b'C H A P T E R T E NSoon after, FCW entered tEie picture. With a board meeting set for December 10, an invitation went out to the CPA study group to come explain the legislations provisions. Thatrequest went to the committee chairman, Coleman Yeaw. A man whose family roots in Chatham stretched back to the birth of the 20th century, Colie Yeaw had been a soldier on the Conservation Commission for ten years, chairing it in 1995 and 1996, presiding over its rigorous schedule of four meetings a month. When it came to local land uses, he was neither dilettante nor theoretician; he knew his stuff.Coming into the FCW board meeting, Colie Yeaw was no stranger to most FCWs directors there. Friendship aside, they pressed him on several aspects of CPA, especially on what aficionados saw as its Achilles heel, that 3 percent surcharge tax.Hadnt the people of Chatham already been hit with an extra tax to pay for the Land Bank? Where was it going to end?At any rate, Yeaw stepped up to a few of the directors fast balls, then left.With that, the board raked over CPAs intricacies, and finally voted to raise its collective voice for CPA before the January 02 Special Town Meeting. Among otherColeman Yeaw, known to many as things, that support took the shape of aColie, led the challenging effort half-page ad in The Chronicle. When residentsto win passage of the Community Preservation Act.It was touch and congregated at the special session ingo, mainly because voter approval January 02, they voted 213 to 187 for CPA. brought with it a 3 percent surThat handed the issue along to the regularcharge tax.But with Yeaw and Town Election in May. other boosters out on the stump day Marketing CPA: First, though, theand night, the issue passed not once, but twice.Gordon Zellnerissue had to be explained once again to voters.A new, self-appointed committee set to work selling a Wes vote. And FCW stayed active, too.Heading up the CPA group, Colie Yeaw found that FCW helped provide excellent advice on a series of (the groups) ads in the paper. The Friends advertised, too, buying affirmative ads in The Chronicle. At the local election following May Town Meeting, the matter of CPA, Yes or No, turned into a nail-biter.No question, that 3 percent surcharge bugged a lot of taxpayers. But when the hands aloft were counted, citizens had approved CPA, 828 to 800.Thus, Chatham qualified as the only Cape town to pass the measure and one of 58 in the entire Commonwealth in favor of it.181'