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Press Releases
August 8, 2002 To The Editor: The Barnstable Patriot;
The Cape Cod Times.
At the Route 132 Committee Meeting a few
weeks ago, the head of the DPW for the Town of Barnstable was
the main agenda. Among his many statements, he shared the following:
That he and the town engineer have met with BJ's personnel several
times and "when they asked what we wanted, we told them
we wanted them to fix the Independence Park/Enterprise Rd/Rte
132 Intersection".. .that "this intersection was never
properly addressed when the Mall expanded.".. that "we've
contacted the Mall several times about this situation, but have
not heard from corporate. We told them (BJ's) it would take
$800,000 to fix the intersection, and they have agreed to this."
I find it appalling that this individual is in a position to
sanction further developments and "set the price"
for these developments in the Town of Barnstable. Since when
is this acceptable practice? Since when does a Town employee
determine the price of admission? Is the Town of Barnstable
to be sold out for a mere $800,000? Why didn't the Mall deliver
what they were supposed to do in the first place? Why is the
Town looking for a future developer to fix a past project gone
awry? Why are we dependent on "mitigation fees" to
place a band aid on problems that are symptomatic of a bigger
problem--a lack of infrastructure to support our growth? Isn't
it obvious to all that there is too much growth and development
in this area? In the same presentation this individual also
stated "There isn't any infrastructure support for much
more development"....and yet he's making deals that encourage
even more development in that neighborhood. We'll never catch
up to the necessary level of capacity. Four individuals requested
the road capacity numbers at this meeting, in order to ascertain
the present and future projections and the Town said they have
them, but did not bring them to the meeting. Regardless of the
amount of money offered from an outside concern, no amount of
money will create a quality of life thoroughfare for this area,
because we are suffering from 30 years of unmanaged growth.
It makes no sense to take money from a future project in order
to fix problems resulting from 30 years of growth in an unplanned
environment with no current vision or tools. We will never achieve
the optimum environment if we continue in this manner. Like
a friend of mine says.. tainted money t'ain't enough. Greg Milne
was right. The Rte 132 committee should have the sense to submit
this area for a DCPC, so that all these issues can be examined
in an intelligent manner before it falls even further behind.
Their job will be impossible to accomplish without such a tool,
because they are shooting at a moving target.
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