Roger Becker
296 Chappaquiddick Rd
Edgartown, Mass.
02539

508 627 8720

Edgartown board of Selectmen
Town Hall
Edgartown, MA  02539

Dear Selectmen,

     I’m here to ask you to rein in your Highway Department Supervisor, Stuart Fuller.  Mr. Fuller has arranged to have students of the  Northeastern University promote and defend a bike path on Chappaquiddick.  This seemingly on his own personal agenda or if not, than at the bequest of either you or the private promoters of a Bike Path on Chappaquiddick, the Chappaquiddick Path Committee.  I am asking you to have him cease and desist in such an effort and announce that the town, at your direction, will no longer sponsor such promotion. 
     Specifically, Mr. Fuller, apparently without your input, arranged for the students to use the Chappy bike path issue as a student design project and then hosted the presentation this past Friday.  Mr. Fuller, on town time, conspired with, and convinced the assistant of the planning board to announce the presentation by placing a legal notice in the Vineyard Gazette, and attempted to have it posted in the Martha’s Vineyard Times.  Ms. Greenough has publicly apologized, yet we have heard nothing from Mr. Fuller, although he did say the path committee will be paying for the Gazette ad.  At the presentation, which can be reviewed via video, the instructor indicated that he was directed by Mr. Fuller in concert with the Path Committee, which is a private group that has raised $2500 to give to the University.  The presentation showed that the students were directed to study, defend and plan a two way side path along a specific section of the road.  The students and the instructor rejected all alternatives out of hand without any quantitative analysis .
     At a Selectmen’s meeting last December, Dick Knight of the Path Committee, announced to the selectmen, in the presence of Mr. Fuller, the group’s plan to have the students from Northeastern University do a plan for a path and the selectmen took no action.  Mr. Donaroma did suggest the group could use the town hall for their “public” meetings, and Mr. Smadbeck said the Chappaquiddick community needed to work it out themselves and was surprised the group was back before them.  Mr. Fuller was at that meeting.  He did not say a word, neither to indicate that his was the inspiration for the student involvement nor to indicate his support for a bike path on Chappy.  He was not addressed by the selectmen, asked to speak nor was he instructed by the selectmen to involve the town in the affair.  
     At an August Selectmen’s meeting, after the Chappy community had three public heated discussions during the summer at the Community center, the Selectmen rejected the Path Committee’s request to establish a town Chappaquiddick Bike Path Committee to plan a bike path.  They also did not take action on a proposal to establish an alternative Chappaquiddick traffic and safety study committee.  The selectmen suggested the Path Committee go to the Planning Board to seek their support and begin any planning there.  I believe Mr. Fuller was in attendance at that meeting also.
     On September 1st, the Path Committee went to show their ideas to the Planning Board.  The Planning Board, after reviewing the Path Committee’s detailed plans for a two way side path along the Chappaquiddick Road and also seeing the strong Chappaquiddick opposition, suggested a planner from the Martha’s Vineyard Commission could mediate a solution.  The Martha’s Vineyard Commission staff has chosen not to get involved without a charge from the Planning Board or the Selectmen.
     Still, Mr. Fuller, out of public view, working with the developers, the Chappaquiddick Path Committee, has continued this bike path effort and has made it appear that the “Town” that is the Selectmen and the Planning Board, is supporting this plan over the objections of a substantial portion of the Chappaquiddick Community. including a majority of the Chappaquiddick road abuters.  He has clouded the issue further by having the students include in their study a plan to redesign the traffic at the ferry point and the road layout at the Dike Road intersection.  
     By allowing Mr. Fuller to continue with this student project, it makes it appear to be a town sponsored plan.  Mr. Fuller has wasted countless man hours and needlessly fueled the flames of controversy within the community.  Several members of the community traveled far, and many left work to attend the middle of a weekday presentation to the hear the so called “Objective” students.  Yet no member of the Board of Selectmen nor the Planning Board attended.  Why hasn’t Mr. Fuller followed the Selectmen’s lead rather than continue pursuing this?  
     If this is continuing in order to test the staying power of the opposition, I want to remind the selectmen that most of the opposition on Chappaquiddick are long time tax payers who have thought long and hard about all the ramifications of the Bike Path on Chappy.  They are not flipping real estate but rather have invested much into not only their properties but also the community.  Without bothering to reiterate the various arguments, let me just remind you that any bike path plan will need to go through a stringent review and approval process by the Planning Board and the Martha’s Vineyard Commission as the Chappaquiddick Road does lie within the Island Road DCPC.  Do the Selectmen really want their Highway Superintendent spending town time promoting a Bike Path on Chappy?  Are the Selectmen interested in throwing gasoline on the flames of this controversy?
    I specifically ask the Selectmen to have Mr. Fuller disengage from this Chappaquiddick Path Committee Student Project.  Because of the fact that only 10% of the attendees of Friday’s presentation were not from Chappaquiddick, and because it is apparent that there is no interest from the Selectmen nor the Planning Board, I am asking that the Selectmen request that the private developers’ next student presentation be held not at the town hall, but rather at the Chappaquiddick Community Center, a more convenient location. 
     I would suggest that if Mr. Fuller wants to redesign the Ferry Point and Dike Road intersection, he leave the Bike Path plan out of the students’ presentation and hold whatever hearings he would like and I’m sure Chappaquiddickers would be happy to hear him out wherever he chooses to have the meetings.  But we on Chappy have reviewed the idea of a bike path along the Chappaquiddick Road and there is strong opposition.  At this point, the promotion of a bike path on Chappaquiddick is no more meaningful nor responsible than the town promoting a Ferris wheel being set up at the ferry point. 

                                                                     Yours, 

                                                                              Roger Becker