Sir: The white geese more than earn their place on the Chatham riverfront.
When my husband and I first moved to this area, Chatham’s most charming feature was, for me, the river. The white geese, more visible than the wild ducks and Canada geese, bring the river’s tranquil beauty to life.
Chatham is a nice city to live in and this is not by coincidence. Much money, energy and thought go toward developing a unique and attractive experience designed to increase tourism, stimulate business, and at the same time create and maintain a beautiful city in which we can all raise our families.
The city’s hanging baskets are pretty, but they’re not cheap to maintain; the Christmas lights give the city core a festive sparkle, but they do use electricity; and the special events stimulate business but they also disrupt the traffic and normal city activity. The river’s beauty is free; the white geese are integral to that beauty and an important part of Chatham’s rural personality.
If the city can negotiate all the diplomatic mine fields that go along with putting on the Rib Fest or Sidewalk Days, etc., then surely some reasonable solution can be found that will allow the geese to remain on the river while at the same time appeasing the unhappy landowner.
Eleanor May
Chatham
