Irresponsible, Part II

For those of you who don't know him, David Smith, a soft-spoken individual who writes good letters, is the Precinct 9 captain. Dave was going to put together a precinct meeting in late January, but was asked by several town officials to hold off. Apparently, some folks thought it was too early in the year. Personally, I think those individuals were afraid of the topic.

The meeting was going to, as Dave put it, "jump start the New Year," by tackling the issue of sewering Falmouth. Bradley Stumcke, President of FACES (Falmouth Associations Concerned with Estuaries and Saltponds, www.preservefalmouthbays-ponds.org/) and I were invited to offer a point/counterpoint debate.

Now before someone starts painting me as being anti-sewer or anti-environment, let me make it clear that I have no problem with sewering Falmouth. However, I was invited to face off with Mr. Stumcke because he is an unabashed supporter of sewering, whereas I take a more pragmatic approach to the issue. While there are sound environmental reasons for sewering, the price tag raises a lot of questions. According to one estimate, sewering Falmouth will cost $500 million - half-a-billion dollars.

Fred Salvucci, the former Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation, once said, “You can win an election 51-49. You cannot get a large public works project underway with a 51-49 constituency. You need to have well over 90 percent of the public really with you, because there are so many procedural points where a project can be stopped that if any significant constituency at all feels offended and has a particular problem with a project, chances are they'll be able to stop it...”

That is at the root of the New Silver Beach controversy, which happens to be a sewering issue. Falmouth town officials goofed when they didn't get everyone on board. While it may be too late to change the plan now - that neighborhood desperately needs a solution to its septic problem - the question of financing still remains. Because some constituents had a problem with the project, the costs have spiraled out of control and now taxpayers are being asked to hold the bag - again.

At the town election in May, you will vote on a proposed tax override that will have taxpayers pay 30 percent - $3.7 million - of the New Silver Beach septic plant. However, this override failed to pass once before, and that was when we were going to pay far less. If there is a full and open debate about the costs and benefits of public funding of this project, the override may fail again. I'm speculating, but this may be why those town officials - who support the override - asked Dave to postpone the precinct meeting.

Town government has a responsibility to make sure that the public is fully informed and knows all of the issues, options, costs and benefits, no matter how ugly the truth and/or consequences might be. Anything less is, well, irresponsible.