b'C H A P T E R SI Xfinanced by a grant from the Commonwealth; the 1994 application had been prepared by Bob Duncanson as project director, in cooperation with the Harbormaster. Approvalin August 94 led to design, engineering and construction the following winter, and the completed 2,000-gallon station went on line at OMBY in August 95. One year later, the Federal Environmental Protection Agency approved the states authorization designating the Stage Harbor complex as a No Discharge Zone.Who were the main drivers on creating the P. O. S.? Certainly FCW, along with lab director Duncanson, the Waterways Committee, and, initially, operatives like Andy Meincke of Stage Harbor Marine. Maybe FCW wasnt the source of the idea at first, maybe it didnt raise a Philips-head screw driver to put the tank in place. But raise its voice it did, and that certainly made a difference. By the mid-Nineties, the organization had a decade under its belt. Individuals like Martha Stone, Richard Batchelder, and Lew Kimball knew what buttons to press to wake the public and get its acceptance; they were hardly shy about doing so.At the same time, Friends endorsement counted in another way, as did strong affirmation from the Waterways Committee. Explains Bob Duncanson, We went to them for letters of support. They wrote to the grant agency to endorse the request for a fixed pump-out station, and also wrote to the state and the EPA as part of our petition for the No Discharge Zone. Those agencies look much more favorably on requests if there are letters from .private groups such as FCW, showing that theres a lot of public support for it.By those years of the mid-Nineties, people were beginning to pay attention to FCW Mildly curious, business and government leaders listened when the Friends turned its energies to preparing an extensive economic study of the Town of Chatham.On Analyzing a Communitys EconomySomething quite out of the ordinary happened in Chatham in the winter of 1997. On the brisk, clear morning of January 7,about 120 people gathered for a sumptuous breakfast at Chatham Bars Inns Digit Hall (now MonomoyAs a former associate commisMeeting House). They listened to the 45-minutesioner in the Commonwealths Tax Department, Debby Ecker premiere presentation of An Economic Studyhad the background to underof Chatham, Massachusetts. take an economic study of Chatham.Rob Carlisle85'