b"C H A P T E R SI Xcirculated a second study. It addressed what it labeled as errors in earlier documents, then concluded, in Mrs. Eckers words, that economic development (in Chatham) should move ahead full throtde. The proponent of this drastically different approach asserted that pressures on Chatham from growth are a fiction. FCW members monitoring the planning process quickly got word to Debby Ecker, and she reached a sobering conclusion: I realized that I would have to update FCWs economic study in order to challenge this man. As chairman of the LRP committee, Richard Batchelder got a postponement of the issue until May '02. By then, ironically, the revised studys author had moved out of town.To Mrs. Ecker, that coincidence scarcely closed the book. Rather, she proceeded to update and recast Study # 1. By putting her nose to the grindstone, she finished the revision in six weeks; the first time, it had taken her just about a year. This time, she came up with a restatement that she calls a better study. Rather than including matters such as preserving natural resources, she focused tightly on Chathams economy alone.The first time around, author Ecker had leaned on this premise: Watch it, folks! Youve got to protect the environment if youre going to protect the economy. That could be played down because other chapters in the Long Range Plan were being thoughtfully worked to make that point. In the revision, she visualized a three-legged economy: retirees, second-home owners, and the business community. Adopting a share of planner Margaret Swansons viewpoints, Mrs. Ecker acknowledged the importance of economic development focused on helping people of low and moderate incomes, but not just a broadbrush 'Oh, lets bring more business to town.In the year 2003, this profile of Chathams economy, a product with indisputable social utility, will most likely survive as the LRPs declaration on what that economy should look like. It reflects a process that goes back to 1996 and earlier, a process carried out under the FCW umbrella by one of its most determined board members. But by no means do those two studies add up to FCWs only initiative in its second decade.1 From Scholastic, Inc., 1996. http://teacher.scholastic.com/thanksgiving/mavflower/passlist.htm. Also from Chris Merrow, assistant director, public relations, Plimouth Plantation, 18 September 2002.2 Ironically, when FCW co-founder Joan Kimball approached Mrs. Ecker in mid-1983 aboutforming the Friends, she remembers being rather negative about it. She felt there were other organizations in town that could handle some of the issues that Joan was talking about. But Mrs. Ecker soon came around. At this point in the winter of 1996-97, she was FCWs president.95"