b'C H A P T E R F I VEThe Chronicle editorial echoed Millers hard-edged tone. The Stage Harbor plan was an excellent beginning, a template for how the town should treat all of its waterways. Then the editorialist singled out the role of FCW in advancing the plan:Private organisations such as the Friends of Chatham Waterways should not have to step into the void left by an unfocused government, as they have by providing seed money for the plan .Its time for Chatham to put more of its money where its resources are. Otherwise, future residents willpay the price of our neglect. In spite of this prodding, when overall, updated management of Stage Harbor could be brought into a mooring eluded any precise forecasting. FCWs $5,000 enabled the town to hire Tibbetts Engineering Corp. of New Bedford to crank up the process of writing a mooring plan for the harbor. That was in October 92. One year later, the scheme surfaced, and critics almost tumbled over each other to express discordant reactions. Tibbetts speculated that harbor moorings would nearly double, from the then-current 400 to 700. Physically, you cant do it, commented Andy Meincke, owner/operator of Stage Harbor Marine, as reported in The Chronicle. To Harbormaster Peter Ford, the concept was unrealistic .This needs a lot of fine-tuning. Further, in his judgment, there was no rush.We dont have a real problem that needs to be resolved today. Against that backdrop, hiring a firm to relocate moorings would probably have to be put off. As for revisions of the Tibbetts approach, they should not be allowed to stall approval of the final version of the management document.A major step toward giving this paper document life in the real world came that same month of October. Officials from the Coastal Zone Management (CZM) office and Department of Environmental Protection drove down to Chatham to look at chapter and verse of the plan on the ground. Behind the scenes that fall, a drama was playing out, as Martha Stone tells it. After all the months and years of work, she says, Dick Miller and Kurt Hellfach came to the point where they just about gave up. Why? Because of their frustration over working with consultant Horsley Witten.Typically, Mrs. Stone took it upon herself to phone the firm to ask what the problem was. She was told that another $8,300 would be needed, if their work was to be wrapped up.When FCWs board agreed to get up the money, Mrs. Stone reported to Miller that (1) FCW would provide the dollar boost, and (2) the consultant had pledged to do the remaining work in eight weeks. Millers response: Well, weve come this far, so why not wait two more months?71'