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LETTERS
Do fire study and move on
Whenever there is talk of a "fire district
study " to determine the "best fire service at
the least cost to the taxpayer,"the fire district
invariably take the position that a study is
totally uncalled for and completely unneces-
sary because the existing arrangement is the
"best at least cost."
Well, perhaps! But since this issue will
not go away, I would think they 'd welcome
a study as an opportunity to demonstrate ,
once and for all, that they are right . Then we
can all move on.
Steve Prence
Cotuit
Band boost appreciated
I was so pleasantly surprised when I opened
up my copy of The Barnstable Patriot this
week , that Ijust had to say thank jou from all
of us in the Barnst able Band. Th? two color
pictures and caption are so excitin? to see and
I will share it with the band this Wednesday
night (for those who do not subscribe to The
Barnstable Patriot but should!). This will
definitely encourage us in continu ng t o build
the best town band on the Cape.
Thank you again for helping us share the
music.
Deborah Stewart
Barnstable Band
Political potpourri
That good book ,Merriam-Webster 's, defines
potpourri as a miscellany of flowers , herbs and
spices or e.g. "the best songs." Barnstable
townies often cater to another not-so-sweet-
smelling presentation: "political potpourri. "
Some samples follow.
Twoweeks ago cit izen Tom Dolby (one -1ime
School Committee head) was nominated from
the Council ARC for an Airport Commis-
sion chair. This act flew right in the face of
Council Appointments Committee , a group
that was accused the same nigh t of running
a "Star Chamber " selection scam Mr. Dolby
was turned down by the Committee. In his
stead they nominated a former CEO of the
Horsley-Witten engineering firm which is in
the pay of Barnst able Municipal Airport.
Clearly, the Horsley-Witten alumnus is in an
ungraceful state of conflict of interest. He is
also not the generalist needed. Yours truly
has formally asked this gentlemen to retract
his nomination.
Horsley-Witten is a common denominat or in
Airport , Cape Cod Commission. Barnstable ,
and Yarmouth affairs. It has worked for them
all and at times proved the old saw that you
can't serve two (nay, many ) masters at once.
Take a gander at the Rectrix/BMA 61-page
suit; you'll see! Or, the recent Golden Triangle
deal up in Sandwich.
'Follow the money." said Deep Throat of
Watergate fame. Well, one can follow pot-
pourri odor.
At a recent meeting of the Fire District
Alliance. COMMan Knute Silva admonished
Town Councilor Barton she always denied
"Public Comment."Mr. Silva, who chaired the
Alliance, allowed a scheduled public comment
item to be overturned by a sudden motion to
adjourn made by Councilor/COMMan James
Crocker. So passed. Nary a whelp was heard
from firefighters or Ms. Barton.
Potpourri's moral: Don't let firebugs in the
firehouse of freedom.
Peter Doiron
Barnstable Village
1C0RNER
¦ s 'imMmmmmn-i By Paul Gauvin
By Paul Gauvin
pqauvin@barnstablepatriot.com
On
a brisk March day, Town Coun-
cilor Gary Brown of Hyannis made
a "quick" lunch-hour stop at the
Island Merchant Restaurant at 5 Ocean
St., to conduct business with owner Joe
Dunn II.
He swung into one of the two driveways
owned by The Cape Cod Times that flank
the restaurant - the one between the Is-
land Merchant and the defunct Penguin's
SeaGrill building recently purchased by
the Times. The driveway was empty "and
nothing was going on," Brown said. He said
he had parked there briefly several times
without any problem.
"I'd been in the Merchant for a few min-
utes when some guy came storming in and
abruptly asked: 'Can you read?' I told him
I have a college education and yes, I can
read."
From that point , Brown said , the
episode deteriorated into a threat about
towing his vehicle, an option also noted
on a no-parking sign in the driveway that
Brown obviously could read but ignored
on occasion. Restaurant owner Dunn ,
standing behind the bar, said he was
astounded at the man's approach toward
one of his customers. "You would think he
would have come to me - the owner - with
his complaint. There was no warning or
anything."
Mike Fabia, the Time's press and prop-
erty supervisor, said last week Brown's
vehicle had been spotted in the same spot
four or five times. He said there are a lot
of problems with people parking on Times
property. He declined further comment.
Looking upon the incident from a shelf
behind the bar was the photo of a young
Navy officer - Dunn 's father - who remains
"missing in action" in Vietnam and whose
widow, Dunn said, was interviewed this
week by the Cape Cod Times.
This anecdotal conflict exposes the hu-
man friction that insufficient parking can
induce between unlikely entities. There
were a few other incidents among the par-
ties since then, one over spilled grease, the
details of which serve no advantage but
to obfuscate the larger point of deficient
parking in that part of town.
It's a worsening problem exacerbated by
"smart growth" and Brown's plea to Town
Manager John Klimm for two-hour park-
ing limits on the public lot across Ocean
Street from the restaurant and Cape Cod
Times.
Dunn says his license is predicated upon
utilizing spaces in the lot since he lacks
private parking. The predicament from his
perspective, which caused him to quit the
lunch business, he said, is the all-day park-
ing in the lot by newspaper personnel and
others.
"There is no law against it," says Tom
Geiler, director of the town's regulatory
division. He says the only rule governing
the lot is a 3 to 5 a.m. ban to discourage
islands-bound tourists from parking for
multiple days.
"Businesses are supposed to have x-
amount of parking space per 100 square
feet of business space. Restaurants have
a higher requirement. If they can't meet it
and are within 500 feet of a public park-
ing lot , they can get relief from the zon-
ing board of appeals to use that space
for parking, but it doesn't give business
reserved spaces. Anybody can park there.
As far as I know, a lot of other people are
having the same problem ," Geiler said , an
observation that one would think would
provoke some remedial action by the town
Instead , the town has under consider-
ation a request by the One Ocean Street
development proposal at Main and Ocean
streets for ground-floor retail and 22
apartments on the second and third levels,
with inadequate underground parking.
Like the Island Merchant and other
nearby businesses, One Ocean Street
wants relief from parking requirement by
also using the already burdened Ocean
Street lot.
It is evident that the area needs a rem-
edy for its long- and short-term parking
dilemma. Fix the short-term and you exac-
erbate daylong parking that is also needed
for large employers. Catch 22.
It's time to dust off plans for a down-
town parking garage and seek mitigation
for a 3-tier type on the Ocean Street lot
and a bit into the town green to make it
worthwhile. Bickering neighbors won't
solve anything - or any other solution.
Short of that , Dunn unfortunately sees
his parking plight as a David and Goliath
situation - only this time. Goliath is the
likely winner.
Unpleasant confrontation
spurs councilor's move on
parking lot
] ACROSS TIME 6 PLACE
RETROSPECTIVES FROM THE ARCHIVES
IVY LEAGUE - The facade of the building built as Barnstable Town Hall in 1926, now
home to the JFK Hyannis Museum and the Hyannis Area Chamber of Commerce, is still
unmistakable under the ivy that once covered its Main Street face. This color postcard
published by J. Lazurus in Hyannis bears no date, but from the bomb shelter sign in the
front and the plantings, we reckon it to be from the early 1960s.
Mature leadership
By Stew Goodwin
columnist@barnstablepatnot com
Let's face it folks, it's not working. The
methods being employed for conflict
resolution in many sectors: intimidation :
confrontation; and retaliation , are produc-
ing escalations not results.
Extremists seem to have
hijacked policy with moder-
ates rarely putting in an ap-
pearance. Darts , verbal and
actual, fly to and fro indis-
criminately skewering both
contestants and bystanders.
Our world threatens to burst
into flame at any moment.
There is hardly a topic or a geographi-
cal area unscarred by deep divisions. And
those divisions are being transformed into
canyons with aggressive partisans dug in
on opposite rims. Diplomacy resembles a
juvenile spat or a bitter divorce where the
blame game rules and the parties in dis-
pute generate justifications for not talking
directly to one another.
I know that it can be a real task to con-
verse with those who hold sharply differ-
ing views. I realize that it can be hard to
favorably regard those on the other side
of any fence. But things are getting out
of hand. Radical changes are called for as
zero-sum-power plays erupt all over the
place. Collegiality is becoming a forbid-
den activity. Safety is appearing less like
normality. Tornados of animosity race
across the landscape with their deadly
spirals intensified by endless supplies of
weaponry.
Unfortunately, this bleak snapshot is rein-
forced by a flood of daily reports. However,
those who value peace and moderation
are not without ammunition of their own.
Dialogue, negotiation and compromise do
not have to be signs of weakness or ap-
peasement. The people who constructed
our nation , to name just one example .
considered those characteristics to be
cornerstones of strength.
Democracy by its design facilitates
dialogue as it is defined by free elections.
Our country can certainly concentrate on
promoting this inherent principle of com-
munication. We can stop trying to cram
alien cultures into some idealistic replica of
ourselves, and be patient with the develop-
ment of unfamiliardemocratic institutions.
If we are sufficiently supportive , people
might learn how to talk to each other about
controversial issues and spend less time
planning how to blow each other up.
Providing the gift of pro-
ductive dialogue to the world
would constitute real leader-
ship. It would be a sharp con-
trast to the artificial variety
that brandishes military might
or simplistic slogans while at-
tempting to carve every sub-
ject into only two segments:
good and evil. Practicing
and teaching the art of dialogue could
transform the twenty-first century into
a truly democratic one. It could ease the
tensions that stand ready to snap, and
help to erect bridges instead of barriers.
Above all, this strategy could empower
moderates and consequently shrink the
number willing to permit extremism. As
such the promotion of dialogue would
constitute a progressive policy for global
survival rat her than the regression we are
now experiencing.
This world of ours is crying out formature
leadership to pull it back from the abyss
into which it is descending. If we were to
encourage discussion that could result
in acceptance if not agreement we would
be leading by example. This would be a
refreshingly intelligent and moral course
that might generate enough momentum to
dampen impending conflagrations.
On June 10, 1963 President John F.Ken-
nedy delivered an address at American
University in Washington , D.C. His advice
on that occasion is equally applicable
today.
"World peace , like community peace ,
does not require that each man love his
neighbor; it requires only that they live
together in mutual tolerance , submitting
their disputes to just and peaceful settle-
ment. And history teaches us that enmities
between individuals , as between nations ,
do not last forever. We all breathe the same
air. We all cherish our children 's future. And
we are all mortal. "
I By
I
David Still II
About this time two years ago, I was
freshly back from a midsummer's
vacation in northern Vermont. I'd been
asked by my grandfather on Christmas Day
- actually it was more a statement with which
I agreed ("Hey, we should go to Vermont
sometime.") - and arrangements were made
from there.
He was born and raised in Fairfield , just
outside St. Albans , where his brother still
lives. My grandmother was from the neigh-
boring town of Franklin, where her father
was something of a big wheel. When she died
near Thanksgiving in 1996, she returned for a
final and permanent time to the family plot in
Franklin.
While In Vermont , we planted flowers at my
grandmother 's grave. This was my first trip to
my grandfather 's home territory and Nana's
grave , but he'd been back several times and ,
based on the incomplete inscription on the
left-hand side of the marker, I knew he and I
would be back at least one more time.
"Lloyd John Cyr, August 23, 1921 - "
I said something along those lines. He said
something like , "Yeah," then fully understood
what I meant and gave a good laugh.
The return trip came six months later, Feb.
1, 2005, five days after he died from a brief but
stubborn illness.
I'd been meaning to write something since,
but each time I'd start , it seemed forced and
not particularly relevant , so it was set aside.
I told a couple of his friends after the
funeral service , at which I didn 't speak, that
I was better in print (which I am), and to
expect something in an upcoming issue. Well,
there have been 79 issues since then and I've
yet to commit anything to print.
With what would have been his 85" birth-
day a couple of weeks away, now seemed the
right time.
In season, we golfed weekly, or tried to.
He'd usually get the better score, if we kept
track , which says more about my game than
his, but that wasn't the point. We started
golfing regularly after my grandmother died.
He spent the last two years of her life as-her
caregiver, withdrawing a bit from what had
been their life to do so. After she passed and
he'd mourned, he reemerged. Bowling, golf-
ing, weekly Yahtzee games, church and other
on-hold aspects of his life.
It was during this time that I came to see
him as someone other than "Gramp. " He
became a man , a human being with a past life
complete with struggles, successes, failures,
triumphs and a whole lot of ordinary and
fascinating parts.
It's not that he wasn't all of those things
before , but they remained hidden to me un-
der the easily understood moniker of Grand-
father.
I also had the privilege of seeing him come
back to life . While never dismissing what his
life had been , he understood that what was
before him after Nana died was another op-
portunity, and he embraced it.
He still puttered , plodded and said "garsh,"
but he allowed new things to enter his realm ,
enjoying most.
He spent 22 years in retirement on Cape
Cod , living a life typical of many of his con-
temporaries. He came with his wife of 40-
plus years, found new friends , lived , became
caregiver, then widower, rediscovered himself
dated , lived some more , and died with a good
number of people saying he was one of the
good ones.
He was. He was my grandfather , but more
than that, he was my friend.
Peace be with you, Gramp.
?T!» ¦
"
"¦
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