Our View: Yes On Middle School Repairs

The Harwich Select Board is to be acknowledged for changing its vote to support borrowing to fund repairs to the Monomoy Regional Middle School. The initial vote against the funding seemed to us more like posturing — to get the attention of both the school building committee and Chatham officials — than sincere opposition to the project or the money involved. The tactic was successful, bringing the building committee to the board’s meeting Tuesday where members voted unanimously to support the school repair funds at the May 5 annual town meeting. But it also rubbed Chatham select board members the wrong way, putting a pall over Harwich-initiated talks about revising the regional school funding agreement. The middle school project, necessary to address structural problems that have resulted in water infiltration and poor indoor air quality, should be a priority and not a political issue. We urge approval of the expenditure by voters at both the Harwich and Chatham town meetings.

 We also endorse, once again, restrictions on fertilizer and pesticide use submitted to Harwich Town Meeting as citizen petitions. It’s a no-brainer that putting poison on the ground, where it easily leaches into the groundwater and surrounding coastal waterways, should be anathema. All Cape towns should adopt similar restrictions for the health and safety of all.