b'C H A P T E R S E V E NSlow-paced spring was just appearing in 2002 when FCW appealed for nominations for year number 2. This time the list had six candidates, four of them carryovers from 2001, two of them new. And this year, the selection process would be different: the task would fall to the six-member executive committee. That seemed sound, but when the group met on June 14, it had shrunk to two (Maureen Vokey and Lew Kimball), plus the spark plug, the author; George Olmsted, away at that point, voted by proxy. Proceeding anyway, that nucleus ended by picking Douglas B. Wells, long a member and chairman of the Conservation Commission, and more recently chair of the Zoning Board of Appeals. He received the award at FCWs August 12 annual meeting.In spite of inevitable growing pains, the Captains Award was here to stay. And from the evidence, it did fill a void. Many of Chathams residents have cringed over suburban creep in their town. Until 2001, volunteers who have invested long hours trying to conserve and preserve waterways and bordering land have had far less visibility than the unavoidable builders signs cropping up beside huge tumuli of earth, fresh foundations, and Sand Casdes. Perhaps the Captains Award can help shore up the towns all-too-vulnerable quality of life by applauding someone who has given his or her energy and time without pay to saving Chatham water and land for future generations.Chathams Quality of Life: At Risk?It began quiedy, with no fanfare. An editorial column in The Chronicle inspired a Letter to the Editor. A cluster of FCW directors liked its message, and nine months later, the Friends staged one of the most ambitious projects in its history. That undertaking asked what residents of all neighborhoods thought about their towns quality of life, an essence that has been luring visitors since the middle of the 19th century.Written in early October 1997, the original column ran under Chronicle Associate Editor Tim Woods byline. In it he urged townspeople to think seriously about what change might be doing to their community. Two weeks later, on October 23, The Chronicle printed a letter from a resident whod moved to Chatham in 1989. Thanking Wood for putting the town on Yellow Alert, the writer went on this way:116'