9 T-shirts

I went to the Beaufort Town Meeting today with 9 people wearing t-shirts with our organizations name on them, along with our web address. They are actually petitions, some of them with signatures, some without. I feel they will all be full soon. The meeting was in session for a short amount of time when they told me I could speak about the issues on my mind, and I did just that. I read the first part of a statement I had prepared, then began reading down a short list of questions that many people have led me to ask. Before I got to the end of the list (13 questions) I was cut short by the Beaufort Mayor, the head of the Beaufort Water and Sewer Dept., and a rep. of Rivers & Assoc. They explained to a poor old country boy with an IQ slightly above Albert Einstein's, how they were going to reduce the amount of bacteria from 200 parts, to app. 70 parts per measured unit of volume,while increasing their output by more than 3 times their present rate by volume, thus discharging cleaner water on a per day rate. It was also mentioned that at this rate , the area closed to shellfishermen may be able to re-open someday. They also explained that the shoals and marsh creeks behind Carrott Island had shoaled up to a much lesser depth not allowing the possible contaminates to disperse as quickly. Then the Mayor assured me they would answer my questions in writing. At that point I realized I had over stayed my welcome, left them with a copy of the rest of my statement and questions, thanked them for their time and left. I have spent the last 42 years operating boats through those channels and creeks. They have not shallowed that much except for the mouth of the creek that controls the volume going in, not the volume going out of those creeks. I have a working knowledge of numbers to the level I seldom need a calculator, and their math makes me confused.( and they only used a few of the 10 digits they had to work with.) I did not feel I had their interest or ever would. I did feel like someone wanted to get me out of there before they had to answer the questions their answers had inspired. Maybe this feeling will change when they answer my original questions. I'll keep you in touch.
Clammerhead