stacked deck

I had to leave tonight’s Dam removal meeting after 34 minutes. That old dam is going nowhere fast, well not that fast, they were talking about a study that is still a year or more away from completion. I have to collect my thoughts on this one and post tomorrow. Maybe 60 people attended and few I recognized, this was not a cross section of Exeter residents and probably included folks from other Towns.

No young(the future) residents in attendance.

Lionel opened with “your concerns about fire suppression, water supply”. Mimi mentioned the “consequences of dam removal” She also said that this was not going to be a “debate pro or con”.

That’s when I split.

If we are not going to seriously consider removing the dam by placing that charge in the hands of obstructionists, we should cancel the study.

It was very warm and uncomfortable in the hall for a meeting scheduled to go 2 1/2 hours.

Mike

Day 3

Of course when you open the Dam, the water flows out. The water that had been captured and over ran its natural channel these many years. It looks raw along it’s bank. I found a slew of fresh water clams at Gilman. The ducks also seemed quite pleased moving about in the flowing water. Should we remove the Great? Dam it will all fill in, and be quite lovely, and flowing. So get on down to Gilman or your favorite spot and fix it in your mind, how it could look.

I have a few shots from today , you can compare them with yesterday.

Intake for the Academy,lawn water.

Second bridge Linden Street

Tuesday Wednesday

This next shot is from the Academy Bridge between the track & the football stadium. I htink this stretch will always look the same.

Now a couple of the foot bridge to Gilman Park. Check out it’s underpinnings. This area under this footbridge was always a fetid swamp. It could be a flowing stream. Mosquitoes loathe flowing water, and love stagnant water .

The Great? Dam held nothing, certainly not a mighty River. People are frankly surprised it emptied this fast. You were not looking at a River all these years , just a stream out of its banks. I think that despite any misgivings you might have the dam is coming down. We will probably have to wait 5 years with all the wrangling. That’s why we must have everyone go now and look. Just imagine all the new growth over the mud flats. Oh and listen, you can hear it now, flowing. It’s really the right thing to do.