Letters To The Editor: July 25, 2024

New Coalition A Cause For Hope

Editor:

I was pleased to read that the Harwich Pond Coalition is getting underway to address the issues of water quality and preserving our natural environment. It's widely known that nitrogen and phosphorus are a serious problem for local waterways. Less widely known is what organizer Ann Frechette noted, that 80 percent of the excessive nutrients going into the ponds are from septic systems. Continuing to add more outdated septic systems and increase use of the ones already in place will only exacerbate the problem. Add a rapidly growing, unregulated short-term rental market to the mix and the outlook appears even darker.

As the Cape Cod Commission's 2024 Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy report notes: The single largest contributor to the region’s GDP is real estate and rental and leasing, which accounts for more than one-fourth of the Cape's economic output. The local real estate markets, however, create less than 2 percent of employment. It's not hard to put these facts together with the increasing pollution in our local waterways and grow pessimistic. A great many people on the Cape have stakes in the local real estate and rental markets. As a full-time resident and a Harwich homeowner, I'm one of them. Some of these people don't live here, however, and many are not full-time residents. It remains to be seen whether stakeholders on Cape Cod will act collectively to prevent environmental degradation or continue to profit from it while degrading the environment and adding little in the way of employment that could allow Cape Cod to support its working families.

Pond coalitions like the one in Harwich are a hopeful sign. When Cape Cod homeowners organize to heal the environment and prevent its degradation, as stakeholders in the local real estate market, they can have a positive influence. They might offset the growing exploitation of the real estate market at the expense of our local communities, jobs that will support Cape families, and our shared ecology. This gives cause for hope.

Matthew Brown

Harwich

A Banner Year For Hydrangeas

Editor:

On behalf of the Chatham Garden Club, we would like to extend a heart-felt thank you to the private homeowners who shared their delightful gardens with Chatham residents and visitors on July 12 for the 2024 Hydrangea Festival. Of late our hydrangeas have received national coverage — but to local Cape Codders they have always been a remarkable plant to appreciate, year after year. To have generous neighbors that share their gardens and love of hydrangeas is one of many things that makes Chatham so unique. Thank you again!

Edie Hamilton

Donna Maiocca

Chatham Garden Club Hydrangea Tour Co-Chairs

Seek Plastic Alternatives

Editor:

Mary Richmond is nature’s guardian.

In her recent column she recognizes our vacation needs but is cautious of our plastic use this summer.

She simply and sincerely asks each of us to use less plastic utensils and single use water and juice bottles. We should listen to Mary.

She is right that our everyday summer beach and camping activities are built on convenience and dependent on disposable plastic items with long lifespans. But hard plastic takes almost forever to degrade.

Our summer alternatives are cloth napkins and reusable bottles which are not popular on vacation. But using less plastic is a little step to protect our ocean, ponds and lakes. And as ‘50s singer Kitty Kallen coined, “Little things mean a lot.”

Joseph E Coffey

East Orleans

Circus Takes A Village

Editor:

On behalf of the Harwich Children's Fund, we would like to thank the town of Harwich for its community spirit and team effort in helping us bring Circus Smurkis to our town. It was truly a team effort with so many wonderful people contributing their expertise and support.

Where else would you see the chief of police helping us to put circus programs together, a select board member helping out with the welcoming pizza party for the circus performers, the COA director volunteering as a homestay parent, the community director running out with water for all of the workers and volunteers so we would stay hydrated, and the fire department helping us with all of the safety protocols, or the Recreation committee chair helping us with parking details? The list goes on, but this shows us how when working respectfully together to put smiles on children's faces, we can accomplish great things.

Thank you to all of the businesses, friends, volunteers, donors, and supporters who helped us bring this magical circus to Harwich. A special thank you also goes out to Bill Galvin and the staff from the Cape Cod Chronicle and Cyndi Williams from the chamber of commerce for their help with all the advertising and photos. Thank you to Town Administrator Joe Powers, who helped us navigate through all of the department paperwork and for his major support, and Val Cote, who suggested Circus Smirkus as our big fundraiser!

Harwich Children's Fund is a non-profit organization made up of retired teachers, administrators, and community members. One hundred percent of all of our proceeds goes back into the town of Harwich to help children in need within the Monomoy Regional School District and the Harwich Recreation Department throughout the entire year.

Angelina Raneo Chilaka, president

Harwich Children's Fund

Cape Codders Set The Example

Editor:

The federal government is following in our, the Cape’s, footsteps.

Announced this week, the Biden-Harris Administration has a new goal to phase out federal procurement of single-use plastics from food service operations, events, and packaging by 2027, and from all federal operations by 2035. Hooray!

Cape residents have already taken action to reduce plastic in our fragile environment by limiting the municipal use of single-use plastic water containers of less than one gallon; individual use of single-use plastic water containers of less than one gallon; use of lighter-than-air balloons; use of single-use takeout food containers; plus reductions in use of plastic bags and straws.

Again, hooray for Cape Codders living in our precious space of ponds, woodlands, and seashore to have the sensitivity and awareness to take care of this place we call home. Let’s continue setting the example.

Patrick Otton

Harwich