Now What?

At a recent School Committee meeting a very vocal anti-pipeline person got up to speak-out against the proposed gas transmission line.

Later, during the same meeting, the same person put on his very vocal pro-pool person hat to speak in favor of getting the pool open as soon as possible.

The Superintendent, as usual, handled the situation very smoothly and said the problem was being reviewed and that they were also looking at improving energy efficiency, and possibly installing a gas heating system in the pool area.

Uh oh.

Now What?

Does he support the Superintendent's potential renovation plans which could certainly increase natural gas usage at the High School?  Or does he standby the "Gas is Bad - We're all going to be incinerated"  mantra?

Granted a 20" gas transmission line is not the same as increasing the gas flow on the feeder line to the School Pool --- but the gas in the feeder line probably made most its trip across the Country along a 20" transmission line --- which must have gone by the end of somebody's street!

So,  is the issue still just safety?

Oh look ..... something shiny!

It doesn't take much to derail local attention.  Nobody seemed concerned when approval was received several years ago to dig up the Service Road and plant a 20" gas line in the middle of it.  Nobody seemed concerned when the new gas line crossed under Route 6 and meandered to a terminal point on Route 130.  Nobody even seemed very concerned when the gas company ran some very loud and colorful tests last summer that made the intersection of Routes 6 and 130 look like the Entrance to Hell -- or at least Northern New Jersey.

But, when the Gas Company agreed to cooperate with a local government request and file plans and paperwork to move the gas line off the roadway and into the wooded buffer zone between Route 6 & The Service Road -- that's when some locals became concerned that the proposed gas line relocation would "improve their view" of Route 6. 

Unfortunately, the period to complain about aesthetics had passed -- because (not surprisingly) nobody had been paying attention.

So the new battle cry became the Fear of Incineration!

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration reports there were a total of 42 fatalities from gas transmission pipelines between 1993 and 2012.(See their report here).

But, the U.S. Census reports that almost 34,000 people were killed in traffic accidents IN 2009 ALONE.  (see their report here).

Why aren't they calling for the elimination of motor vehicles or the closing of Route 6 ?

We have seen Selectmen's meetings and, most recently, a School Committee meeting unabashedly  hijacked by a small group of hysterical residents convinced that their impending incineration is inevitable,  It was made even worse at a recent School Committee meeting when residents assured Committee members that they could be responsible for entire school bus loads of little children being incinerated on contact and that hundreds of other kids could be burned alive as they walked to school or waited for their bus.

Their solution?  Put the line near somebody else's house!  

Dewey Ave. Back from The (Almost) Dead ..... Again .... (By Bob Guerin)

This week’s Sandwich Broadsider includes an article about the Sand Hill School aka Dewey Ave.

Avid readers of this blog know that Dewey Ave was declared surplus property by a former School Committee several years ago and the building was returned to the Town in an effort to consolidate school operations, save day-to-day operating costs as well as avoid costly capital repairs and improvements. 

It was hoped that the Dewey Ave building could be quickly sold to a private developer, moneys collected would be invested in much needed capital repairs to other town-owned properties and Dewey Ave would be returned to the active and paying property tax rolls.

This week’s Sandwich Broadsider reports that eager and well-meaning do-gooders are angling for tax payer funded Dewey Ave development planning and tax payer funded repairs and finally a public private partnership for ongoing building operations perhaps as an "Arts Center" – meaning: taxpayer funded operations (that’s the public in public-private partnerships). 

Dewey Ave is a lot like Count Dracula. Dead, decrepit, ugly and a huge burden inflicting misery on all the local residents but still it lives. What’s its magic? Like Dracula himself, its old and it seems that in Sandwich being old makes all the difference. 

White Elephant One has arrived!    Still no word on funding for operating costs and the local share of maintenance and training.  Will it effect response times if the crew from Station One is following the Coast Guard Boats around instead of operating on dry land?    (see related story )