Pergola petition seeks to undo mistakes
13 months ago | 585 views | 4 
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The validity of the pergola petitioners is not simply about a subjective disageement. It is about a respect for this town’s establishment of a Design Control District and its inception of regulations to protect this small, historic area. It is also about maintaining trust in, and respect for, the integrity of our many town officials and board members to which I belong. No one is minimizing the importance of other current public issues and I agree that we should face them with equal enthusiasm. But neither should we be minimizing the validity of the petitioners’ above concerns.
Mistakes were made by all parties. It was a mistake for the townspeople to not weigh in until the pergola was half constructed and did not exactly resemble the plans they had seen. It was a mistake for the DRB and the zoning administrator to neglect to refer to the Design Control District Regulations (admittedly) for the approval process, noting that the pergola was not a “building.”
It was a mistake for the beautification committee to convince us to wait until the pergola’s construction was finished and then until Town Meeting to voice concerns, when it should have informed us of an appeal period. It was a mistake at Town Meeting for the beautification committee and others to once again persuade us to wait until the park was completed before resolving the pergola issue, and for them to now interpret that decision as a relinquishing of any further discussion of the matter.
Yes, mistakes were made. It is time now to admit them, and to stop with the rumors and false assumptions, the marginalization, and the excuses on both sides. Our disagreements should be resolved by using facts and proper protocol, with diplomacy, not ignorance.
Fortunately, our government has it checks and balances. It is too late for approvals to be denied and it is too late for the people to appeal. But it is not too late to establish an Australian Ballot vote to peacefully settle the matter once and for all. And the decision to follow that route just may by the result of the yet-to-be discussion yet to take place with the selectboard at the August 5 meeting, unless a better solution is proposed.
Respectfully submitted,
Laraine Morrow
Wilmington
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None of it has anything to do with the pergola per se.
And with all due respect to you, Mrs. Morrow, as you point out, the matter has already been settled. I suggest you and the other malcontents get on with your lives, perhaps contributing to the community rather than sowing more discontent.
And let me get this straight - you want the town to make up a special election process so that you may have extra-special consideration of your extra-special sense of entitlement?
The larger community are all so tired of the time (and now money) wasting; one wonders what your next step after some failed "australian" ballot would be anyway. We all know some people can be very tenacious when they don't get their way.
"It was a mistake for the DRB and the zoning administrator to neglect to refer to the Design Control District Regulations (admittedly) for the approval process, noting that the pergola was not a “building."
Is the letter writer serious? Has she looked at the DRB decision, which is online? The one that specifically refers to the Design Control Regulations? The one that "notes" that the pergola is NOT considered a building under the very specific definitions in the Design Control Regulations?
I think the biggest mistake is letting the "anti-pergolists" keep making absurd claims that don't meet the test of fact. Read the Design Control Regulations! Read the DRB decsion!
This whole things boils down to nothing more than peoples' petty personal and political issues. It has nothing to do with the pergola or with any vision, real or imagined, of Wilmington's village - which, by the way, includes a wide variety of architectural styles, not just "ye olde New England."
We need to get some perspective people. Could we please just stop for a moment and acknowledge that there are much bigger issues impacting Wilmington.
While pergola protesters are busily exhausting time, effort and moral of both the town and an extremely productive group of volunteers - on what truly boils down to an aesthetics issue - real problems that impact our lives and our children's lives are continuing to go unaddressed. How do you justify this?
It's time to decide Wilmington - do we just want to tear people and things down until we've sucked all the life and spirit out of the declining number of hardy souls that live here, or do we want to build things and people up and inspire new energy and effort where we live?
Imagine if we could get 250 people to work on the valley trail or the river walk
Or 250 people working on a solution to the parking garage
Or 250 people to volunteer for the facilities committee
Or 250 people to create a space for teens
Or 250 people to lobby the state for tax reform
Ask yourselves - if you're successful - will you have accomplished anything worthwhile for our community?
We simply don't have time to waste on a slightly different view.