b'C H A P T E R SI XThat wasnt the only negative. When she asked the Chamber of Commerce for its support, officials came back with a resounding No!But shes not one to be shot down that easily. So she got the necessary signatures and Board of Selectmen approval, as well. And while she was not yet a Chatham voter, Moderator Tim Pennypacker allowed her to make a pitch for the tax at Town Meeting.Meanwhile, a segment of the towns business community armed for combat. The front page of The Chronicle for January 14, 1988, laid out the issue in a vigorous headline:Motel/hotel tax proposal has inn crowd seeing red. (Enpe (Eob(EljronicleWilliam Gray, then1 SECTION_______________________January 14, 1988________________________socvol .XXIII NO. 4owner with his wife, Hotel/motel tax proposal has Inn crowd seeing redAudrey, of the Bradford Inn,Operators of inns, motels and B&Bs left no doubt about framed his oppositiontheir opposition to increasing the room occupancy tax.The like this: A lot ofspearcarrier for that change was Mrs. Ecker.Squeaking by people think the tax isat Town Meeting in 1988, the measure today brings in unfair to one segmentalmost $1 million.From the Chronicle.of the tourist industry and one group of small business people .1 dont think that people who travel a lot want to pay that kind of tax.The general manager of CBI, Paul Ronty, made another vibrant complaint. His industry was already taxed enough as it is .How would shop owners feel if their sales tax suddenly went up to 10 percent? Cut down to one word, Mrs. Eckers proposition was unfair.In spite of the funereal roll of muffled drums, the measure went before the 1988 Town Meeting. It was a cliff-hanger. According to the after-action Chronicle account, there were only three voters above a quorum (of 350). The night before, almost $300,000 in expenses had been approved above the tax levy. That piqued the citizenry. Wrote Tim Wood, they were in the mood to approve a new source of revenue above property taxes. As the hour grew later and later, Moderator Charles Weidman faced a serious threat to his razor-thin quorum. So he had police lock the doors to keep every single resident on hand. And at the appropriate moment, they approved Mrs. Eckers four percent hotel/motel tax overwhelmingly. (Right afterward, the trapped citizens voted indefinite postponement of an article dedicating receipts from that levy to land acquisition.)In that first year, the add-on tax brought in $225,212none of it, to be sure, for land purchases. Rather, as Finance Director/Assistant Town Manager87'