Monthly Archives: March 2006

Newburyport, Background on Cherry Hill and the Access Road

Since I am discovering more and more that many of the readers of the Newburyport Political Blog have lived here for a “short” time, I thought I would give some background on two events, Cherry Hill and the Access Road.

Cherry Hill was a large piece of open space abutting Maudslay State Park. The City of Newburyport had the chance to buy it. But, the Newburyport City Council felt that the City of Newburyport did not have the money and voted against the sale of the property. The property was then made into a development.

For many years different administrations and businesses had wanted to put an “access road” that would have adjoined the Industrial Park on Hale Street with Storey Avenue. This is a huge piece of open space with wild life and wetlands and the citizens of Newburyport, Massachusetts wanted (they voted) to keep it as open space. This large parcel of land was owned in part by NAID (Newburyport Area Industrial Development) and purportedly (you see, this is where I’m being very, very careful, maybe too careful) Norbert Carey. NAID’s president was Curt Gerrish. Hence NAID, Curt Gerrish and Norbert Carey all landing on the “controversial scale.” (I’m beginning to think that I’m landing on the “controversial scale.” In fact depending on who you talk to, on a scale from 1-10, I could be a 20! Move over Norbert Carey.)

It’s my feeling that a number of very good things came out of these controversies. The Community Preservation Act, a small tax that is matched by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The money can be used for open space, historic preservation and affordable housing. The Open Space Committee and the new cluster zoning law (see earlier post,) called open space residential development which was designed to avoid large subdivisions like the Cherry Hill project. And the purchase of 102 acres along Hale Street that is now referred to as the “Common Pasture.”

Now, I’m not a scholar or an historian. I haven’t gone back and researched these two issues (in fact I’ve put a disclaimer in the Guidelines part of the blog,) this is just a very general overview. Please email me or chime in with any corrections or additions that you may have.

Mary Eaton, Newburyport

Newburyport, Taffy

“Taffy.” Politically speaking it feels as if no matter what side you might be on, a whole lot of our public representatives have been sucked into what I call “taffy.” And let me tell you folks, it feels really, really sticky, positively gooey, and from where I’m sitting it only looks like it’s going to get a whole lot worse.

Now call me Pollyanna if you want, probably one of my character defects, but I think it might, and I said might not can or will, be possible to get partially, or maybe just a tiny bit unstuck here.

First of all, I am going to take it as a given, that people don’t get involved in political office or city boards and committees or become political activists unless they really care about the City of Newburyport, Massachusetts. I know, I know, I know, local politicians and committee and board members want power and control, it’s all about ego, yada, yada, yada. Well, I’m not that stupid, of course some of that exists, maybe a whole lot of that exists. But let’s just say there is a good dose of altruism, on no matter what side of the issue you might be on, simply because it’s just not worth all the time and effort and a lot of times, let’s face it, the aggravation.

I can hear the screams from cyper-space…Nooooooooo. Pollyanna, Boooooo!!

Well, hear me out. This what I think, oh you out there in web-land. No matter what political side you are on, we’ve all been invited to some sort of fight. And, one of my favorite saying is, “you don’t have to go to every fight you’re invited to.” I just love that.

So what I’m saying is don’t go. Don’t go to whatever fight you’ve been invited to. There’s nothing more frustrating to the person who’s invited you to the fight than for you not to show up. And not showing up to a fight can actually be kind of fun, because it’s your choice. You can choose to act, not to react.

When you find that you just want to throttle whoever, and that little itty-bitty-committee is going on in your head. And the itty-bitty-committee is adding more members and getting bigger and bigger, and louder and louder–stop. Think. Go and do something good for yourself. Go and do something fun for your family, your friends. Go and buy yourself your favorite candy and eat it and make a conscious choice not to shove it in the face of someone who is driving you politically crazy. Especially if that some one happens to be me!

And me, I’m going to go out and get myself a Hershey’s chocolate bar, no nuts. And I’m going to eat the whole thing along with my favorite cup of tea.

Mary Eaton, Newburyport

Newburyport as a Working Port?

During my regular strolls along the boardwalk, I note that there are more working fishing boats docked here now than there were in the summer. One reason could be that the boats are out more in the summer. Another could be that the docking rates go up in the summer and a working boat owner can’t afford to pay as much as a millionaire with a mid-life crisis speedboat. I hope it’s not the latter.

I’d like to see the working use of our docks continue. I know the industry is in trouble and that each boat is limited to a small number of fishing days each year. If it’s a cost issue, we could have a 12-month fee that’s affordable for a working boat. I know some rich folks would probably pay it, even though they might only use it 3 months out of the year, but that’s ok, too.

For some reason, the appeal of the boat as a toy completely escapes me. If I made my living catching fish, I’d need one. If I lived on an island, I’d need one. Since I’m not going to do either of those things, I don’t plan to get on one any time soon. But, I know some people like them, and I’m glad for them.

But, I am very curious about all kinds of mechanical equipment and industrial processes. The recent open houses in the industrial park have been great. I think it would be a really good PR move for the local fisherfolk to have an “open boat” day some Spring Sunday afternoon. Give us landlubbers a chance to see what the inside of one looks like and how the equipment works. I’ll be there.

Dick Monahan, Newburyport

Newburyport, Peter Miller and the High Street Email List

I first met Peter Miller in early January 1999. We both went to a meeting about High Street, held in the Newburyport City Council chambers. Peter Miller and Maria Nortz had just moved to town.

At that meeting, as I was making the decision to create Citizens to Save High Street, Peter Miller was taking down everyone’s email address. Now you have to remember, email was really new in 1999 ( yes, hard to fathom) and we all really wondered what the heck Peter Miller was up to.

Peter Miller was ( and still is, sadly, he and Maria Nortz have moved out of town) one smart cookie.

Peter Miller started the High Street email list, and I learned an awful lot from Mr. Miller. Peter Miller and the High Street email list were one of the very big inspirations for the Newburyport Political Blog.

From Peter Miller, I learned about how to make the tone of a “email posting” civil by using the words “could, would, might, may.” I was just amazed at how an email posting changed when those few verbs were applied.

Peter Miller also tried to make everyone look good, whether he agreed with them or not. He would make sure that the grammar was correct and that everything was spelled right. If he had questions about an email someone sent in, he would send it back and ask if they were sure that they would like it posted. If the answer came back “yes” that email was sent on to the High Street email list. And sometimes, after they had time to think about it, they often decided that maybe sending the email out to the High Street email list just wasn’t a good idea.

After the fight to save High Street had settled down, I was amazed at how many people had read the High Street email list. People printed it, passed it around, saved it, even archived it as a part of the history of how High Street was saved.

And the High Street email list also turned out to be an incredibly powerful political tool.

So if the Newburyport Political Blog survives, it will be due in great part to what I learned from Peter Miller. And I sure wish Peter Miller and Maria Nortz would move back to town. I sure could use their wisdom, their expertise and help. And a lot of other people miss them too.

Mary Eaton, Newburyport

The Newburyport Preservation Trust is Great News

Hearing that someone has started an organization dedicated to the preservation of Newburyport is great news. The Newburyport Preservation Trust is something that is long over due in this city and I can’t wait to learn more about it.

I hope that its founder, Linda Miller, or one of its members, may post on this blog, and enlighten us to exactly what the Trust’s short term and long term goals are. Also, perhaps they could further explain exactly what membership would entail, as I am sure there are many citizens that are interested in having more information.

I wish the Trust all the good fortune in the world, and I wish to thank them for taking the first steps in preserving and maintaining the city which we have all come to love.

Ben Laing, Newburyport

A Big Thank You to the Newburyport Current

A very big “thank you” to the Newburyport Current and the paper’s editor Urlrika Gerth for the very thoughtful article in today’s issue, March 3, 2006, on the Newburyport Political Blog. I am “verklempt” (see earlier post if you want to know all about what “verklempt” means.)

I also appreciate the fact that Ms Gerth happened to mention that I am an artist and showed pictures of my studio and mentioned the art blog ( I just can’t resist a plug here for my art business.)

You can read the article online at www.townonline.com/newburyport.

Mary Eaton, Newburyport

Newburyport, Massachusetts, Neighborhood Associations

When we moved to the South End of Newburyport a year and a half ago, We were surprised to find that we didn’t hear about any Neighborhood Associations. We came here from the South End of Boston, which has many NAs. We asked a few people, but no one knew of any.

Rather than write a treatise on what NAs could do, we suggest anyone with even a mild interest check out www.cnaboston.org, which is the web site of the NA to which we belonged in Boston.

When we first sent this posting to Mary, she told us that there is a South End NA, although it seems to be inactive. We have written to the email address she has, asking to get involved. Although we’re sensitive to our position as newcomers (although we did live across the line in NH for 25 years and spent lots of time in Newburyport), we think there are going to be lots of reasons to have an active NA in the near future, and we’d like to help.

Dick & Nanci Monahan, Newburyport

Newburyport Preservation Trust, Website is Up

The Newburyport Preservation Trust’s new website is up. The Newburyport Preservation Trust was founded by Linda Miller, a local preservation architect. It is a private, non-profit corporation.

The Trust hopes to be proactive in working with the Newburyport Planning Department, the Newburyport Historical Commission and the Massachusetts Historical Commission in protecting the essential character of Newburyport, Massachusetts. To act to safeguard threatened resources–buildings, streetscapes and landscapes in our small New England historical city.

The Newburyport Preservation Trust has professionals “on-call.” Two local attorneys (for a fee) to answer legal questions and write deed restrictions. A Local accountant (for a fee) to answer tax and accounting questions. And an architect to answer questions about applicability of preservation techniques and what is or is not worth saving.

I think this is a tremendous resource for the citizens of Newburyport, Massachusetts. Many thanks to Linda Miller and to all the other people involved in making the Newburyport Preservation Trust happen.

Linda Miller can be reached at:
20 Ship Street,
Newburyport, Massachusetts, 01950
978-462-9079

Mary Eaton, Newburyport

Editor’s note October 24, 2006: The new web address for the Newburyport Preservation Trust is www.nbptpreservationtrust.org

Newburyport, Massachusetts, the Wetland Ordinance

The Wetland Ordinance–this is one of the reasons I would never want to be a Newburyport City Councilor or a Newburyport Mayor. The City Clerk thing I think I could have handled, but something like the Wetlands Ordinance is way beyond me. If I had to make a decision on this one, it would definitely keep me up at night a lot.

Not only as a city do we have very limited financial resources and a host of things that need immediate attention (see earlier post,) but we also have all kinds of federal and state regulations, that are often at odds with the way that we as a city would like to live.

High Street is the example I probably understand the best. Newburyport, Massachusetts got a federal grant to fix High Street. Yippee! What could possibly be wrong with that one, right? Well, the federal grant came along with a host of state and federal regulations that required High Street to be straightened and widened and all the trees removed. In short making High Street look like a strip mall.

We as a city said, I don’t think that one is going to work, thank you very much. But that took a whole lot of effort on a whole lot of people’s part.

So here we have the Wetland Ordinance, which as far as I can figure out is basically the same premise–federal and state regulations which are at odds with how people would like to live.

One of the conclusions I’ve come to in watching how our city works over the years, is that most of the time there are no easy answers. It is rarely black and white–one of my favorite expressions is “go for the gray.”

Once again, thank goodness for experts and the dedicated people in Newburyport, Massachusetts, no matter what side of the issue they are on. A very sincere “good luck” to the Mayor, the Newburyport City Council and the Newburyport Conservation Commission and everyone else who’s involved. Because as far as I’m concerned, this is one of those issues that is going to require the “Wisdom of Solomon.”

(According to the Newburyport Daily News on February 22, 2006, there will be a public workshop on the Wetlands Ordinance, today, March 1 at 7PM at the police station. I don’t have a confirmation on the date or time.)

Mary Eaton, Newburyport