it is for this reviewer.

Anyone so easily outraged, so eager for indignation, lacks the sense and reasonable judgment necessary to write perceptively about this play or any play. A reviewer whose eyes are blurred by a simplistic and sophomoric moralism reveals more about herself than the stories on the stage.

Performances concluded on July 7, otherwise readers would be encouraged to see the play and judge for themselves. They may be delighted to realize the Chatham Drama Guild offers much more to enjoy than the cash bar.

Joseph Auciello

South Chatham

Just A Thought, Really…

Editor:

Regarding the SCOTUS decision regarding Presidential immunity, I hear great gnashing of teeth (justifiably so, I might add), but wouldn't that same decision give that same immunity to President Biden? Wouldn't preserving/protecting the U.S. Constitution be an "official act"? Maybe a way could be found to allay the fears? Just thinking.

Pete Norgeot

Orleans

Who’s In Charge Of Ballpark Parking?

Editor:

Who's in charge here? Is it the Nauset Middle School, the town of Orleans, the ball club or all of the above who have conspired to block off the fields adjacent to the paved school parking lot and post no parking signs on the roads across from the entrance to the fields?

It was July 3, folks had filtered in for the holiday weekend, and Orleans took on an unfriendly air by doing this to fans.

At the last town meeting I distinctly remember funding Nauset Schools with an override. But apparently there is no accommodation for taxpayers or guests of the town to park for ball games.

Richard Berdik

Orleans

Let’s All Be Nicer

Editor:

I was very disappointed to read in the July 4 issue of The Chronicle a letter entitled “Tired of Airport Disinformation” by Mr. Mike Geylin, vice chair of the Chatham Airport Commission. In that letter, he accuses, without evidence, that opponents to certain of the commission’s activities are promulgating “disinformation.” In contrast to his two-word parenthetical definition, disinformation is actually deliberately false information. In 40 years of home ownership in Chatham, I have never seen anyone spread disinformation — i.e. lies. In my experience, there may be conceptual or factual errors, but never outright lies.

Unfortunately, Mr. Geylin’s letter reflects an attitude too often seen among airport proponents in the struggle to reconcile the desires for convenience of air travelers with the needs of airport neighbors for peace, safety and the preservation of the Chatham environment. I suggest that Mr. Geylin and the commission try a less hostile, more collaborative approach in the future.

Erich Bender

North Chatham

House Replacement Out Of Hand

Editor:

Reading the legal notices on a weekly basis, I continue to marvel at the folks that purchase a nonconforming cottage property and then come before the town with proposals to demolish said charming cottage and build a new structure that is even more nonconforming in size and setbacks, etc. than the one they knowingly purchased in the first place.

Maybe it is time for Chatham to begin to say no, “you knew what you were buying, live in it as-is and keep Chatham’s character in place.”

Charles Wibel

Orleans

Credit For Juneteenth Celebration

Editor:

The Juneteenth celebration held at Drummer’s Boy Park was a wonderful event for community members and visitors to the Cape. I enjoyed the coverage of the event in The Chronicle but would like to make one correction to your reporting. While the MLK Action Team were enthusiastic participants at the festival, we did not, as reported in The Chronicle, help to "organize the Brewster celebration.” The full credit and thanks for that work rightly belongs to the members of the organizing committee from the Brewster Ladies’ Library and the council of aging with support from Brewster town officials. I wish that I knew all of their names to publicly thank them but, unfortunately, I do not. The one organizer I do know by name is Brittany Taylor from the Ladies’ Library, who graciously invited the MLK Action Team to participate in their event when I reached out to her. I hope that she will pass along our thanks to her fellow Juneteenth organizers.

Karen Boujoukos, chair

MLK Action Team

Many Contributed To Fantastic Fireworks

Editor:

It was fantastic to see an estimated 8,000 people at Veterans Field on July 2 enjoying our third annual summer fireworks and entertainment event. The weather was perfect, the Jeff Lowe Band's music set was appreciated by young and old alike, the face painting and glitter tattoo artists were a hit with the kids, and the fireworks display provided an incredible finale to the evening.

The Chatham Athletic Association and Chatham Anglers baseball would like to thank the following businesses for their financial support, support that allowed us to put together this wonderful evening. Gold Level: Chatham Bars Inn, Chatham Clothing Bar, Chatham Cookware; Silver Level: Chatham Chamber of Commerce and Merchants Association, Chatham Hardware, Chatham Jewelers, Mahi Gold, Minglewood Homes, Wayside Inn/Greyfinch Inn; Bronze Level: Cape Cod 5, Life is Good Chatham, Pine Acres/Compass, and Robert Paul Properties.

And please mark your calendars: the fourth annual summer fireworks and entertainment event at Veterans Field will take place on July 2, 2025.

Steve West, president

Chatham Athletic Association

Commission Also Guilty Of Disinformation

Editor:

Airport Commissioner Mike Geylin is “tired of hearing disinformation” about proposals to cut trees around the airport. He thinks the public is ignorant about how the airport operates. Well Mike, back at ya. I’m tired of airport officials and others misinforming town officials and the public.

Commission members, its attorney and consultant repeatedly told the town it will have to pay back FAA grant funds if the town doesn’t remove the trees. At best, it comes from ignorance. At worst, an outright lie. There is no such “claw back” provision in federal law.

When the FAA conducted an audit of airport grant compliance, airport officials told the FAA the annual restaurant rent payments went to the airport. Not true. Payments go to the airport manager’s private company.

In a letter to The Chronicle, Mr. Geylin misled the public when he said the airport manager’s controversial contract in which he received all or most airport income is common among Massachusetts airports. Not true. Public records requests to all other general aviation airports revealed no such similar agreements.

It was Mr. Geylin who moved to prematurely cut off inquiries into the manager’s financial disclosure statement, preventing some commission members and the public from addressing critical conflict of interest concerns.

The Chronicle recently reported that the manager’s $35,000 annual lease payments go to the town. Not true. They go to the airport. The town gets no revenue from the airport.

Whether deliberately or through ignorance, airport officials and others routinely misinform and mislead the public. Mr. Geylin might benefit from the old adage, people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

David Bixby

West Chatham

Editor’s note: The Chatham Airport manager’s annual lease payments go into the airport revolving fund, which is a town fund administered by the airport commission.

Will Cherish Parade Honor

Editor:

Thank you so much for the honor of being the grand marshal of the Orleans July Fourth parade. I was sincerely touched by the nomination and the support of the parents, students, staff and community. It was a joy to participate in the parade on Thursday with the students from Orleans and Eastham.

It is a memory that I will cherish always. Thank you so very much.

Chuck Hollander-Essig

Eastham