Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

SIMON O'CONNOR/Stuff

Dawn Hickling has built a fence on the same spot as her old picket fence that had been there since 1983, but the council is not happy.

A New Plymouth woman has taken offence at the treatment she's received from the district council over her fence.

Baring Tce resident Dawn Hickling replaced a picket fence that had been front of the home she owns since 1983 with a taller version in May last year.

However, the move resulted in two complaints being laid with the New Plymouth District Council and Hickling was told she needed to move the fence back about one metre as it intruded on to public land.

But she has refused to give in, pointing out that other fences and hedges on the street jut out just as far.

Im not going to be told that Ive done something illegal and Im not going to be held responsible for the 1983 fence that they now say is illegal," Hickling said.

READ MORE:* Fence must move after two complaints to New Plymouth District Council* Building tiny houses to create jobs for Taumarunui youth

The council maintains it is about access to public land and its mapping website shows the fence is indeed beyond the propertys boundary.

Hickling received a letter on Saturday, February 6, telling her she had until March 1 to at least have a removal date set.

As far as Im concerned it's still not the final.

On January 26, she spoke to the council's strategy and operations committee but said it was like it never happened. She also offered to pay an encroachment fee.

It's like theyve made this decision and they havent taken anything on board from that meeting, and that really pisses me off.

SIMON O'CONNOR/Stuff

Hickling has been told she has to move the fence about a metre back.

Hickling said she had been told she would face a $1000 fine, plus $50 for every additional day the fence was not moved.

Ive been a law-abiding citizen for 59 years and Im not going to be told Ive done something wrong.

NPDC said it was working through the issue with the property owners and going through due process.

Last month, the day after the meeting, NPDC transport manager Rui Leitao said in a statement that they had been talking with the owner for months to try and find an amicable solution.

At the heart of the matter is retaining public access to public land. When the owner replaced a low picket fence with a high solid fence (encroachment) which made it difficult for pedestrians, pushchairs and mobility scooters to move along the narrow footpath, resulting in us receiving two complaints last year.

Its important to note many encroachments, or intrusions into another space over time, have long and complicated histories and we work hard to find amicable solutions.

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New Plymouth woman goes on the fence offensive - Stuff.co.nz

by: EverythingLubbock.com Digital Media Staff | newsweb@everythinglubbock.com

(Nexstar Media Group/EverythingLubbock.com Staff)

LUBBOCK, Texas Firefighters were dispatched to a reported structure fire in East Lubbock Sunday afternoon.

The fire was reported around 3:05 p.m. in the 3400 block of East 16th Street.

Lubbock Fire Rescue told EverythingLubbock.com the fire originated in backyard shed, ignited a fence and was beginning to ignite the house.

Firefighters were able to quickly extinguish the fire and no injuries were reported.

LFR said the home received some smoke but no fire damage.

There was also some light damage to the exterior of an adjacent home and damage to some power lines.

One adult was receiving assistance from the Red Cross, LFR said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

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LFR battles shed fire that spread to fence, threatened 2 homes in East Lubbock Sunday - KLBK | KAMC | EverythingLubbock.com

An officer at the scene talks to the suspect, according to a neighbor. [Photo by Macy Brown]

The Sergeant said that at 3:37 a.m. we received a 911 caller that said he heard something break out front. When officers arrived at the scene, Ellebrecht said, We located the suspects vehiclea 2004 Mustang[It] had collided with 2016 Kia and a 2017 Chevy, a 1989 Oldsmobile and a fence.

Macy Brown, a neighbor told us,

We didnt see it but it woke us up. I live right next door to where he landed and our other neighbor was awake and saw it. He hit the Chevy and the Oldsmobile across the street then was trying to leave, floored it and drove across the lawn into the Kia on the opposite side of the street, inches from his house. It pushed the Kia into the fence. He then was still trying to leave and had the car in reverse but must have messed up the transmission as the car wasnt wanting to go and was making an awful grinding noise right before the police showed up.

Sgt Ellebrecht said that Nazario Guzman-Becerra was booked for a misdemeanor DUI.

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[UPDATED] Driver Hits Multiple Cars and a Fence in Early Morning Crash, Says Fortuna PD Redheaded Blackbelt - Redheaded Blackbelt

The differences between Missouris general and optional fence laws will be discussed at a program to be held in person and online via Zoom on February 23rd and March 8th.

Sessions will be held at the Harrison County Extension Center of Bethany, Adair County Extension Center of Kirksville, and North Central Missouri College Barton Farm Campus of Trenton the night of February 23rd from 6:30 to 9 oclock. Other sessions will be held at the Macon County Extension Center of Macon and Jonis Shed of Hamilton on the night of March 8th from 6:30 to 9 oclock.

Extension Agricultural Business Specialist Joe Koenen of Putnam County will present the fence law programs. He has given presentations on fence law for more than 25 years.

University of Missouri Extension County Engagement Specialist in Agriculture and Environment Jackie Spainhower explains that, in 1963, the Missouri legislature authorized counties to adopt a local option to the general fence law, which could be created by a majority vote of any countys registered voters. She notes there are 19 counties that have the optional law, and the majority are in North Central Missouri.

Space for in-person programs will be limited at some locations due to COVID-19 precautions.

The registration fee is $15. Visit extension.missouri.edu/events and search for fence law to register for the February 23rd or March 8th sessions. Spainhower can be contacted for more information or for help with registering for the session at Bethany by calling the Harrison County Extension Center at 660-425-6434 or Worth County Extension Center at 660-564-3363.

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Audio: Missouri fence laws topic of in-person program on February 23 and March 8, 2021 - kttn

National Review

During his Super Bowl interview on CBS Evening News, President Joe Biden declared that all the economics of a $15 minimum-wage hike were good. What he meant to say was, all the politics of a $15 minimum wage are good. The economics are highly debatable. A minimum-wage hike quenches the populist appetite of many voters. After all, it seemingly costs them nothing to compel greedy big business CEOs to pay the proletariat fairer wages. The problem is that a minimum wage is a tax on goods and services, and its not the big businesses that suffer, but small ones who cant afford it. Nor are minimum-wage workers a static group of poor Americans. In fact, 58 percent of them are young workers. Minimum-wage policy marginally improves the lives of Americans working their way up the ladder, and in the meantime destroys millions of entry-level jobs. Even the CBO says that while a $15 minimum wage would lift 900,000 out of poverty, it would eliminate 1.4 million jobs. Or, as Thomas Sowell likes to remind us, the real minimum wage is zero. It should also be remembered that minimum-wage policy is not a federal concern. Treating the wages of those who live in NYC as you would those in Alabama is simply bad policy. Though Democrats, of course, want a national minimum wage to create a hard floor so they can keep spiking it locally. Theres very little real debate on the topic in major media. Bidens all the economics comment is reminiscent of Barack Obamas absurd claim that every economist believed in his stimulus plan. Such declarations are meant to create the veneer of scientific consensus and certitude, a myth that the media is almost always happy to advance. When the Cato Institute found 200 economists to counter Obamas claim, three of them Nobel laureates James Buchanan, Edward Prescott, and Vernon Smith they had to take out a full-page ad in the New York Times to be heard. It was not true then, and is not true now, that all the economics of the minimum wage, or much else, is settled. As New York Times columnist Paul Krugman once noted, any Econ 101 student can tell you that higher wage reduces the quantity of labor demanded, and hence leads to unemployment. Indeed, for a long time, there was a strong consensus on the matter. Today, Krugman, who has seen the light, uses unconvincing argumentum ad populum to bolster his case for raising the minimum wage, as it is immensely popular; its supported by around 70 percent of voters, including a substantial majority of self-identified Republicans. Even those extremists, strewn across the wastelands of middle America, get it, I guess. And though Krugman doesnt mention his own expedient partisan conversion on the issue, he notes: Its true that once upon a time there was a near-consensus among economists that minimum wages substantially reduced employment. But that was long ago. These days only a minority of economists think raising the minimum to $15 would have large employment costs, and a strong plurality believe that a significant rise although maybe not all the way to $15 would be a good idea. Anyone who bothers clicking on the hyperlinks offered by Krugman will quickly find out they are being misled. The Initiative on Global Markets (IGM) at the University of Chicagos Booth School of Business link, for instance, does not show resounding majority support for a federal Biden-style minimum wage. Claims of a strong plurality also appear to be a stretch, while discounting the large cross-section of economists who are undecided. Krugman fails to mention that in the 2015 survey he hyperlinks, 26 percent of economists believe a flat $15 federal minimum wage would lower employment for low-wage workers, while 24 percent said otherwise, and 38 percent werent sure. As for whether doing so would substantially increase aggregate output in the economy, just 2 percent agreed. Krugman fails to mention that the 2013 survey he links to, for even a $9 federal minimum wage, shows 34 percent agreed that it would cost jobs, 24 percent were uncertain, and 32 percent disagreed. A plurality indicated that there could be net benefits to a $9 wage indexed to inflation, which, of course, isnt the Biden plan. In the 2021 survey, conducted just this month, a panel of over 80 economic experts were queried on the subject of the $15 minimum wage, and the results do not suggest any consensus. When IGM posed this statement, A federal minimum wage of $15 per hour would lower employment for low-wage workers in many states, 45 percent agreed, and 33 percent were unsure. Only 14 percent disagreed. When presented with the statement, A federal minimum wage that is pegged to state and/or local conditions such as the cost of living would be preferable to the current arrangements that give states a role in setting the policy, 42 percent either strongly agreed or agreed, another 42 percent were uncertain, and only 9 percent disagreed. Bidens plan is to federalize minimum-wage laws. Many economists like the idea in theory, but many are still unsure, and just as many see the downside for employment. But Krugman and Biden are merely trying to shut down debate. And they have plenty of help.

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There Are Ways To Protect The Capitol Without A Fence - Yahoo News

Theyre wise, Dinkel said. They said, You always have to start a conversation like that with empathy.

The class explored the idea of an empirical truth in science, and how to use that truth to educate other people. As the students designed their videos, Dinkel circulated around the lab space, reminding students of how empathy is crucial when trying to encourage people to see a different perspective.

Our goal is not to alienate or belittle, Dinkel said. Our goal is to recognize that people's concerns are really valid and they're rational. And so thats your mission as scientists, is to offer them in an accessible way, entertaining way, evidence that helps them consider a different point of view.

To start, the students researched some myths and misconceptions about COVID vaccines.

Then they studied, as this video shows, what the coronavirus is, how its spread, how it interacts with the lungs and the immune system response, how precisely the vaccine works, how messenger RNA gets into your cells to make antibodies to fight the virus later on.

The students say they can understand why there are so many myths and misconceptions about the vaccine. Its new science. Its the first time a vaccine has used messenger RNA as the molecular agent used to teach the body how to recognize and fight the virus. Hayden Wright said his group is tackling the spooky myth that mRNA will alter peoples DNA.

We have to explain that the mRNA doesn't actually affect the area of the DNA, it's the layer outside of it, he said.

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On The Fence About COVID Vaccines? These Teens Want To Talk To You - Colorado Public Radio

As a kid, I heard of oversalted soil on which nothing would grow anymore. In ancient times, sometimes, the winners of a battle would salt the earth of their defeated enemy in order to prevent future harvests; Roman general Scipio Aemilianus Africanus did this to Carthage after the third Punic War. You wouldnt believe, therefore, how that Bible verse, Matthew 5:13, bewildered me back then that being the salt of the earth was something desirable. Nor did it occur to myself how much influence on our western cultures salt has had. These days, having not many better things to do than pondering and writing, the topic of salt popped up in my mind. And its only partly as a culinary matter.

Of course, we all know that salt is a mineral. The chemistry fans amongst us know that the edible ones formula is NaCl as in Latin natrium chloride; English chemist Sir Humphry Davy used caustic soda when isolating the element, therefore, the English language uses the term sodium, not natrium. Quite interesting already, isnt it? We all know that all forms of life need a certain amount of salt as an electrolyte, but that in human nourishment an overly amount of salt can cause hypertension and heart diseases. We also know that there is rock salt and sea salt, and that kosher salt is coarse rock salt and has no additives like iodine. But did you know that the salt in itself is not produced under any kosher rules but used for dry-brining aka koshering meat?

As I walk the grocery aisles and grab another pack of salt, just as I would pluck a flower or an herb in my garden, it occurs to me that I will pay for it with money that comes from another salty term, a salary. Indeed, salt was so precious in former times that Roman soldiers got paid extra-money to buy salt, the salarium. Another word that dates back to the Romans is salad; they used to salt lettuce leaves. Food items like salsa, sauce, saucisson (the French term for sausage, which also seems to be of a salty linguistic heritage), and salami all derive from the Romanic word salis, salt.

Because salt was so rare and hard to extract out of rock or sea, it had to be imported sometimes from places as far as China. Salt routes developed, and to this day, you can still recognize through which places they went. Has it ever occurred to you that Salzburg, Austria, means salt fortress? And that the Salzach, which streams through it, was used for the transport of salt on floats, and its meaning is salt river? That the ancient German currency of Heller was coined off the term halhus, which was a building in which the rock salt was extracted from the rock, and that a Heller signified the value of a certain amount of salt? That a Hellweg in Germany simply means salt route? That Christopher Columbus travels were at least partly financed by Spanish salt taxes, and that one of the causes for the French Revolution was an excessive salt tax? Why? Consider that salt was used to preserve food preserving food was always also a thing of frugality; and now think of all the people who couldnt even afford as much salt as they needed. It would be as if our freezers and refrigerators were constantly without power! Salt taxes were one of the causes for the American Revolution (not just taxes on tea) as well as the cause for Ghandis Independence Movement in India.

Bread and salt are welcoming and housewarming gifts in numerous cultures to this day. Salt is supposed to bring good luck if you toss three pinches over your left shoulder; I prefer not to, as I am not superstitious and Id have to clean the mess But it means bad luck if you accidentally spill some. I have my doubts that the adage take it with a pinch of salt comes from the fact that salt makes something more palatable to swallow, as it means to interpret something more skeptically. I think it means that salt brings out some underlying flavors that otherwise you might not perceive. But that is just MY humble pondering.

So, after all these salty facts (and this concerns just the edible portion of it), the Bible verse is so much more logical. Salt of the earth is something incredibly precious, hard to be gained. Come to think of it, there is also a fairy tale that has a king ask his three daughters how much they love him. He rages and bans his youngest from the court when she answers that she loves him like salt; thereafter she secretly works in the kings kitchen and cooks all his meals without salt you may guess what this leads to. And, of course this tale comes from Southern Germany, a salt producing region. Of some Northern Germans legend has it that you need to eat a pound of salt with them before they befriend you figure how long it takes to eat a pound There are a lot more saucy tales and adages about the topic of salt. Dig around they are out there

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Across the Fence: Salt On Our Tongues - The Suburban Times

Frost seeding, a method of broadcasting seeds over snow- or frost-covered pastures, improves poor pastures at a low cost.

Seeds work their way into the soil and germinate as the ground freezes and thaws between winter and spring.

But University of Missouri Extension state forage specialist Craig Roberts said forage yield and quality improve when legumes are frost-seeded at the right time.

In most of Missouri, broadcast annual lespedeza, red clover or white clover in mid-February when there is snow or heavy frost, and into late February in the northern counties.

Seeds need the freeze-and-thaw action for good seed-to-soil contact and to pull the seed to the soils top layer, Robert said. The best contact occurs on exposed soil. Plant residue prevents seeds from reaching soil, but the hoofing action of cattle can work seeds into the soil.

New plants need time to grow without competition from grass canopies for light and nutrients, so apply little or no nitrogen in spring. Graze or clip frost-seeded pastures in spring and summer to allow light to reach seedlings.

Legumes extend the grazing season by producing better in late spring and summer when fescue does not grow or grows slowly.

Adding red clover to common tall fescue fields solves some animal health issues, Robert said.

More than 90% of Missouri fields contain toxic Kentucky 31 tall fescue, and adding legumes limits fescue toxicosis by diluting pastures.

Adding red clover also reduces vasoconstriction, the narrowing of blood vessels. In summer, vasoconstriction causes heat to build up in an animals core body. In winter, blood does not flow to extremities, and hooves fall off. Compounds in red clover open blood flow to prevent this.

Preventing fruit tree disease

Winter is a great time for orchard owners and fruit tree gardeners to create a plan for the coming growing season.

Keeping a journal of activities of management and care is essential in caring for fruit trees, University of Illinois Extension horticulture educator Andrew Holsinger said.

The most effective way to care for tree fruit diseases is to know when to spray fungicides and herbicides. A tree often is infected long before symptoms are observed, and prevention is key to tree health, especially with fungal diseases.

Some sprays can only be applied in late winter and early spring to prevent disease before the leaves have emerged, Holsinger said. Diseases often develop because a spray wasnt applied.

Fruit tree disease prevention starts early by choosing disease-resistant varieties. Only plant top-quality, healthy nursery stock to avoid failure.

Good tree sanitation also is important in preventing disease.

Inspect trees for mummies, which are unpicked, withered and infected fruits that carry spores and can cause problems during the next season. Cleaning up fallen leaves and fruits after the harvest is a good practice to reduce the number of fungal spores, especially apple scab, for the next year.

Pruning is probably the most neglected aspect of disease control, Holsinger said. Pruning allows for more air circulation, light penetration and more adequate spray coverage.

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Forage yield, quality improve with frost-seeded legumes - Herald-Whig

Only a tiny minority of Americans want to see American wild horses sent to slaughter to make room for more livestock grazing on public lands.

Obviously, we dont see most Americans giving up their hamburgers and steaks, so the demands for beef, lamb and pork are slowly increasing. But do we need to kill wild horses in slaughter houses?

And is this even a wise use of these publicly-owned wild horses?

The Questions of Value AriseAre wild horses more valuable in a pet food can and/or sitting in exile, wasting away in a Bureau of Land Management off-range corral costing American taxpayers nearly $100-million per year? Is there a much higher value proposition thats been overlooked?

What about the undeniable billion-dollar economics of using wild horses in a wildfire fuel abatement role protecting human lives, assets, forest and timber resources, as well as other tertiary benefits?

Since the codification of the 1971 Free-Roaming Wild Burro and Horse Protection Act five decades ago, there have been many profound breakthroughs and discoveries in science. For instance, modern paleontology informs us that wild horses have successfully maintained habitats in virtually every biome on the planet ranging from sub-arctic to tropical.

We also now know that wild horses survived the Ice Age in forests, as we read here in Cosmos magazine.

Given recently discovered facts, as far as equine genetics (including epigenetics), paleontological ecology (habitats and ranges of wild equids based-on fossil records), and through the cultural archaeology of native Americans and their horses, which arguably pre-date the Columbian Period, would planners today draw the same lines on maps defining areas for wild horses under any new law for their protection?

I seriously doubt it. Comparing what we know today, to what we knew in the 1960s and in early 1971, its clear we knew very little about wild horses, as well as their history and ecology.

And even by todays standards, we still have much to learn in many areas. Scant funding is provided for the study of American wild horses in comparison to studies related to livestock.

In a world where we have more people than ever wanting more resources than ever before, financial considerations must not be discounted.

Native species wild horse reducing wildfire fuels in rugged wilderness terrain. Photos courtesy William E. Simpson II.

What is the real value of an American wild horse?

I would respond, to those with love in their hearts; the sum is beyond quantification.

To those who render meat? An 800-pound horse is worth about $160.00 (20-cents per pound wholesale).

To those who have knowledge of recent scientific facts and vision; each wild horse is worth at least $72,000.00.

Why Each American Wild Horse Is Worth About $72,000Each wild horse deployed into and around remote forest and wilderness areas with depleted deer populations can abate 5.5 tons of wildfire fuels (grass and brush) annually about 30 pounds/day/horse.

As an evolved North American native species, wild horses are quite at-home in and around forests and areas that are virtually inaccessible, especially wilderness areas.

For comparison, on average, deer consume about 7 pounds of grass and brush per day, per animal. Many remote wilderness areas are poorly suited to commercial livestock grazing due to the extensive predation of calves and lambs, and logistics cost related to poor accessibility and very difficult terrain.

These and other factors significantly reduce profitability to livestock producers who use public lands grazing permits. Losing calves and lambs is not an option of livestock production.

And at least in wilderness areas, depleting all of the Apex Predators is unwise, and is what has led to the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease.

Apex predators have evolved with unique skills that allow them to quickly cull and sick or genetically weak animals from the populations of large and small herbivores. Their predation as it turns-out is vital in preventing deer sick with Chronic Wasting Disease from remaining among populations of healthy deer and spreading the disease. Predators quickly cull diseased deer and elk and that helps to prevent the spread of that deadly disease.

Western forests are depleted of deer due to poor wildlife management. California and Oregon are down over 2 million deer over the past five decades even as Chronic Wasting Disease is spreading, and is now in at least 27 states. These now missing deer had been abating nearly 3 million tons of grass and brush. It will take decades to correct our depleted deer populations.

A re-wilded American wild horse, which is resistant to Chronic Wasting Disease, will abate about 5.5 tons of prodigious grass and brush annually in and around forests. 5.5 tons of grass and brush equals roughly 5-7 acres of grass and brush (varies with area), which can easily be maintained by wild horses year-round at nominal levels without any human intervention or the added risk of man-caused wildfires, especially during summer.

The Value Of Wildfire Reduction By American Wild HorsesAccording to Science Magazine:

By altering the quantity and distribution of fuel supplies, large herbivores can shape the frequency, intensity, and spatial distribution of fires across a landscape. There are even unique interactions among large herbivore populations that can influence fire regimes.

In order to accomplish the same task of deployed wild horses in the mitigation of prodigious grass and brush levels in areas of remote and difficult wilderness terrain, it would require 2-men about 4-5 weeks of work, using hand tools, according to at least one article.

It is important to note that motorized equipment and methods are by law prohibited in wilderness areas, as well as impractical due to rugged terrain.

Each human laborer requires a minimum wage of about $15.00/hour, which equals $120/day/laborer, or $240.00 per day for two men. This ($240.00/day) is multiplied by the minimum of 4-weeks (20-work days), which equals about $4,800.00 in cost, which is comparable to the effect of one American wild horse grazing for one-year.

There are also human resource issues involved with this method, which add more costs. So, using man-power, we arrive at a per-acre-cost for grass and brush abatement of $685.71 per acre. This is based upon the greatest average efficiency ($4,800.00 divided by 7-acres treated).

Now, we look at the comparative costs of using wildlife (wild horses) to do the same job:

An American wild horse abates excess grass and brush fuel from wildfires on the same 7-acres virtually at no cost to taxpayers.

In wilderness areas, this is critically important since virtually all traditional fuel treatment method used by the USFS and other agencies are prohibited, with good reason.

According to the USFS, even in areas where their most cost-effective method fuel treatment is allowed, which is prescribed burning; the cost to taxpayers for that is $400.00 per acre and more.

The western landscape has tens-of-millions of acres that have annually recurring grass and brush wildfire fuels.

Native species American wild horses seen cleaning wildfire fuels off a forest floor.

Prescribed Burning A Terrible Prescription For Controlling Wildfire FuelsBased upon the best recent science related to the health and welfare of humans and wildlife, prescribed burning is a terrible prescription for the control of annual grass and brush wildfire fuels.

Like wildfires, so-called prescribed burns release millions of tons of toxic compounds as a part of the composition of the smoke that is released into the air. And some wildlife, especially reptiles, amphibians and ground birds are overcome and killed by the smoke and heat. Further still, some prescribed burns get out of control and become uncontrolled wildfires, as we have seen in past situations, destroying hundreds of homes.

An American wild horse will live about 15-20 years in a wilderness environment and has no human resource issues; they dont need management or pay-checks; they dont sue anyone and they dont start fires.

Each American wild horse deployed into a wilderness wildfire fuels maintenance role will yield about $72,000.00 in work value over its life ($4,800 each year X 15 years).

The value of a wild horse in a wildfire fuels mitigation roll is a multiple of 450-times the value of the same horse rendered as meat.

Its clearly obtuse to even consider using wild horses for slaughter given that on top of the $72,000.00, there is added value to that outlined above in regard to the savings to taxpayers in firefighting costs, increased insurance costs, value of natural resources lost, increase health costs from smoke, loss of economic value in communities due to fire damage to properties leading to loss of tax role values, etc.

Furthermore, having evolved on the North American continent 55 million years ago, wild horses have documented symbiotic mutualisms with both forest and soils ecosystems that invasive species cattle and sheep do not have as ruminants.

Wild horses are monogastric digestors (single stomach) and pass both humus and viable native plant seeds back onto the soils they graze, which restores fire-damages soils and allows the evolved symbiotic re-seeding of native plants; critical to the survival of native flora and the fauna dependent on the native flora.

Furthermore, the ecologically-sound wildfire grazing by native species American wild horses sequesters carbon compounds back into soils. Wildfires and prescribed burns volatilize these compounds into our air and atmosphere, further accelerating climate change

The Good News!We have a ready-made solution via a draft outline for a legislative bill that could save American taxpayers billions of dollars annually! That draft as well as other information can be found at http://www.WHFB.us

William E Simpson II

William E. Simpson II is a naturalist, author, and conservationist living in the Soda Mountain wilderness area among the wild horses that he studies.

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OPINION: The Dollars and Cents of America's Wild Horses - Pagosa Daily Post

Doug Fraser|Cape Cod Times

HARWICH Thanks to COVID-19, the proposal for Harwich, Dennis and Yarmouth to form a regional wastewater district that will build a new treatment plant in Dennis was postponed a year. But voters in all three towns will get to vote on the agreementat town meetings this spring.

Last month, Harwich selectmen voted to place an article on their annual town meeting warrant asking voters to approve joining the Dennis Harwich Yarmouth Clean Waters Community Partnership. Yarmouth selectmen have also put it on their spring town meeting warrant.

Laurie Barr, the Dennis town administrators executive assistant, said selectmen have not yet voted to put articles on the warrant, but Suzanne Brock, a member of the towns Wastewater Implementation Committee, said her committee, which includes a representative from the selectmen, voted to place it on this springs warrant.

Last year, select boards from all three towns approved putting the article on their 2020 town meeting warrants.

The goal is to reap the savings of regionalization as opposed to each town building its own treatment facility.

An estimate provided by consultant David Young of CDM Smith showed the cost of building the wastewater treatment facility, installing the main pipe bringing sewage to the plant and the discharge infrastructure would cost approximately $289 million if each town built its own facility. A regional plant was estimated to cost $213 million, and that $76 million savings was augmented by $6.5 million in the annual cost savings for operations and maintenance of a regional facility.

It cant be overlooked that the efficiency of the regional approach ends up saving each town a lot of money, said Yarmouth Selectman Mark Forest, chairman of the board.

Cape Cod and all of Southeastern Massachusetts is dealing with a wastewater contamination problem that has degraded the water quality of coastal bays, rivers and ponds. Nitrogen and other contaminants in wastewater discharge largely from individual septic systems but also road runoff and lawn and agricultural practices acts like lawn fertilizer promoting the rapid growth of algae in the water. The algae outcompete other native plants and use up the oxygen in the water-creating dead zones.

Cape Cod's cleanup is detailed inwhat is known as Section 208 of the Clean Water Act regional plan. That update, which included more regional approaches,is the result of a 2014 settlement agreement between the Environmental Protection Agency and the Conservation Law Foundation.

CLF has filed more lawsuits in recent years as they see progress moving too slowly in Cape towns. The implicit threat is having a judge decide how the Capes cleanup will proceed instead of towns determining the best and most cost-efficient solutions.

Understandably, financing projects with price tags in the hundreds of millions of dollars had been the big hang-up for most towns, andfor Yarmouth in particular. After a failed vote in 2011, Yarmouth officials decided to remove wastewater projects from the property tax base by using a combination of a surcharge added to the short-term rental tax, a dedicated state clean water fund from the short-erm rental tax, Community Preservation Act money, revenues from solar power projects, and betterments assessed for those who are served by the sewage system.

The DHY regional agreement, which was approved by the state Legislature in 2019, directly stems from the updated regional plan with a watershed approach instead of town by town. Approval of the agreement at town meetings this spring would create a seven-member Wastewater Partnership Commission that oversees the project from construction to annual operation.

Yarmouth will have the highest level of wastewater flowing to the plant and bears the largest burden of construction and other costs, so the commission will include three representatives from Yarmouth, and two each from Dennis and Harwich.

Yarmouth Department of Public Works Director Jeff Colby said that once the agreement is approved, the commission would start contracting for design work on the treatment facility. Unlike major municipal projects that come to town meeting for approval of funds to do design, engineering and construction phases, the towns would be billed by the district for the work, and taxpayer and voter input into the process would go through the wastewater commission, said Colby.

But an additional layer of review was built into the process as the Clean Waters district has to go to select boardsfor approval of their budget and projects, said Colby. Colby said the project will need two years for design and another two for construction with the first flow of sewage to the plant in 2025.

We might be able to tighten that up, Colby said.

The project still seems to be in line for all three towns to take advantage of Massachusetts Department of Transportation road work on Route 28, scheduled for 2024, to save millions by incorporating sewage pipe installation in that project.

Follow Doug Fraser on Twitter:@dougfrasercct

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Yarmouth, Dennis and Harwich to vote on wastewater pact at town meetings - Cape Cod Times