b"C H A P T E R SI Xcomment that The Pump-out Station is to be here within a week. At that, she recorded, (Everyone fell about laughing!) An observation was made that the station had first been discussed in 1989 -a case in point about doing somethingit has taken 4 years to actually get the .station! Richard [Batchelder] said theyll probably pump out the first boat in 19945 years!President Kimball echoed board sentiment in his fall '93 member newsletter. Perhaps the people of FCW remembered that a year before, he had written that the facility would be in operation by summer '93. It was a vain hope, he conceded. He could report, though, in late '93 that the station was fast becoming a reality .available to boaters for the 1994 summer season.Ironically, by that time in 93, the P. O. S. was a reality. In The Cape Cod Chronicle issue of October 7,1993, a photo showed Harbormaster Peter Ford explaining the brand new, 200-gallon portable pump-out station beside him. Inevitably, questions and doubts simmered, as Martha Stone recalls, but they werent new: people had been grumbling since 1991 and 1992. No one would use (the unit) .No one was trained in its use .Boaters would not know of its existence .No survey had been done as to the need for such a device .Where would the sewage be disposed?It was the familiar refrain of local skeptics. But, if anything, the volume of the grumbling had been turned down.As the seasons revolved, boaters slowly got accustomed to the P. O. S. In that respect, says Andy Meincke, they were well behind cruising sailors from other ports. All around Nantucket Sound, he says, its gotten to be routine. Transients who come in for an overnight or a weekend want to know if they can get pumped out.The original trailered 200-gallon tank has now been joined by a 2,000- gallon station, lodged permanently at the Old Mill Boat Yard. It had beenIn early fall 1993, the Towns new mobile pump-out unit was put on display.Here, the late Harbormaster Peter Ford explains how the station was to operate.The Stage Harbor Management Plan required the community to provide this service.The Chronicle84"