To the Editor:
I had a dream last night … an anxiety dream. I dreamt that I was living alongside Shipyard Park in Town, and I was asking the Board of Selectmen for permission to take part of the park for a vegetable garden. The anxiety came from half the Town being angry and objecting to my request. I was happy when I woke up and found that it was just a dream. Although I’m not big on dream interpretations, I couldn’t help but wonder … where the heck did that dream come from? And then it hit me … it was the pier … the pier being proposed for Goodspeed Island.
The more I thought about it, the more I was sure … yes, it was the pier. And it came from my lifelong love for the “Island.”
You see my family, including my parents and grandparents, has lived next to the Island almost my whole life. And as a kid, I was always “at the Island” with the other kids. We built forts there, went quahogging, fishing and crabbing.
I can tell you where the second train trestle was located (by the pumping station), where the bayberry and beach plum bushes were, where the best crabbing was, and where to catch shrimp for bait.
The Island gives us so much. The view from the Island is spectacular. The beach invites you to walk along the shore and hunt for shells and stones … something I did as a kid, have done with my own kids, and still do now with the grandchildren.
The waters off the beach are unique in that they are shallow for a distance out into the harbor. Being shallow, they have always leant themselves to many activities. I learned how to sail a sailfish here, scuba dive and snorkel. I went “frost fishing” with my Father along the shore in the dead of winter. I can tell you that when you walk down to the Island and come to the clearing for the beach, if you took 100 steps more from that large rock on your left, then turned and walked into the water, you’d find one of the best sandbars around.
What makes this area so great is that you can do all these things along the shore unimpeded. You can kayak and fish along the shore from one end to the other. You can fall off your sailfish or wind surfer while learning and then stand up because it is shallow. The shallow waters are safe and friendly. And in the fall, you can scallop right off the beach. Many people enjoy these same things and also enjoy just sitting or sun bathing while their kids play in the water or hunt for shells.
So now I understand my anxiety dream. It wasn’t about a garden … it was about the pier being proposed right in the middle of all this. A pier that won’t just gobble up the space it is built on, but will render useless to the rest of us a much larger area when you take into consideration the boat traffic going to and from the pier. It will break the continuity of the waterfront.
I do not know the people proposing the pier, they are probably very nice, may be a lot nicer than me. If I had their ear, I think I would ask them, “Why do you need your own pier when right next door is Shipyard Park and the wharf area with several piers that the Town works very hard to maintain for all of us?” The Town has added lighting, pump-out services, floats for dinghies and rowboats and even racks for kayaks.
I might even venture to say, “Did you ever think about withdrawing your request to build a pier. You know the harbor is not really that big and every pier, every area sectioned off for someone’s private use, is that much less that the general public can use, especially in the area of the Island.”
Someday, in the not too distant future, the Town will be looking to the Island as the main town beach. We don’t have many beaches in Town. The bike path will soon be passing all along the Island beach and access to the Island beach will be from both Depot Street and Reservation Road. And I think it’s just a matter of time before the Town lays down some more sand to make it even more inviting.
I don’t think those proposing the pier know that before there were any houses on the Island, Dan Mahoney stood up at the town meeting and asked us to give him a right of way so his family and friends could drive from Depot Street to his new house on the Island. That’s all he wanted, plain and simple … no pier, nothing that would intrude on the public’s use of the Island, just a simple right of way. He had nothing else in mind.
But I don’t have their ear, so I won’t be telling them all these things.
I apologize for rambling. I just felt that if I didn’t speak up, I’d be letting my old friend, the Island, down. The Island is a wonderful retreat. She gives us a lot and will continue to welcome us to hunt for shells and enjoy the sandbars and soft tides, if we are just willing to protect her for everyone’s use.
You might ask, “How does this concern me?” Well, the Island beach doesn’t have a voice, so it’s up to us to speak for her and for our children, grandchildren and many, many unborn children who years from now would thank us for taking the time to save the Island so they, too, could enjoy the beach, the unbroken waters and the views.
Thank you for listening.
Bob Moore, Mattapoisett
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