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