The Scheme, a story of time, tide, and tithe.

The Board of Selectmen here yesterday ended their meeting with a discussion of the Sconset Beach Preservation Fund project (heretofore known as "The Scheme") and heard discussions from both proponents and those with concerns.

I stood and spoke on this matter mostly because The Scheme is not terribly well formed or thought out. There's data missing. There are assumptions made where a reasonable person might think differently. And I sense that a large number of islanders are just now starting to realize the scope and impact such a project will have on the island. It can and will literally change the shape of the island forever.

The Scheme is a brilliant thing, really. A neat little way for a handful of wealthy property owners to keep their homes from falling over the bluff without really having to pay for it. It's a tax write off. They all donate money to a conveniently formed 501(c)3 non-profit organization that uses the funds to do two things: 1. Lobby local, state and federal authorities to grease the skids for the project. and 2. Construct a massive barrier made of wood, geotextiles and sand stretching from the edge of Sesachacha Ponds all the way to just beyond the sewer beds off of Low Beach Road. The beauty of the Scheme is that once people get a break on their taxes for donating to The Scheme, their property values will rise as the beach is protected. They'll make out like bandits. The rich, as they say, get richer. (Good for them for being so clever.)

The actual plan is pretty clever as well: Take sand from Bass Rip Shoal, which protects the island from large waves, and dump it on a beach containing between 13 and 40 270-foot wooden groins (which keep the sand from being washed southward) and a massive 12-foot-diameter plastic tube filled with more sand (which acts as a last-line of defense when the groins get all busted up and they wash up on Tom Nevers Beach). Neat, huh?

I know what you're wondering. If we take the sand from the shoal, what will keep the big ocean waves from reaching the island and causing greater erosion? Magic, maybe? Or pleasant thoughts? Beach Nourishment Fairies (BNF)? Or the Ocean God Poseidon? Or, maybe, nothing. We just don't know.

There's a lot we don't know about this project. In fact the amount of stuff we don't know could probably fill up that potential 161-acre by 10-feet-deep hole in Bass Rip Shoal. But here's one thing we do know:

This sucker is huge.

Just to give you an idea of how long this is, take a look at the little map of Nantucket here. That shaded area is essentially the scope of this project. It's Nantucket's Great Wall of China, built to keep the dreaded enemies at bay, in this case, ocean waves driven by major storms, and will, in the end, be every bit as effective as the wall built by the Qin dynasty. Which is to say, not terribly effective at all.

Here's a larger image of five separate schematic pages from the proposal for The Scheme and you can see that this will be a huge construction job. (Click the image to see the details. Impressive stuff to be sure!) They estimate it will cost $20 million, but who really believes that? Most of these kinds of projects double in costs during the bidding process alone (just look at our sewer plant! No, wait, don't. It's too depressing).

Of course Scheme proponents say that the whole thing will be paid for with private money. Great. That it won't cost taxpayers a thing. Great. I love hearing that. But I don't really believe it. Scheme boosters have been downing martinis with lawmakers and helping to set up state commissions to oversee coastal resources and beach nourishment (and, I'm assuming, to overrule any hasty decisions made on the local level to say "no" to this project), and they have not guaranteed that The Scheme will be funded with only private money forever. The dirty little secret is that once this thing is built, we will need to dump sand on it. Forever. And after a while "forever" starts to sound like a pretty long time to private donors and at some point someone is going to ask the town to fork over some money.

Why? Because The Scheme will largely be built on town owned land and will help to keep waves from intruding on, as just one example, the Sconset Sewer beds.

Look at this image.

The yellow and green bits on this map represent town-owned land and Land-Bank holdings, respectively. (You can click on it to see a larger image.) The town is, essentially the major land-owner in this matter. So you'd think that the town would be completely against this use of public land for the protection of a handful of homes on the Sankaty bluff. Not so. Some of our elected officials are rather chummy with the Scheme proponents. One received many handshakes and hugs and thank-you's from the Scheme contingent last night. The Board Of Selectmen wrote a letter in August supporting beach nourishment and, by extension, the Scheme.

This is the reason for the discussion last night. Several citizens, me included, got up to ask the BOS to rescind the letter they wrote on our behalf and to ask the regulating board, in this case the ConCom to commission a third-party investigation of the plan for the Scheme. None of that happened last night, but Selectman Kopko gave it his all.

The problem here, citizens of our fine island, is that the same group of island malcontents spoke out at the meeting last night and we really need to hear from you. So if you Like the Scheme, speak up. If you think it's a terribly poo-headed way to go, be just as vocal. Go to the ConCom meeting and voice your opinions and get on the record. Come to the special town meeting, October 23rd, which will otherwise be filled with painfully boring zoning articles, and speak your mind on this issue and vote on a special sense-of-the-meeting question. Let your thoughts take flight in the minds of our elected and appointed officials.

It's your island, folks. And they're our beaches, for the most part. If the powers that be do not hear about this from us, they will simply assume that we don't care. And the Scheme will happen. You have been forewarned.

Nantucket First!

I'm out.

For personal, professional and political reasons, I’ve decided not to run for Selectman.

The personal reasons are, well, personal.

The professional reasons are that I have recently gained a few new clients and new clients often want me to work off island, at least for the first part of the relationship. After a while clients become more conformable with me working via email and the web. But we are still in that honeymoon phase. Selectman’s meetings and duties, contrary to what some might think, are extremely time consuming.

The political reasons are the simplest and clearest of them all. Catherine Stover called me on Sunday to let me know she was running for Mike Glowacki’s seat. Catherine is a wonderful, caring, selfless person. The embodiment of the Nantucket First philosophy. To tell you the truth, because she is Town Clerk, I never even considered the possibility that she might run. But, when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. She knows the town’s business. Besides a former selectman, who is better equipped to hit the ground running?

Because I admire Catherine so much, I see no reason to take even a single vote away from her. (Not that she wouldn’t mop the floor with me, vote wise. She’s universally loved and respected.) She deftly fills the void that I saw in the race that caused me to pull my papers in the first place.

I may not be running. But I still have a campaign to run. I’ll be writing and talking about the Nantucket First movement, and asking people to wear the Nantucket First clothing or putting a sticker on their vehicle*. I still believe there is value in this idea and that we can change the island for the better if we all work together.

So there you have it. I’m out of the race. But I’ll still be running alongside.

Nantucket First.

* These goods are not marked up. All money goes to printing and distribution of these items and not a single dime goes into my pocket or anyone else's from their purchase... FYI.