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Punches were thrown and verbal wounds were dealt at a joint committee hearing in Massachusetts Thursday over a debate on whether to raise docking fees for out-of-town fishermen.
Video of the incident was posted to the town of Chatham’s website with a warning that violence and foul language ensues. About 30 minutes into a joint meeting of two committees discussing docking fees for nonresidents, the fists start flying.
"They all know each other, they’ve known each other for years, it’s not the first time [some]thing like this has erupted, it’s just the first time it’s happened on television,” said Tim Roper, the vice chairman for the town’s Board of Selectmen.
The disagreement circled around a large bill the town is facing. Chatham needs to pay more than $5 million for repairs to its pier, overlook deck, and parking around it. In order to pay that, one proposal was to raise docking fees from $300 a year to $1,000.
The Waterways Committee doesn’t technically have the jurisdiction to make recommendations for that area, which led to the debate getting heated between different committee members.
The video shows Waterways Committee member Dave Davis jump from his chair, toss another committee member out of the way and head for Cove Committee Chairman Doug Feeney.
Roper was in the room at the time and said it’s a “day in the very New England life.”
No charges have been filed and apparently the men have moved on after getting caught up in the heat of the moment. After that ice breaker, the meeting was much more productive.
Roper added this kind of thing is not condoned or tolerated by the Board of Selectmen.
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