On water usage, town should lead by example

I know some folks who are self-described environmentalists, yet they water their lawn during the heat of summer to keep it green.

What they do with their lawn is their business, but I find it odd that "environmentalists" would water the grass when voluntary water restrictions are in effect. Perhaps they do so because of the example set by the town; a few weeks ago, there was an industrial-sized sprinkler soaking the lawn at the Mullen-Hall School.

You'd expect the town to practice what it preaches and run the sprinkler before 7am or after 7pm. Yet, in the middle of a hot summer day there was a hose - as big as a fire hose - feeding water into a sprinkler that any 8-year old kid would just die to jump through.

But it wasn't there for the kids. There was a fence around the area with “Keep Out” signs.

Don't get me wrong - my children have, at one time or another, attended East Falmouth Elementary School, Teaticket Elementary School, Morse Pond School, Lawrence School and/or the Falmouth High School - I appreciate the need for a healthy lawn as a place for children to play. I even spend time manicuring my own lawn, and these days it's hard to find a weed in it.

However, I'm a law-and-order kind of guy and, as my wife will confirm, cheap. My water bill is exactly that - another bill - and rather than try to time my watering so I'm following the rules and conserving water, I find it easier and cheaper to just avoid watering altogether. So my grass is brown right now.

If town government is going to tell us when we should and shouldn't water our lawns, then it should be playing by the same rules and setting a positive example. One of the biggest problems with government - at all levels - is that it seems to think it's exempt from the laws and regulations we have to follow. This inspires no confidence in government and encourages the rest of us to bend the rules.


(This editorial was featured in the Thursday, August 16, 2007 edition of the Falmouth Bulletin)