On July 1, the Town Council approved the $10,000 sewer assessment fee for each residential property slated for sewering. If you’re able to tune in to tonight’s Town Council Meeting on local Channel 18/YouTube, you’ll hear Town Manager Mark Ells and the Council debate how to use general funds when existing revenue sources fall short of the total cost. But what you won’t hear is any discussion of the 30-year timetable for sewering in the Town of Barnstable or the options for alternatives to the Title5 septic systems that are destroying Shoestring Bay and other vulnerable estuaries.

As we mentioned in our July 1 post “Re-arranging the Deck Chairs,” the Town has essentially punted on considering any adjustment to its multi-decade timetable and stubbornly refuses to allow any emergency options for stopping/slowing the eutrophication, such as I/A septic systems. To continue with our Titanic metaphor, that ship has sailed.

We urge everyone to tune in to tonight’s “workshop” on additional funding and voice your concern about the cavalier abandonment of Shoestring Bay and other waterways on the tail end of a 30-year process. You can also submit questions to the Council before tonight’s meeting here. https://www.townofbarnstable.us/TownCouncil/agenda-comment.asp

Let’s keep the pressure on the Town to pay attention to our Bay and the scores of other waterways that don’t have 5 years, let alone 30 years, to recover.