HomeMy WebLinkAbout20140407-NantCoastalConservancyLtr-BOSreSBPF_201404081015364671From:danneatherton@comcast.net
To:Erika Mooney
Cc:Josh Balling
Subject:LETTER TO THE BOARD OF SELECTMEN W/COPY TO I&M AS LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Date:Monday, April 07, 2014 4:12:44 PM
Attachments:NCC LttrBOS_I&M Editor.pdfATT00004..htmNCC LttrBOS_I&M Editor.docxATT00005..htmNCC-Email-Signature1.jpgATT00006..htm
TO: ERIKA AND JOSH
FROM: D. ANNE/NCC
RE: LETTER TO THE BOS
COPY: I&M/LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Attached please find a letter to the members of the Board of Selectmen from the Nantucket Coastal Conservancy.
We would appreciate it being distributed to the individual Board members, as well as the Town Manager.
By way of this communication, we are also submitting it to the Inquirer and Mirror, with the request that it be printed as a Letter to the Editor.
If both you, Erika, and Josh, would kindly acknowledge that this message and the attachments have been received and all is in order, we would appreciate it.
Best regards,
D. Anne for the NCC Coordinating Team
ATTACHMENTS (2): SAME DOCUMENT IN PDF AND WORD
PO Box 2050 · Nantucket MA 02584
April 7, 2014
The Board of Selectmen
Town of Nantucket
Nantucket MA 02554
Dear Members of the Board:
You should be aware that your partner, the Siasconset Beach Preservation Fund (SBPF), with whom you
entered into a Memorandum of Understanding, is disseminating false information.
In a lengthy email, as well as a Letter to the Editor that was printed in the paper last week, the SBPF
President says, to cite just one example: “This project is privately funded, designed and constructed to
high professional standards, and will save the Town the significant costs and engineering challenges of
relocating Baxter Road.”
In regard to the statement that the project is “constructed to high professional standards,” the reality is
quite the contrary. The applicants were issued an Enforcement Order by the Conservation Commission
citing four violations, for which SBPF took full responsibility. In addition, the construction process came
under the scrutiny of the Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) for another possible violation, for which the
ACOE has declined to provide a written finding of exoneration.
As to saving the Town money, you have been informed by Town Counsel that all of the costs related to
relocating Baxter Road — including litigation — are recoverable by betterments, a special tax levied on
the affected property owners. While there may be up-front expenses incurred by the Town for
engineering and relocating Baxter Road, these costs will eventually be paid in full by the private property
owners who are impacted, just as they did when Sheep Pond Road had to be moved.
The fact is this project has already cost the taxpayers money. During the past months, considerable staff
time has been diverted from other Town priorities. The DPW Head has called her Baxter Road work “a
second full-time job.” Other Town officials have also spent large amounts of time working on the project,
turning staff attention away from important initiatives. As stated publicly by the Town Manager, these
include implementation of the fertilizer regulations and collecting past-due sewer-fund payments. The
latter, if not collected in timely fashion, will never be recoverable.
SBPF seems to presume that their hard-armoring project’s success is pre-ordained and guaranteed, and
thus that Baxter Road will definitely not have to be relocated. This is, of course, an absurd presumption,
especially as there has been ample photographic evidence since the construction was completed that the
bluff continues to erode. Time will be the test of the geotubes: Touting their success at this point is
premature.
We support an informed public dialogue, based on facts about the merits of the geotube project, as we are
sure you do. To this end, we request that you insist that your partner do the same. Providing distorted,
incomplete or downright misleading information to citizens for public relations purposes is simply
unacceptable. While this has been going on for months, if not years, it is time for you to bring it to an end.
Sincerely,
Peter Brace
Sunny Daily
John Merson
Linda Spery
Liz Trillos
Charley Walters
Mary Wawro
COPY: Letter to the Editor, Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror