Editor:

On behalf of the Creative Arts Center, I would like to thank all who made the 53rd Festival of the Arts a big success! An event of this scale has a lot of moving parts and so many dedicated people behind it. We greatly appreciate our generous donors, particularly the Cape Cod Five and the Chatham Rotary Club, who awarded us grant money. We are grateful for our amazing volunteers who keep things running smoothly. Thanks to Steve Wardle and Beth Stein for thoughtfully judging the show. Thanks to Margaret McIntire for engaging children in art in the Children’s Tent. Thanks to our porters for providing some muscle and our food trucks for offering great food. We appreciate our police detail from the Chatham Police Department and our shuttle bus drivers. Many thanks to the Chatham Drama Guild for providing parking. Thanks to The Chronicle for your great coverage of our event. Our thanks to the Chatham Park and Recreation Department and the town of Chatham for supporting this wonderful event year after year. There would not be a festival without the talented and hard-working artists who work tirelessly all year to pull this off. We celebrate you! Likewise, it wouldn’t be successful without the many patrons who happily pour in from all over the world. Big kudos to Todd French, our festival coordinator, and Kaitlyn Rice, our associate director, who work their magic to make this such a big hit! Same time next year for the 54th!

Amy Middleton, executive director

Creative Arts Center

Editor:

The safety concern is real! With a growing summer population the roadways in Chatham have become very hazardous. Bay View, Forest Beach, Pleasant Street, Harding’s Beach Road and others have become more widely used as parking lots for landscapers and residents, bike routes for cyclists, and walking paths for pets and families. With some areas worse than others, it has been nearly impossible for motorists to use the roads. Residents often chose to park in the middle of the road rather than their own driveways. Landscapers park in the middle of the road rather than in their customers’ empty driveways. Walkers, sometimes four abreast, refuse to move for motorists. Add in new state law to provide four feet to cyclists, what are our roads for?

Some neighborhoods in South Chatham have posted numerous signs to be cautious while driving. But I believe it is time to install sidewalks in these congested neighborhoods and for police to stop allowing landscapers and residents to block entire lanes of the road. Sooner or later someone will be hurt, with children often emerging from behind a landscape trailer, or first responders unable to pass in between cars parked in front of houses. This is a major problem and the town must respond. Instead of putting up signs to drive carefully, these same residents should be advocating for sidewalks, adequate lighting, and parking vehicles in their empty driveways. Of course there are times people may need to park or the road but to use our roads for everyday parking is unnecessary. We have a bike path for cyclists, beaches and walking trails for walking and pets, and driveways for parking and workers.

Millie Henderson

Medford, Mass.

Editor:

We the People of Cape Cod, in Order to form a more perfect environment, establish justice for clean ponds, insure domestic tranquility with habitable woodlands, promote the general welfare of restored pristine shorelines, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and wish to state:

You came here from there because you like here better than there, but you are trying to make here just like there, which is not good for here. Please keep here as here without changing it to there.

Patrick Otton

Harwich

Editor:

At Chatham’s annual meeting I stood in opposition to asking for $11 million to perform waterfront work. I had stated that seven years previous the town had authorized $11 million to complete certain projects which they didn’t complete. The town was now asking for another $11 million, which was turned down. The town in all its wisdom decided that they would now tear up 90 Bridge St. so no one could use it and hold it hostage for the money that was wasted on other projects. Now it’s an emergency and we need a $23,000 special meeting. This time they only want $4 million to complete a project that the town had already paid for and is seven years late. Next the town will ask for more to complete/start other projects that have been approved but never done. Perhaps another special meeting! The town wants to put the historic Coast Guard maintenance building on this site and published a rendering at the spring town meeting. The size of the building was grossly altered to make it look smaller than it actually is. I am surprised that the Friends of the Mitchell River Bridge have not spoken in opposition. Perhaps they have disbanded or have been taken in by the rendering of the building. I was not in opposition to the shellfish project being installed at 90 Bridge St. I voted for it seven years ago. Seven years ago there were a lot more people actually making a living shellfishing. Back then it was a priority, not so much an emergency now. I would like the town to use the money it has now to finish the projects we the people of Chatham paid for and voted for seven years ago. It should not cost us (taxpayers) more now because we did not do the job we already paid for.

Also the town should implement the reasons for special town meetings. Anything besides a dire emergency should not be allowed, and if allowed the party wanting the special meeting should bear the costs.

John Heuther 

Chatham

Editor:

At the Sept. 16 Chatham Special Town Meeting, I urge all voters to vote yes for 90 Bridge St.

Many town committees as well as town staff and consultants have spent several years fine tuning this project to maximize its potential for all users and to seek outside sources of funding. The shellfish upweller is of critical importance to the town, not just to the commercial shellfishermen, but to other fishermen who rely on shellfishing to supplement their income and to 3,000-plus families of year-round and summer residents who hold shellfish permits.

The USCG boathouse is a welcome historic component which the town should seize upon. We lost the Life Saving Station on the Outer Beach to the National Park Service in Provincetown. We lost the CG36500 to the Orleans Historical Society. We've seen our own Station Chatham downgraded twice from a surf station. Let's not lose this boathouse!

This project is key to preserving and enhancing Chatham's blue economy.

I write on my own behalf with an 85-year, life-long attachment to Chatham, as well as a member and past chair of the South Coastal Harbor Plan Committee.

Michael Westgate

Chatham

Editor:

If ever an organization required a thorough audit, it is the Massachusetts Legislature. Passage of Question 1 on the November ballot will lead to such a review by the State Auditor Diane DiZiglio.

As pointed out in my recent letter in The Chronicle, certain senior legislators routinely treat donated campaign funds as personal slush funds. Now the press has discovered that nearly three out of four legislators are designated "leaders" and thus receive annual stipends, some of nearly $41,000 as chairs or vice-chairs of committees. Of the 160 House members, 109 are reported to receive leadership pay. Even more startlingly, it is reported that every one of the 40 Senate members also receive leadership pay. These stipends, doled out by Senate President Spilka and House Speaker Mariano, said by some to ensure loyalty, reportedly totaled $4.2 million in 2023. What renders this even more unconscionable is that of these payments to committee chairs and vice-chairs, 12 committees have not even met nor considered a single piece of legislation during this session.

Without the shining of light through an audit by an outside elected 

A vote "yes" on Question 1 this November will ensure that a long overdue light will be shed upon our Legislature, hopefully even leading to more productive sessions in the future.

Ralph W. Smith

Harwich Port

Editor:

Having recently moved within Chatham, we were fascinated with the garden established by the previous owners as it revealed itself to us this past springtime. From masses of forsythias to clouds of multi-colored hydrangeas, we watched throughout the passage of the season as a wide variety of shrubs and bushes put on a breathtaking display of blooms and berries. It seemed that something new and wondrous blossomed every week, including plants we had never before seen. (Yup — there's an app for that!)

Along with the foliage came a range of pollinators — insects buzzed or fluttered continuously providing an opportunity to continue the cycle of life. Some of those insects seemed to hum a greeting to us as we strolled the garden.

And the birds. The range of sizes, hummingbirds to wild turkeys, and colors — red, yellow, blue, and subtle shades of browns and grays — and songs sung from the earliest rose of dawn through the deep cobalt of dusk!

Nature at her finest and wisest! And our hearts are full of gratitude for diversity in all its forms. Humanity is nature's highest expression of creation. Would anyone prefer just one color of flower, one species of bird, one buzzy/busy little bee, one flavor of food or one type of person? Why would anyone have the hubris to assume that one was a preferred representation of humanity? Nature reveals herself in rich perfection along an expansive glorious continuum, all of it breathtaking, wondrous, and worthy of our gratitude, respect, and awe.

Maria C. Mazzer

Chatham

Editor:

This is in response to the letter from Anne Moore in a recent edition.

 I am wondering what the impressive accomplishments are of President Biden and Harris that she mentioned. I was wondering if I missed any of the impressive accomplishments. The ones I am aware of are historic inflation, record high gas prices, record high consumer debt, the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, rise in violent crime, massive amounts of taxpayers’ dollars given to Ukraine, their willingness to allow millions of illegals (and unknown numbers of terrorists) into our country because of the open border situation, record high numbers of drugs being distributed across the border, or my personal favorite, lying to the American public about the president’s decline, and Ms. Harris playing along with it. Her statement about Project 2025 is incorrect. Trump has repeatedly denied any involvement with it. It’s interesting when one’s hatred for a man takes over for common sense. I would urge the low-information voters to check these facts.

Ed Mallowes

Chatham

Editor:

The editorial in the Aug. 22 Chronicle was a good reminder that the residents of Chatham can make a decision on Sept. 16 on the outcome of the 90 Bridge St. project.

With the Bridge Street project now being decided on a stand-alone basis, it appears that funding the completion of the project is a good idea. However, I think I speak for many residents who would benefit from a simple but comprehensive summary of the project costs and benefits. Many facts (and opinions) have been shared over the past months and more will be shared at the meeting on Sept. 16. But a thorough summary of important facts before the town meeting would be especially helpful:

Who are the "sponsors" of the Bridge Street project? Our select board? The town manager? Both? Is the sponsorship unanimous?

How much has already been spent on the project? How exactly will the additional funds ($2.4 million already approved and $4 million proposed) be allocated and spent? Over what timeframe?

What is the current and proposed annual operating budget for the upweller? How are those costs funded today? What function does the upweller perform and how does that functionality specifically benefit commercial and resident clamming activities? Do members of the commercial clamming community contribute to any of the funding required to operate the upweller?

How old is the existing upweller and what is the expected life span of the proposed new upweller? Are the power outage or oil spill risks that have been associated with the existing upweller unique to Chatham or are those common risks for any similar facility?

What infrastructure will be built for the use of resident boaters?

My family and I do our boating, fishing and clamming in Chatham. We also want commercial users to thrive. The privilege of living here comes with the responsibility of supporting the town's infrastructure needs. Hopefully all voters can get a deeper understanding of the project facts prior to the special meeting on Sept. 16. 

Bob Mudge

Chatham