Editor:

I would like to offer my support to the Red River Valley Preserve application, as I believe the tangible benefits of this project far outweigh any potential negative effects to the community. I have been a part-time resident since the early 1960s and a full time resident since 1998. As such, I have witnessed changes to our landscapes and habitat loss that is nothing less than frightening. 

As an abutter to the largest Harwich Conservation Trust (HCT) property, the Robert F. Smith Cold Brook Preserve, I can speak from experience about dealing with change in my backyard surroundings and with interacting with HCT personnel. The thought of change was initially unsettling and my wife and I had some concerns. The resulting startling beauty, as a result of this change, speaks for itself and we’re happy to be neighbors of forever conservation land.

I believe that similar beneficial results will occur on the Red River Valley Preserve property. While dissimilar in terms of size and scope to Cold Brook, the result of preserving a critical habitat that was all but set for destruction into commercial development or a big subdivision will be spectacular and will be a generational change. It will be forward thinking to create a Learning Center for future generations and stimulate the minds of our future land stewards and environmentalists. I cannot imagine a more community supportive outcome.

The vast majority of reconstruction appears to be occurring along the Route 28 corridor, which can hardly be considered a bucolic setting at this point in time. It seems to me that any disruption to neighbors and their property would be scant, if anything at all. While some abutters may see their friends and neighbors enjoying a walking trail, no one will be looking into the backyards of a new subdivision. 

Protecting and stewarding the lands and waters that sustain our community and its bio-diversity is essential to our future, as well as future generations. Many of those members of the future generations will have received some education on that property and will be grateful for its existence.

Taylor A. B. Mills
Harwich Port

Editor:

I question whether opposition to apartments on small lots is truly about building size or about who gets access to our community.

Driving along Shore Road toward the lighthouse and beyond, we see beachfront cottages torn down and replaced with three-story mansions, often without the same public outcry that greets proposals for apartments.

If the concern is building height and scale, shouldn’t we apply that standard consistently? Why are mansions acceptable, while housing that could allow more people to live here faces such strong opposition?

Chatham’s character is about more than buildings. It’s also about the people who work here, the families who grew up here, and the young adults who want to stay but can no longer afford to do so.

When we oppose housing that could make our community more accessible, we must ask ourselves whether we’re preserving Chatham’s character or preserving exclusivity. We should be able to protect our town’s identity without making it accessible only to those with significant wealth.

Who gets to call Chatham home should be part of this conversation.

Nick Heaney
Chatham

Editor:

Parents send their children to the Monomoy Regional Middle School each morning on the understanding that the adults in charge are keeping the building safe. That trust has been shattered.

At the Oct. 27 Chatham Select Board meeting, the public learned the new windows are being installed in a way that invites water into the walls. Water in walls leads to rot, and it can also lead to mold. This is phase one of a project that was approved to cure exactly this problem. 

The project was sold on the failing condition of the siding and windows. Taxpayers agreed to borrow because the last window installation went wrong. Ten million dollars later we learn the replacement may be just as bad.

1. No more money should be spent on defective work. 

2. An independent engineer must be retained to assess every window, define the repair, and report back in writing.

3. An effective system of safeguards must be adopted including warranty and closeout reviews a year after completion, while there is still leverage to demand repairs.

Chatham has a pipeline of public construction ahead. This includes the COA building, the 90 Bridge St. project and the middle school roof work. Our town must do better. Defective installation made it into the middle school building. Either the existing checks did not catch the problem, or they caught it and it did not travel up the chain. 

Janine Scott
Chatham

Editor:

We have thoroughly enjoyed serving on the board of the Chatham Elementary PTO for the past three years. One of the most anticipated events of our school year is the annual Halloween Parade. Our students meet at the Chatham Community Center and march along the downtown sidewalks, proudly showing off their costumes. Along the route, their bags are filled with treats thanks to our wonderful downtown merchants, our friends at the Eldredge Public Library, and members of our local churches and community.

On behalf of the students and families of Chatham Elementary School, we want to say thank you! Thank you for generously handing out bags of candy, for showing our children that they are cherished members of this community, and for making this such a memorable tradition.

What a privilege it is to live in a town that keeps these special traditions alive.

Jennifer Coffey
Rebecca Hobek
Chatham Elementary PTO board members

Editor: 

The November midterms must mark the beginning of a devoted effort to restore American democracy — not by calls to forget and move on, but through accountability, the restoration of constitutional limits, and equal justice under law.

Reconciliation cannot substitute for justice. Anyone who violates the law must face investigation and, where evidence warrants, prosecution. Anyone responsible for unlawful killings — whether by carrying them out or criminally directing them — must be brought to justice through fair proceedings. Public office, political influence and partisan loyalty must never confer immunity.

Our national history warns against confusing national healing with the abandonment of accountability. After the Civil War, the retreat from Reconstruction resulted in the promise of equal citizenship unfulfilled and allowed white supremacist violence and rampant disenfranchisement to flourish. Richard Nixon’s pardon foreclosed a criminal prosecution and the opportunity for a full and orderly accounting. There surely were historical different times, notwithstanding, they presented the enduring question: What happens when the desire to turn the page overrides the obligation to confront wrongdoing?

We must never repeat that mistake. Accountability is not vengeance. Due process is not persecution. Enforcing and holding up the law against powerful people is not an attack of democracy; it is the foundation of democracy. “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union establish justice.”

We must demand our representatives commit to independent investigations, lawful oversight, protection of voting rights and rebuilding our institutions that serve the public rather than protect those in power. Congress may not and should not obstruct justice, nor treat its own findings as a substitute for the proceeding of independent courts.

The goal is not permanent division. It is an America in which reconciliation rests on truth, justice and credible safeguards against repetition — not impunity. 

This November, we voted to restore our Republic in which no one is above the law. Democracy will not be restored by excusing those who break it.

Mark I. Berson 
Orleans

Editor:

We appreciate The Cape Cod Chronicle's recent article by Justin Alex featuring The Companion Animal Program (CAP) on a visit to The Wingate Residences at Pleasant Bay Assisted Living in Brewster. CAP, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, is a nonprofit, charitable organization with over 100 certified therapy teams that make over 5,000 visits a year to a variety of venues and community events bringing pet therapy to Cape Codders of all ages. We always welcome potential teams to our training classes, and at this time, are especially in need of additional teams on the Lower Cape. If you have a friendly dog and enjoy bringing joy and connection to others, CAP may be the right fit for you. Learn more by visiting our website at www.companionanimalprogram.com for more information. 

Michele Granger
CAP vice president

Editor:

George Myers' letter in the Oct. 29 Chronicle, "Board Manipulated Vote," got it right. The people of Chatham voted for affordable housing, not Pennrose's large, tall, unsafe apartment projects that isolate lower income households in economically segregated projects. The state's 40B affordable housing regulations are intended to integrate lower income households into the wider community. Read "The Projects" by Howard Husock that describes the nationwide failure of public housing, including Boston's failed Columbia Point project.

Voter dissatisfaction with the Pennrose projects stems in part from disappointment that voters were ignored by town officials in a townwide survey in which voters preferred scaled-down, multi-family townhouses and single-family cottages clustered on small lots for affordable housing developments. We critics of Pennrose's projects look forward to welcoming our new neighbors in affordable housing developments that are safe, respectful of their residents' dignity and considerate of Chatham's small-town quality of life.

Rick Leavitt
West Chatham

Editor:

By the time this letter is received we may know the outcome of ballot questions 8 and 9.

These two questions go hand in hand. To stop the normalization of drug use and gun violence, I hope the majority of caring, concerned Massachusetts residents vote yes on 8 and 9. Tax and advertising revenues do not justify the risk to public safety driving high, mental health concerns and even loss of life that drug use including marijuana and access to guns have caused in our communities. We need to wake up and choose safety and sanity especially for our children and grandchildren.

Kathleen Geagan
Brewster