Tim Roper has won and was installed this morning as the newest Chatham selectman.

Let's hope that a new era of openness, civility and concern for taxpayers is about to begin.

The chronic overspending of town officials has to be reined in.

At last, the truth about the Town Manager's hugely expensive Big City Sewer project and its costs to taxpayers will come out.

It's not too late to downsize to solutions which can clean up Chatham's coastal waters at far less cost, with far less community disruption and in a way that the EPA and national environmental organizations agree is better for the environment. We should listen to what the EPA and national environmental organizations say, not Big City Sewer promoters like Stearns & Wheler, which grow rich on centralized sewers.

A centralized sewer for Chatham is a too expensive White Elephant inappropriate an unnecessary for a small, semi-rural town like Chatham.

And it's not too early to start working on fiscal 2012 spending. The idea that overrides are inevitable in fiscal 2012 must be rejected.

Chatham taxpayers took the first step at town meeting this past Monday by rejecting the Town Manager's plea for more taxes. The second step has now been taken, electing a selectman dedicated to fiscal restraint. The march to fiscal discipline has begun.