Recent events have served as a reminder of the importance of perseverance, vigilance, and ongoing engagement. We all share a tendency to rally behind the cause when a big issue rises to the top of the local political agenda, be it a land acquisition, a water quality vote or an important zoning change. What we all collectively do less well is stay on top of implementation to make sure that what was hard fought and won is not lost to the grind of implementation in the daily grind of local government.
The challenges and examples of potential backsliding abound. Recent talk of withdrawal from the Cape and Islands Water Protection Fund by the town of Brewster, the struggles of Orleans in developing a widely acceptable formula to allocate costs of their Phase 2 sewer extension project, efforts in many towns to rescind restrictions on single use plastic products, Mashpee slowing its Phase 2 wastewater plan, and Barnstable County’s difficulty in effectively allocating over $40 million in ARPA funds are all examples of how hard it is to implement change. Making progress, meaning taking big steps forward, requires attention to the details after initial success is achieved.
The forces that oppose big initiatives don’t just go away after a ballot measure or a referendum question passes. As is the case on plastic bans, the opponents take another bite at the apple and file town meeting petition articles to reverse the original decisions and unrealistic alternatives are offered up as real to deceive the public. Reversal proponents offer an updated bottle bill as the better public policy answer, while neglecting to mention that the bottlers and retail trade associations continue to aggressively work against the bill’s passage at the State House. In other instances, implementation progress can be stalled at the municipal level by staff indifference, competing priorities, or a lack of subject matter, experience, or competency. Another factor, and this is a big one here on Cape Cod, is our inherent tendency to resist regional solutions and a default to a town-centric view. Rather than focus on what is good for the region and to look for the solutions to common problems, towns behave as 15 islands and often default to a go-it-alone approach. This is clearly a factor as the county struggles to achieve consensus on the distribution of ARPA funds. The final factor that stalls progress is that the details can be hard to work through. People of goodwill are finding that to be the case in Orleans.
What is the answer? You are part of it. Get engaged at the start and stay involved until the problems are truly solved. That means signing up for the long haul. Passing the funding at town meeting to build the treatment plant is necessary but that in itself doesn’t fix water quality; getting the plant built and functioning is what solves the problem. Solving complicated problems takes commitment and as much brain power as can be brought to bear. Bring your brain to the table and help us all implement lasting improvements to our environment.
