Citizen taxpayer Elaine Gibbs has followed up her electrifying memo to the selectmen with a equally startling memo to the Finance Committee. The more she digs, the more incredible information she is finding, stuff nobody knew except those on the inside. As she says, town officials should have been getting this kind of information out. Busy taxpayers with other things to do shouldn't have to make a career of finding out what their public officials are up to but don't want to say.

It's absolutely remarkable how little has been said in public about the centralized sewer by town officials since early last year. Silence has largely reigned. Is that because town officials just wanted sleeping dogs to keep sleeping? Just asking. When CCT proposed that vastly less costly alternatives be evaluated, town officials did leap to the ramparts, not to agree, but to kill the idea.

Here's Elaine Gibbs' Memo to the Finance Committee.

Gibbs Finance Jan 28 2010-Final.pdf

Here's her earlier Memo to the Board of Selectmen in case you missed it.

There will finally be a hearing on the sewer plan on Tuesday, February 23rd. We have to make sure the public has an extensive opportunity to comment and ask questions and it isn't just another effort to squelch debate.

This sewer plan, which will cost a half billion dollars, more or less, is staggering in its implications for Chatham's way of life for the next 20 years.

Every citizen who can find the time should read through the plan. Dr. Duncanson has stated that Stearns & Wheler is obliged to provide every citizen of Chatham who requests it a free copy. Call Stearns & Wheler to have your copy sent to you. The Hyannis office is 508-790-1707.

What's fascinating about this document is that it is supposedly Chatham's official Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan, but it's got Stearns & Wheler's copyright notice on the cover and every page has Stearns & Wheler's name at the bottom.

Did town officials just rubberstamp what Stearns & Wheler drafted? Stearns & Wheler does big city sewers. That's their businesss, good luck to them.

But Chatham should always be looking for the most cost-effective solution to a problem, but why do we wonder if that was done in this case?

Every other town that's actively working on the problem of excess nitrogen in coastal pwaters -- Falmouth, Mashpee and Orleans -- is looking for a cost effective way to deal with the problem, rejecting the centralized sewer solution as way too expensive for homeowners. Who thinks Chatham is so rich it needn't do what they are doing? It isn't the Chatham taxpayers who pay the bills.