Hooked on a line and dead in the water?

A good story to read in this week's Fairhaven Neighborhood News.  

What makes it so good?

Well, who does't like a good fishing story?  Plus, there is a fractured fairy tale intertwined. the government's version of the "Golden Rule".  There is also a real life example of the food chain at work here.

Now I am going to admit that I have not followed the detail for the proposal to build a fishing pier with any great interest.  After reading the story however it does become a rather interesting life lesson.

You should read the article.  Also, peruse the editor's letter.

From the bits and pieces I have followed it does seem accurate that original proposed siting was a tad different from now proposed siting.  Nothing new when talking about some projects from predecessor boards to a present board, is it?

The number one lesson to be learned from this present story however is one that has been attempted to be hammered home time and time again. Be extremely careful any time you sign any agreement with the state.  Because the state, and especially its low to mid level bureaucrats , love to pull out the trump card and slam it down on the table and tell you essentially it doesn't matter what you want at this point.

A couple of decades ago the state was will to dump a ton of money for fishing piers in town.  The state wanted them at the town beach.  Had they gone their, it wouldn't be a "town" beach any more.  

But I digress a bit, let's head back to the future here.

One big point in the article I agree with.  If you can spend a million dollars on Nantucket, why can't you do the same in Fairhaven?

Of course the bigger issue should be why you spent a million dollars for a fishing pier in the first place, but hey ...

State money comes with all kinds of little strings attached.  You get what they decide to give you and you can either like it or not, the state seldom cares. Its money, its rules.

I am not going to address the issue of eleventh hour arguments, no other alternative, best choice. Yes, the public has an obligation to stay informed.  But if the public is given an indication of one thing and the end result is another, well that is where the uniformed public argument loses some steam.  

This is another reason why every single committee meeting of every single committee needs to be exposed to more scrutiny. Agenda's for the local committee posted to the town website for 2014 and 2015 per a review of about 30 seconds before this sentence is written, zero.  Minutes of meeting posted, same zero.

Now before we, or some of you who are fond of running to the head of the line to post the shortcomings of the present board on this particular issue, in the scheme of life, what goes on the town website today is leaps and bounds ahead of what was going on under predecessors, and while our town isn't the best at it, we certainly are far from the worse.

That being said, reliance on a notice stapled to a bulletin board meets your sole legal obligation to the public, yes indeed.  But, and it is a big but because as I said I am not completely versed in the history here, if in fact there was a change in direction, well ... If the public feels as is going well based on information to date, and matters change ...

And as far as the state role in this and the "tough cookies"attitude, this one provides a perfect example of why unspecified terms for land management agreements for anything, with anyone should be an extremely rare exception.  

The same all tell you in very broad language what might happen, the same all tell you what you cannot do, and the same very more often than not basically make you beggars over your own land be it to use or not to be used by the manager. .Some may say a bit simplistic of a summary, but with limited space and time, it is more accurate than saying nothing wrong with giving some entity with good intentions carte blanche.

They use very attractive bait to hook their fish.  When they end up reeling it in though, that fish usually isn't the type the bait was meant to catch.  

Anyway, simple lessons here, right?  Free money is seldom free.  He who has the gold, rules. Trust, but verify (before you sign).

Until next time.