Falmouth Enterprise (March 18, 2014)

The Falmouth Enterprise
Serving The Upper Cape Since 1895
Volume 123 Number 97
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Falmouth, Massachusetts
Federal Judge
Dismisses Most
Claims Against
Cape Wind
By ELIZABETH W. SAITO
In a decision released Friday, a
federal judge largely sided with
the United States Government,
finding that the government’s review and approval of the Cape
Wind project was lawful and
thorough.
Cape Wind is a 130 turbine offshore wind farm proposed for the
middle of Nantucket Sound.
The lawsuit consolidated multiple claims brought by the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound
and others against several government agencies, including the
Department of the Interior, which
approved the Cape Wind project
in 2010.
In more than 20 of these claims,
US District Court Judge Reggie
B. Walton sided with the government and Cape Wind; but in two
cases Judge Walton found the
government did not properly adhere to the law.
Cape Wind is calling the judgment a victory. “There is no question who won on Friday,” Cape
Wind spokesman Mark J. Rodgers
said yesterday. Regarding the two
instances where the judge sided
with the plaintiffs, Mr. Rodgers
said, “We see both issues as narrow administrative matters.”
“There are a number of investors who have followed this case
closely,” Mr. Rodgers said. These
investors “share our opinion” of
the case, he said. “The decision
provides us with what we need to
complete financing of the project
in terms of resolution of issues.”
The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound is calling the decision a “landmark win for the environment.” Alliance president
Audra L. Parker said yesterday
that Cape Wind is “trivializing”
the two instances where the judge
sided with the Alliance.
The two matters where the
judge found in favor of the plaintiffs involve shutting down the
turbines during peak bird migration times, and the project’s impact on right whales.
According to the decision, the
federal Fish and Wildlife Service
proposed shutting the turbines
down during certain times to “reduce the risk of collision by roseate terns and, to a limited extent,
migrating piping plovers transiting the Horseshoe Shoal project
area.”
However, the Wildlife Service
then rejected their proposed option, citing claims made by Cape
Wind and the Bureau of Ocean
Energy Management (BOEM) that
the shut-downs would jeopardize
the project’s financial viability.
The court ruled that “while it
is certainly possible” that Cape
Wind and BOEM’s analysis is legitimate, under the Endangered
Species Act the Fish and Wildlife
Service is required to do its own
independent economic analysis
Continued on Page 10
Meetings
Human Services Committee—
Wednesday, 3 PM, town hall.
Beach Committee—Wednesday,
7 PM, harbor master’s office.
Conservation
Commission—
Wednesday, 7 PM, town hall.
Affordable Housing Committee—Thursday, 3 PM, town hall.
Zoning Board—Thursday, 6:30
PM, town hall.
Water Quality Management
Committee—Thursday, 7:30 PM,
school administration building.
A Sign Of Spring
Spring lambs nursing in the
sunshine Sunday at Peterson Farm conservation area.
Around a dozen lambs have
been born so far. Several ewes
are still pregnant.
Photographs by
ELIZABETH W. SAITO/ENTERPRISE
Author Shares A Message Of Hope
For Others Facing Addiction
By ANDREA F. CARTER
James Robert Butler is a man
with a message, a message that
many people who have spiraled
up and down through a life of addiction are not always able to tell.
He has detailed his story in his
2013 self-published book, “Metamorphosis in Black.”
“It is in essence a message of
empowerment,” said Mr. Butler
of Palmer Avenue, Falmouth, as
he sat in Coffee Obsession in Falmouth to discuss his book and life
that inspired it.
His story is that of a survivor
knocked down repeatedly by obstacles such as racial prejudice,
drug addiction, and poverty, who
continues to get back up and
brush himself off to find success.
He describes himself as a monarch butterfly at one point in the
book, a reference to the title, just
breaking out of the cocoon with
the resolve to fly after a setback.
“If life gets him down he can
fix it,” said Jay N. Avila of Spinner Publications in New Bedford
and a friend of Mr. Butler, who
advised him on the book.
The message can be especially relevant today as heroin use
spreads in small towns in the
Northeast including Cape Cod.
“We have nothing in common in
terms of race, gender, and age,
yet his story transcends this and
resonates with anybody,” Robin
Agricola, who was in recovery
with Mr. Butler in Falmouth and
has recently relocated to Boston,
said.
Mr. Butler said a similar influx of drugs invaded his Harlem
home 65 years ago. Born in 1946,
he describes Harlem as a culture
shaped by drugs, poor education
and racial inequality. “Drugs
exploded onto the scene of Harlem, ravaged a whole community
and spread in waves, destroying
the inner cities in other cities as
well.”
At age 16 he dropped out of
First Day Of Spring
Spring begins with the vernal equinox on Thursday at
12:57 PM EDT. The Old Farmer’s Almanac reminds us that
the word equinox is derived
from the Latin words meaning
“equal night.” Days and nights
are approximately equal everywhere and the sun rises
and sets due east and west.
school and was arrested for marijuana possession with a friend
shortly after. After this Mr. Butler
left Harlem and joined the US
Air Force; however, he took an
Other Than Honorable Discharge
after he was cited for visiting certain nightlife venues which were
off-limits to black officers.
In his book Mr. Butler describes
the next 10 years as “a wild fantasy trip, an ever faster spinning
merry-go-round ride, never firmly
grabbing the brass ring.” During
this time he both used and dealt
drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, in New York City. He then
spent 12 years in southern California working his way up in the
business world, where drinking
alcohol was part of entertaining
clients. His alcoholism ended
his success in California and he
moved back to Cape Cod for recovery and then to New Bedford,
where he started again.
In New Bedford Mr. Butler became a prominent businessman
and was active in the community,
involved with more than 20 organizations, and started The Weekly Compass, a newspaper that
also had a message. “He wanted
Continued on Page 10
Air 33; Sea Water 34
Forecast and water temperature are
from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) websites.
0 1>
GENE M. MARCHAND/ENTERPRISE
3
By SAM HOUGHTON
The Falmouth Finance Committee endorsed an article on
the Spring Town Meeting warrant
that calls for the construction of
a $46.5 million water treatment
facility to replace the plant on
Long Pond that is more than 100
years old.
Department of Public Works
director Raymond A. Jack estimated that the construction of
the facility could be complete in
early 2016.
Selectmen also approved the
article last Monday.
“The end result is a very, very
high quality water,” Mr. Jack said
during a presentation made to
the committee on Tuesday.
“The recommendation is to pay
50 percent of the construction
cost with an increase in water
revenues and 50 percent by the
tax levy, which is within our debt
drop-off capacity,” finance director Jennifer Petit said.
“These are trying times now
and we are facing some large construction projects,” Mr. Jack said,
as he thanked the committee for
its help to soften the financial
blow. “It is not easy but it is necessary.”
The new treatment facility will
be constructed on the north side
of Long Pond where the water is
deepest, Mr. Jack said. There are
fewer algal blooms there and the
water is cooler with deeper water.
The recreational loop around
the pond will not be affected by
the new facility, Mr. Jack said.
Yearly costs of running the facility have not been determined,
although Mr. Jack estimated
the cost between $700,000 and
$800,000 a year. A manager can
operate the plant remotely, Mr.
Jack said. “It is a high level of
automation and sophistication,”
that could cut down on operation
costs, he said. “I could run the
plant from my house.”
The plant is not just a building but a series of processes, he
said, “a treatment train,” as he
referred to it.
Selectmen last year asked to
eliminate a step, an ozone treatment process, in order to save
money, but the process remains
in the plans. Ozone is a powerful
disinfectant able to break down
organic matter “which there is
a lot of in Long Pond,” Mr. Jack
said. He said that he was pleased
the ozone section of treatment facility will stay intact. “Since that
is in there, it dramatically reduces the ability for things to make it
through the process.”
The first step in the treatment
process at the facility is coagulation/flocculation, in which particulates float to the surface and are
removed.
Next is the ozone treatment that
has the capacity to “kill microbial organisms in a matter of seconds,” Mr. Jack said. The ozone
process disinfects the water, but
its main purpose is to break down
and reduce the amount of organic
compounds, Mr. Jack said.
The ozone reduces the amount
of chlorine needed to clean the
water as it travels through pipes
to the faucet. The town currently
uses chlorine gas, Mr. Jack said.
The new plant will use sodium
hydrochloride. The chemical
agent is not as powerful as the gas
and much less will be used in the
new plant, Mr. Jack said.
Ultraviolet radiation will also
be used to treat the water.
The granular activated carbon
filter treats the water after the
ozone stage. It acts like a Brita
Continued on Page 10
Finance
Committee
Wary Of Cost
To Maintain
New Athletic Field
By SAM HOUGHTON
Falmouth Finance Committee
made no recommendation on a
new athletic field proposed for
Falmouth High School, but members noted that there are issues
to be ironed out. Committee members agreed the existing fields
at the high school are in rough
shape, but they said that the cost
of maintaining an artificial turf
field should be considered.
The estimated cost for the field
is $2.7 million. The new synthetic
field would feature bleachers,
lights, a scoreboard, perimeter
fencing and an adjacent practice
field.
“This is a want and not a need,”
committee member Nicholas S.
Lowell said at the committee’s
meeting last Tuesday night. “Right
now, we are looking at needs.”
Mr. Lowell continued to express
his desire to see new fields at the
high school. He said that he has
heard complaints from coaches
from other schools about the disrepair of the fields when their
teams come to play in Falmouth.
Rocks and potholes are in the
fields, he said.
Committee member Paul Sellers echoed Mr. Lowell’s comments
but warned of the costs for maintenance. He said he spoke with a
school official from Duxbury that
maintains a similar turf field who
said that “it is a premium field and
it is nice to have one, but don’t be
fooled: there is maintenance required.” There is a need for specialized equipment and training
for a qualified manager, Mr. Sellers said.
Maintenance includes repairing patches where there is constant use, as well as watering the
field when the sun beats down on
it because it gets very hot.
Continued on Page 10
Former Mashpee Resident
A White Pride Activist
This afternoon it will be mostly
sunny. The high will be around 34; the
low will be around 26. Tomorrow, it
will be mostly sunny. The high will be
around 40 and the low will be around
36. Extended forecast for Thursday
is a chance of showers. High will be
around 50, with the low around 33.
74470 63864
One Dollar
DPW Director Explains
Plans For New Water
Treatment Facility
Weather Forecast
0
Two Sections - Sixteen Pages
Two-month-old Caitrin Mulrooney of Pocasset, the littlest St. Patrick’s Day reveler at Liam Maguire’s
Irish Pub & Restaurant, smiles with her father, Michael Mulrooney, yesterday afternoon.
By GEOFF SPILLANE
Mashpee residents, community
leaders, and alumni of the town’s
high school have expressed shock
upon learning that a global prowhite movement leader is one of
their own.
Kyle Hunt, 30, a 2002 graduate of Mashpee High School, has
been identified as the force behind last weekend’s worldwide
“White Man March” event.
A profile of Mr. Hunt appeared
in a blog entry on the website of
the Village Voice, a New York
City-based
alternative
weekly newspaper and website, on
Wednesday last week.
On the White Man March website, Mr. Hunt wrote that the purpose of the march is to spread
information through activism,
but also to make a statement that
“white people are united in their
love for their race and their opposition to its destruction.”
The main message of the organization is “diversity = white
genocide.”
“We will also be showing that
the old stereotypes about prowhite activists are false. The
media would like our people to
believe that pro-whites are all
Klansmen, Neo-Nazis, Skinheads,
and the like, which discourages
many white people from becoming advocates for their own interests. We will be showing that
many pro-whites are well-educated, attractive, and respectable
people who are concerned about
the future they and their families
are facing. We encourage people
to carry themselves with dignity,
pride, and professionalism when
demonstrating for their race,” Mr.
Hunt wrote.
He also claims that whites are
the victims of rape, home invasion,
murder, and other violence from
non-whites, and that whites fund
the housing, healthcare, schooling, food stamps, and “booming”
birth rates of non-whites.
The website indicates that the
marches will occur on a monthly
basis through 2014.
Continued on Page 10
Page Ten
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Water Treatment
Facility
A White Pride Activist
Continued from Page One
Continued from Page One
water filter, Mr. Jack said. The filter acts as a straining mechanism
as well as a carbon absorbent.
“Many synthetic organic compounds that we are concerned
with have a natural affinity for
carbon so that’s what makes it effective.”
Mr. Jack expects the designs to
be finished in October of this year
and that construction will begin
soon after.
The town built the pumping
station on Palmer Avenue in 1898
and it is on National Register of
Historic Places. The building
still has the original slate roof.
The building will be preserved,
Mr. Jack said.
The $46.5 million does not include the gradual process of
replacing the town’s old water
mains. Some pipes are more than
100 years old. In addition to the
age of the pipes, some are undersized and will eventually need
to be replaced, Mr. Jack said.
“Many peninsula areas only have
two-inch or less diameter water
mains serving multiple homes,”
Mr. Jack said. “At the same time, I
think the town has done very well
over the last two decades.”
The state repaved a number of
roads including Route 28 in East
Falmouth and the town added
new water mains at the same
time.
Hospital Auxiliary
Offering Scholarship
Falmouth Hospital Auxiliary
is once again offering the Patricia J. Davis scholarship of $2,000
to one high school senior who
lives in Falmouth and is planning a college course of study
in health care. Applications are
available at all high school guidance departments, the volunteer
office of Falmouth Hospital, by
e-mail at [email protected],
or by sending a stamped, selfaddressed envelope to Winnie
Fitzpatrick, PO Box 605, West
Falmouth, MA 02574. Completed
applications must be received
by April 5.
The Falmouth Enterprise
GENE M. MARCHAND/ENTERPRISE
Rossacroo-Na-Loo provides traditional Irish music at Liam Maguire’s Irish Pub & Restaurant yesterday.
Dismisses Most Claims Against Cape Wind
Continued from Page One
before it can reject the shut-down
option.
Mr. Rodgers said that Cape
Wind’s position is that shutting
down the turbines would be an
“over-reaction” to a “remote
risk.”
Regarding right whales, the
court heard two arguments from
the plaintiffs. First, that the National Marine Fisheries Service
(NMFS) erred in determining
that Cape Wind’s impact on right
whales will be “insignificant and
discountable.”
The court upheld that determination, stating that “The plaintiffs’ arguments to the contrary
fall flat.”
But the court did side with the
plaintiffs when they argued that,
although right whale impact was
anticipated to be “insignificant,”
because it was not determined
to be “nonexistent,” the NMFS
should have included a document called an “incidental take
statement” in its review of the
project.
Judge Walton agreed. “The
NMFS included no incidental
take statement for right whales,
despite the fact that the whales
have traversed the Cape Wind
project area and appeared along
routes that will be traveled by
project vessels... its failure to do
so was arbitrary and capricious,”
he wrote.
The total global right whale
population is estimated at 400
whales, Ms. Parker pointed out,
so any impact would be serious.
In more than 20 other instances, the judge sided with the government and Cape Wind. These
included claims that Cape Wind
poses a navigational hazard, that
the government’s analysis of alternatives was insufficient, and
the that project’s impact on birds
and fishing were not thoroughly
assessed.
Joining the Alliance to Protect
Nantucket Sound as plaintiffs in
the case were the Town of Barnstable, the Wampanoag Tribe of
Gay Head (Aquinnah), and the
Public Employees for Environ-
mental Responsibility.
Ms. Parker said the Alliance
to Protect Nantucket Sound is
evaluating which decisions to appeal.
Mr. Rodgers said Cape Wind
has so far announced $900 million
in financing for the project, and
there are “other announcements
coming.” He said the company
hopes to begin preliminary construction by the end of the year.
Cape Wind is not disclosing the
project’s total cost, but Reuters
news service gave the project a
$2.5 billion price tag.
Cape Wind plans to stage its operational and maintenance division out of Falmouth Harbor. Mr.
Rodgers said the company has
a purchase and sale agreement
to buy East Marine on Falmouth
Heights Road, and will close on
that deal once financing for the
project is secured.
Mr. Rodgers said Cape Wind
will use about half of the marina’s
boat slips and rent the remainder. It will continue to operate
the fuel dock, he said.
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Mr. Hunt also hosts a weekly radio show “The Blitzkrieg Broadcast” on Renegade Broadcasting,
an online radio station. Recent
broadcasts have focused on topics
ranging from an interview with
the director of “The Jewish Gas
Chamber Hoax,” a documentary
film claiming that the Holocaust
never happened, and “Turning
the Tide Against the Enemy,” a
discussion in which the goal was
to “raise white consciousness to a
higher level.”
In the Mashpee High School
Class of 2002 yearbook, Mr. Hunt
was named “Most Likely to Succeed” and one of two students
having the “Most School Spirit.”
He was the class valedictorian,
co-chairman of the school council, and the student representative to the Mashpee School Committee. He also played on the
football, lacrosse, and track and
field teams.
“Kyle was a very high-achieving student, and was instrumental in the establishment of a lacrosse program at Mashpee High
School. I haven’t had any contact
with Kyle for many years. I am
very disappointed that he would
be involved in this type of hate
speech,” said Mashpee school
superintendent Brian A. Hyde,
who also served as the Class of
2002 advisor.
Former Mashpee selectman
Theresa M. Cook was a school
committee member when Mr.
Hunt was the student representative to the committee.
“Kyle was the epitome of
clean-cut All-American guy. He
was an athlete, scholar, and was
extremely tolerant. He always
had a lot to offer to the school
committee. Should this prove to
Kyle Hunt, as pictured in the
Mashpee High School Class of
2002 Yearbook.
be true, I would be shocked,” Ms.
Cook said.
According to information in
his LinkedIn profile, Mr. Hunt
graduated from Amherst College
in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree
in psychology and theater and
dance. His professional experience includes several positions
with high technology companies,
including Google, in the Silicon
Valley of northern California.
The profile also indicates that
Mr. Hunt served as a research
intern at the Marine Biological
Laboratory in Woods Hole during
his senior year of high school.
Since last Thursday, attempts
to contact Mr. Hunt via phone
and e-mail have not been returned.
It is unclear whether he is still
living in town, although over the
weekend the South Side Chicago
Anti-Racist Action group listed
a possible Mashpee address for
Mr. Hunt on its homepage.
A Message Of Hope
Continued from Page One
to make it a more multicultural
newspaper,” said Mr. Spinner.
“Something more friendly rather
than focus on negative things, and
bring a positive light to the city.”
Mr. Butler says he was inspired
to write his book as he watched
Barack H. Obama become sworn
in as president in 2008. “My
spirit left me,” Mr. Butler said.
“I viewed my whole life in a few
seconds. We were no different
except the details of life. These
two journeys could inspire others.”
The book is also for his children, Gerard O. Harris, 43, of
Virginia and Raven Asani Dodson Butler, 11, of Rhode Island.
He doesn’t want any secrets between them. As a young boy, he
was devastated to learn that his
mother and brother had lied to
him when they told him his father went to the Korean War, but
who was in fact in federal prison.
“I lived a hedonistic lifestyle,”
said Mr. Butler. “I want my life to
be an open book. It’s important
that my children have a record
of what I did.”
What he won’t comment on
now, however, is his struggle with
alcoholism and the controversy
that led to the end of The Weekly
Compass and his return to Falmouth for recovery two years
ago. That is for the next book, he
said, the second in what he plans
to be a trilogy.
“Jim is helping himself and
others,” said his sponsor and
mentor in Falmouth, who asked
to remain anonymous. “It is dangerous ground, though. This (recognition) can feed ego. But I am
keeping a close eye on him.”
New Athletic Field
Continued from Page One
Committee
member
Susan
Smith said that they need to reach
out again to the Falmouth School
Committee for their support of
the field. “They did vote to support it originally, but we may want
to bring it up again,” Ms. Smith
said. With maintenance costs now
in the discussion, the school committee might want to readdress
the topic, she said.
Town Meeting will be asked
for additional money in April
as part of Article 25 submitted
by the All Purpose Community
Athletic Field Committee. A portion of funds for the field will be
funded with donations, including
a $500,000 commitment from the
Falmouth Road Race. The group
also received a promise of in-kind
donations that would include tree
removal, grading and seeding for
the practice field.
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JEFFREY URQUHART/ENTERPRISE
Best team average winners at the third annual Doggie Bowl on
Sunday were Bruno’s Bow Wows (from left), Kaitlyn Dematos
of Mashpee, Emma Munroe of East Falmouth, Ellie Mitchell of
Mashpee, and Maya Garcia of Falmouth, all age 10. In costume
behind the girls is Barbara Schneider of East Falmouth, who
helped organize the fundraiser at Ryan’s Family Amusements to
benefit Falmouth Dog Park.