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New passenger
amenities have airport
officials 'on the rack'
By Louden O'Cessna
Hyannis Correspondent
Upgrades at Barnstable Municipal Airport
are getting "hung up" in a contract dispute that
could prove terminal to expansion plans.
The controversy took flight over the instal-
lation of new clothes racks in the passenger
waiting area.
"People are tired of sitting on their coats and
getting them all dirty," airport manager Quincy
"Doc" Mosby said. "That's why we're dramati-
cally increasing hanger space at the airport."
The newly-installed racks and shimmer-
ing chrome pipe, appropriately called jet-rail,
along the back and side walls make for better
accommodations for the travelling public, as
will bag handlers and "port" hops.
"We got a pretty good deal on hanger space
from the close-out of Filenes at the mall."
Mosby said.
With all of the new hanger opportunity,
however, came the decision as to what type of
hanger was most appropriate.
The airport went out to bid to see what firms
were willing to provide.
"We had a lot of options before us," Mosby
said. "We could have gone for the inexpensive
plastic or wire, but we want people to think of
this as a top-notch regional airport."
The contract went to Wisconsin-based
Hang-Ups, which quickly oufitted the airport
with new luxury hangers.
But that decision is coming back to haunt
airport officials in the form of requested
change orders to further outfit the terminal.
Hang-Ups was one of two bidders for the
hanger contract, offering 1,000 "attractive and
durable" wooden hangers. The second bidder,
Through the Wire , came in with a lower bid,
but was rejected after a review by Town At-
torney Robert Smith. The company offered to
supply 2,000 hangers, with an option for 1,000
more as replacements for those bent and
damaged through regular use.
"No more wire hangers," Smith was reported
to have said.
Smith acknowledged that he has a prefer-
ence for stylish, shaped wooden, but does not
believe that influenced his recommendation.
He said that wire hangers are flimsy and would
not support the seasonal clothing needs of the
region.
"I don't want to wind up holding anybody's
coat when this deal is done," Smith said.
Even so, Hang-Ups president Rick Treks is
looking for more work and more money out of
the airport.
"I think when people go to use a hanger,
there's an expectation that the rail upon which
it's hung is proper and appropriate," he said.
"That's the service we're looking to provide."
Trek's company has already made arrange-
ments with other suppliers to have the rails
installed, but there are no provisions within the
contract for it to do so.
Treks has been known to carry unattractive
business outfits with him as part of his hanger
demonstrations, pulling them rumpled from
a duffel bag and tossing them quickly on a
hanger, where they suddenly look much better.
"It's part of our company motto: We can
make a bad suit look good," Treks said.
Mosby said that it was a similar demonstra-
tion that first sold him on the hanger company.
"He's pretty good with those suits," Mosby
said.
Treks threatened to make a scene at the air-
port by bringing one of his now-familiar suits.
"I don't want to have to bring my suit, but I will
if I have to," he said.
Baggers and hangers on airport agenda
Wastewater will
repower village
There was a time when Marstons Mills
lived up to its name, with a fulling mill to
serve the western reaches of town. But
now, the village may just as well be called
Marstons, or perhaps Milless, as it's been
years since running water ran anything.
Now, faced with the burden of disposing
of the highly residential village's flush-
ables, as well as catastrophically high
energy bills, historian and mill aficionado
Grey Wassa believes he can solve both
with the turn of a wheel - a water wheel,
that is.
His idea is to pump the village's waste-
water into collection pools that would
serve as the power source for a new hy-
dro-electric plant at the Mill Pond. He said
such a plan would create a constant flow
not subject to flood or drought.
"People may not always take showers,
but they're always going to flush," Wassa
said. "We're sitting on the answer to our
energy needs."
Wassa said that the Mills is geologically
perfect for such an application because
it's part of the outwash plain for the Mid-
Cape moraine.
"The whole village is like one big sand
filter bed," Wassa said.
The plan has the endorsement of the
Cape Light Compact, which hopes to offer
the energy mill's power to its customers
as a "gray" energy option. Others aren't
so sure, though.
"Wouldn't windmills be more sanitary?"
asked Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodg-
ers. "A couple windmills would certainly
smell better."
Wassa said he looked at all options, but
decided to pass wind in favor of wastewa-
ter for historical reasons.
"This village's history is so closely tied
with flowing water and, as home to the
town's dump, waste," Wassa explained.
"As the dump became the transfer and
recycling station, so too will we make that
necessary advance to recycling for the
water we use."
Marstons
Mills
Hyannis has always been a corner-
stone for Cape industry, and the vil-
lage's plan for its wastewater is banking
on a profitable page from that history.
"We figured we could mix it with
asbestos as a binder and then make
Jersey barriers out of them," DPW
Superintendent Mark Ells said. "Why
should Jersey get all the glory on ce-
ment barriers and toxic waste?"
Ells believes that a new profit center
could be found in the sale of Cape bar-
riers. In analyzing the village's waste-
water options, Ells said it came down to
a simple question.
"If it's already toxic , we asked our-
selves, 'How much worse could this
really be?'"
Plenty, according to the EPA and
numerous blog sites.
"As I always said I would say, I don't
trust the Hyannis fat cats in charge of
this thing. They are bilking the good
citizens and ratepayers of many billions
of dollars every week, from what I've
heard, and now they want to poison ail
of us with a wastewater/asbestos slurry
in our morning coffee!!! How many
more times do I have to say T before
you believe me and what I have to say?
WAKE UP!!!" reads a mild posting on
the capeclog Web site.
The EPA shared some of the same
concerns. "I don't necessarily see a
problem with it, but are they really add-
ing this stuff to coffee?" EPA administra-
tor Less Icare asked.
Production could start as soon as
next month.
If New Jersey can do it,
so can we
Will allow affordable
housing, library
By 0. Ben Seyzun
Marstons Mills Correspondent
There will be a new Marstons Mills Library
after all. You'll just have to drive to Osterville
to use it.
And Osterville will have 10 percent of its
housing recognized as affordable - even if
it has to pay for a slice of Marstons Mills on
which to build it.
The quirky interpretation of the transfer of
development rights concept, which has the
town's growth management department in a
tizzy, is the brainchild of Marstons Mills maven
Al Baker.
"I haven't had as much fun since I slid down
the roof of the school administration building,"
Baker said as he sat in Liberty Hall, whittling
a model of Town Hall complete with mayor's
office.
Over the centuries, the Mills and Osterville
have been content to let each go its own way.
But more than two years ago, an effort to build
a library in the Mills tried to tap donors in other
villages. It seemed that Mills residents them-
selves did not have the resources , and so the
new library was presented as very much for
the entire Barnstable community.
Some time later, supporters of the Osterville
library decided they would pursue an expan-
sion - and without state funding. That focused
generous Osterville folk on their own library,
and dried up potential revenue flows for the
Mills effort.
What did the Mills have that Osterville
needed, many wondered. Leave it to Baker to
sum it up in one word: diversity.
Although other communities have moved
ahead on meeting the town's goal that each
of its villages have 10 percent of its housing
accepted as affordable, elements in Osterville
have waged a holding action for years. For
some, the delay has been cause for embar-
rassment.
Baker got a surprisingly warm reception
when he told the Osterville Village Association:
"Why don't you folks buy some land in the
Mills and put up all the affordable housing you
need to meet the goal? Then we can redraw
the village lines so it's part of Osterville."
His price? The renovated Osterville Free
Library will be named Marstons Mills Public
Library in Osterville.
"It's a name that simply says 'community,'"
Baker said.
Housing advocates, admitting that their cur-
rent strategy for building affordable housing
in Osterville ("Wait until they aren't looking")
wasn't working, signed on. The holdup now is
at growth management , where director Ruth
Weil is thinking of hiring more lawyers because
you can never have enough.
Mills, OVille exchange
development rights
#SPLITTACKS•
• Small amount of pressure pushes it through. 11 wLm/r
• Great for unevenly distributed loads I I ,
• A majority agrees: There's no better way. ' T
Available everywhere in Barnstable. Some exemptions apply.