When summer visitors arrive back in Wellfleet from their winter vacations, they’ll find lots of new stuff in town. We are a good deal spiffier than when they were last here.
There’s the new fire station of course. Big and complex, sitting proudly out by Route 6, thumbing its nose at the very idea of a depression.
Then there’s the handsome makeover of the town pier. Now we can promenade the perimeter of this vast (and vastly underused most of the year) peninsular parking lot on a walkway furnished with benches for contemplation of the natural glories of our harbor.
And we have a brand new Uncle Tim’s Bridge, the entire disreputable, old footbridge uprooted and carted away, every stick replaced. (Uncle Tim’s is Dead, Long Live Uncle Tim’s!)
I argued against the rebuilding of Uncle Tim’s. Didn’t seem broke to me so I thought we shouldn’t spend the money to fix it. But it wasn’t just the money. I admit I was sort of fond of the weathered, beatup original. I was probably identifying with the old thing, being an older and older thing myself and not having any plans for cosmetic surgery.
But some argued that it was a danger to users, and that view prevailed. The new one seems to have been done competently. If anything it’s a bit too level and straight for my liking. I’m waiting for weather and gravity and tides to have their way with it, which will happen soon enough.
I’m glad to live in a town in which, in this thoughtless, throwaway culture, the transition from old to new is at least an issue. There are enough of us for whom “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” is good sense that we at least have a debate about proposed changes.
Now here we go with the water issue again, another episode in the tug -of- war between old and new to be played out in Town Meeting on Monday the 27th. Our town leaders tirelessly pushing us to improve ourselves want another upgrade of the embryonic water system.
And indeed, how can we be so backward? Everybody knows regionalization is the way of the future. When it comes to water Wellfleet is not even regionalized to the town level. It’s every backyard for itself.
Jeez, people from the real world must think, why not just stop the agonizing and nitpicking get it over with? What’s wrong with a water system? But in this town there’s a question about whether or to what extent the traditional way of getting water out of the ground is broke.
Sure, the cost of the expansion is an issue, our ever-rising taxes. But it’s not the only thing. There’s something pleasingly elegant, as systems designers like to say, about the system of digging a hole in the ground under your feet and getting water from it. Very good tasting water it is, too. And the system comes with a built-in check on development since it requires a certain amount of ground to accommodate safely both wells and septic. And except for a few congested areas of town (which most of us don’t want to get more congested) it ain’t broke. So why mess with it?
May critics be limited to those without chlorine in their public water supply.
The fear of the new in this case is not just of expansion of the water system but of expansion of the town, that in taking care of a glitches in the existing system we will enable unwanted development. It’s a legitimate concern and the burden of proof is on the pro-expansion people to provide ironclad guarantees against that happening, probably in the form of zoning bylaws based on a clear vision of the desired future of the town,.
Wellfleet is not beloved by residents and visitors alike for new stuff but for its continuity with a mostly pleasing past and a healthy respect, too rare in the world these days, for the tried and true.
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