Stories from the Trenches: Poop Patrol #1

Since the big brouhaha over a proposal increasing the fines for not picking up your dog's poop, this issue has been on my mind. Well, actually it's always on my mind....as it is for every dog owner at least a couple of times a day.

Speaking of curbing your cur....

True confessions -- and I believe the statute of limitations has passed for getting a $10 fine -- I have left poop unpicked up. First was during a howling blizzard along the Merrimack Riverbank behind the water treatment plant, probably in the winter of 2002/3. Even though the dog was only feet from me, I could not find the offensive matter.

Second, another slightly less howling blizzard on Walnut Street in winter of 2004/5. I simply did not risk life and limb as a snow plow (a big DPS one, not those little contractor plows) bore down on me and the dog. The poop was pushed away. Finding it was futile, so I gave up.

Tonight, seeing another dog's poop on Walnut Street curb, I picked it up....with a bag, not by hand. My dog did not seem jealous.

I may need to go behind the Sewer Plant to pick up more, so that I'll balance out the canine karmic forces.

And you thought Newburyport politics were tough...

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/06/shirley_town_ad.html

Ferraz Shawmut is now Mersen

Seems like it's just a name change....

http://www.ferrazshawmut.com/news/news.php?selActid=95&selLang=EN&title=Ferraz_Shawmut_is_now_Mersen

Ferraz Shawmut, your supplier of electrical protection solutions, is pleased to announce that we are changing our name to Mersen. The name change reflects our history - and more importantly our strategic direction. Ferraz Shawmut is now Mersen.

Mersen is One Company
Ferraz Shawmut has long benefited from being part of Carbone Lorraine, a large international group which specializes in providing high-performance materials for extreme environments and solutions to enhance the reliability and safety of electrical systems. The company now consolidates its identity under one name – Mersen.

Budget: The Library and the Overall Context

Like all Councillors, I’m getting many many emails and calls from citizens about the proposed cuts to the Library budget.

All the Mayor’s requested cuts including the $40,000 from a Library budget of $1.2M have to be seen in a broader context.

The School Dept has cut over 30 teacher positions over the last 5 years, the Highway Dept has gone from over 40 fulltime workers in the 1990's to 21 today, and the Police Dept is operating with less of a budget than in 2001.

Most of these problems are the result of much less State aid and increases to Health Insurance. Municipal unions have been helpful (compared to some communities) on delaying salary increases and assuming more of the burden on Health Insurance, but we’re still in a tight spot.

We're not the only ones in this predicament as Lowell proposes massive teacher layoffs, Lawrence may lay off 155 City employees, and Boston wrangles with its Firefighters Union. These communities are much bigger than we are, but the parameters of revenue and expense are the same.

The Mayor’s FY 11 Budget Proposal has the following percentage cuts (FY10 compared to FY11):

City Clerk: -1.4%

Library: -3.2%

Health: -3.7%

Fire: -4%

Police: -4%

Mayor: -4.2%

Animal Control: -6.1%

IT: -8%

Highway: -12%

Legal: -13%

Veterans: -14%

Emergency Mgmt -48%

To balance our budget this year, the Mayor is requesting among other cuts that:

• the Fire Dept cut 4 fulltime firefighters, so we'd be down from 28 fulltime to 24; right now we have 7 firefighters per shift, so this reduction will mean one less firefighter per shift
• the Police Dept will go without 2 patrol positions
• Emergency Management will lose a position and that function will be handled by the Police Department
• 
  

Surprisingly I’ve not gotten one call about the cuts to the Public Safety Departments.

Regarding the Library, even if we are not able to restore the proposed cuts to the Library budget, I believe we can retain our Library certification.

In FY10, the MA Board of Library Commissioners granted waivers of the FY2010 Municipal Appropriation Requirement (MAR) to 97 libraries and denied one.

http://mblc.state.ma.us/grants/state_aid/awards/waiver_list.php

In FY09, 24 of the 26 libraries requesting waivers were granted them.

http://mblc.state.ma.us/grants/state_aid/guide.pdf

My personal feeling, and I’m only one of 11 Councillors, is that we are going to implement many of these cuts; we simply don't have the money.

At the same time we need (and I will be working) to implement additional revenue measures such as the local meals excise of 0.75% and paid parking. These additional revenue sources are always contentious; some residents have no problem paying more while for others on a fixed budget or with lower income it’s a real burden. But I think it's clear that we're hitting the point where we're we have no other choice.

The City Council will vote on the Mayor’s proposed budget on Thursday night, June 3^rd. The Council can make additional cuts but cannot on its own add money to line items. However the Council can make recommendations to the Mayor on certain line items, especially if money is cut elsewhere in the budget.

Thank you,

Ed Cameron

Public Input into the City's Budget Process

The City Council Budget and Finance Committee is continuing its budget workshops over the next week.

The schedule is here http://nbpt.us/Budget_Workshops%20FY11v2.htm

On matters of importance to them, citizens should should contact At-Large Councillors as well as their Ward Councillor. Their contact information is here at http://www.nbpt.us/Clerk/WEB/info/2010CityCounci%20PUBLIC_email_%20phone.htm

Each night after the departmental presentations and discussions there is a period for Public Comment.

Any citizen can make verbal comment then.

The Mayor's Proposed FY 2011 Budget is available on the City's website at http://nbpt.us/budget2011.html

Click on the "Full Budget Narratives with Departmental Information" link for details on each department's mission, goals and objectives, and staffing.

The City Council will make its decisions in early June.

City's Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Process

The Mayor's Proposed FY 2011 Budget is available on the City's website at http://nbpt.us/budget2011.html

Click on the "Full Budget Narratives with Departmental Information" link for details on each department's mission, goals and objectives, and staffing.

The City Council is reviewing the proposed budget and will make its decisions in early June.

The City Council Budget Sessions calendar is http://nbpt.us/Budget_Workshops%20FY11v2.htm

Public comment is held at the end of each session.

Downtown Questions of the Day

I am going to sponsor the order Monday night which will bring the question of choosing one of the sites before the Council.

I've done some random sample surveying of Ward 4 constituents on a range of issues including downtown, parking, and waterfront. I emailed 97 constituents a survey and received 52 responses. Take it for what it's worth. Here's what I'm finding:

Regarding the future of the waterfront parking lots owned by the Newburyport Redevelopment Authority (NRA), do you favor keeping the area as parking, converting the area to park, or are you undecided?

Keep space as parking 32.7%
Convert space to park 57.1%
Undecided 10.2%

Mayor Holaday has proposed a system of paid parking for City owned parking lots located on the Waterfront and on Green Street as a way to generate revenue for the City and to better manage parking supply. Opponents say paid parking will have a negative impact on residents and the downtown. Do you favor the creation of a paid parking system for Newburyport?

Yes 61.5%
No 34.6%
Undecided 3.8%

For many years, the City has debated whether to have a parking garage downtown. Seven years ago the City Council--by one vote-- voted down a proposal to purchase property on Titcomb Street for a municipal garage. Under Mayors Moak and Holaday, a planning group has been looking at possible locations for a downtown garage. Proponents of a garage say that the additional parking is needed to replace the waterfront parking and to anticipate future needs. Opponents say a large parking structure is not needed and would be inappropriate for Newburyport. Do you believe a downtown parking garage is needed?

Yes 50.0%
No 38.5%
Undecided 11.5%

Parking Garage: Message from Jim Roy

If you were at the parking garage meeting last week, you'll recall that in addition to making comments on my own behalf, I also read a statement from Jim Roy, publisher of the Newburyport Liberator.

Jim was out of town on the night of the meeting and emailed me to ask that I read the statement. I'm not sure why he chose me, but I said, "Sure". You can read an old post of mine about Jim here.

Jim and I have not always seen eye to eye on every municipal issue, but we do agree that the NRA lots should be primarily park. His is a valuable perspective.

Below is his statement:

I regret not being able to be present tonight to deliver my thoughts on the current garage proposal in person. This is a subject near and dear to my heart since the 1970s, when Mayor Richard Sullivan appointed me to the Traffic and Parking Committee, a position I held for 25 years, the last 10 as its chairman. As some battle scarred veterans may recall, in 1999 we came within 1 city councilor,s vote of authorizing the construction of a facility on Titcomb Street. If that struggle had been won, the garage would be up and running as we speak, completely paid for, generating income for the city, cleared the central waterfront of cars, and generated an income stream to develop the open spaced, green waterfront park that all Newburyport has indicated it wants. That short-sighted city council vote has meant increased costs on the present proposal and another go-round of divisive argument, which I regret. Nonetheless, I applaud the current plan and fully endorse it.

Why, many of you might ask? Not because I love garages, buses, automobiles, traffic conjestion, or construction projects ... but because building a downtown garage is part of a quid pro quo -- without it, we will never have a completed, open, green waterfront in any of our lifetimes. It's that simple. I have worked for 30 years to achieve an open waterfront; to transform 4 1/2 acres of windblown dirt into a park like setting that all Newburyporters can enjoy forever; to finish, in other words, the "redevelopment" of downtown Newburyport. The garage facility is essentially the last step we must take to achieve this vision .. finally. A garage does not, as its opponents claim, "benefit the few." It benefits the entire city by completing the transformation of the central waterfront.

I would like to address the main arguments against a garage that I have read, 3000 miles away, from the so-called anonymous objectors.

1) The anti-garage manifesto is full of words and phrases that appeal to our sentiments in a romantic and unrealistic fashion: phrases like our "elegant, fragile city," and the "fragile charm of our downtown," when juxtaposed against sinister sounding phrases like a "big box" garage," and "out of scale" parking facilities, conjure up images of mass desecration. This is inappropriate, in my opinion. Our downtown is not a precious jewel that has to be treated gingerly or it will collapse. It is a vibrant commercial enterprise that is currently blighted by a 4 1/2 acre dirt NRA lot and a western edge that is equally blighted by the former Gibbs Gas station, the derelict Volpone garage, a shabby Victorian house, and the Fitness Factory parking lot. I strongly agree that a Green Street location is inappropriate for the garage. The Titcomb Street site, however, would be in scale with its surroundings and essentially unobtrusive. Not all garages must be ugly, far from it. Take a look at downtown Lowell, or the facility next door to the Windsor School near Beth Israel in Brookline. You'd never know they were garages. A garage facility at Titcomb would be brick, and a perfect complement to the factory building where Glenn's Restaurant is located. The bulk of City Hall would shield the structure from most of downtown; and most importantly, our studies indicated that it would capture 75% of incoming traffic before it enters the downtown.

2) The argument that garages will attract derelicts, vagrants, non-desirables etc. is scare tactic rhetoric that does not merit a response except the obvious. Since the facility would butt up against the police headquarters, I can assure everyone present this evening that this garage would be the safest on earth.

3) I have read several vehement objections to the heavy bus traffic that will, if this garage is built, flood through the city's streets, and how this garage, partially funded by MVTA, would encourage same. To which I say, what in heavens name do you think is going on right now? Commuter buses come and go all day in downtown Newburyport, and so do MVTA buses. Nothing at all would change from what is going on right now. This argument is little more than a canard.

4) The objectors pour scorn on the "unscientific" studies that have been been undertaken in the past. This is nonsense. Our committee spent $100,000 on our study, and I can assure the general public that we got our money's worth and more.

5) Put the garage out by the train station. My response? Sure, I'd love to wave a magic wand and change America's wasteful ways. I'd love to order people to take a shuttle or walk a few hundred yards more to get to the downtown, or ask employees to park 15 minutes from where they work, instead of 5. But I can't. A central garage must be just that: central. That's a fact of life.

I hope to see the day when Newburyport's redevelopment story finally is history or, in the parlance of the day, "a done deal." If there is not a downtown garage, I, along with you, will be 10 feet under before the central waterfront is ever completed. I urge everyone here to support Mayor Holaday as she and the city council attempt to bring our historic city into some conformity with other progressively minded towns on the North Shore.

Thank you all for hearing me out,

Jim Roy

Parking Garage: Con and Pro

Here's an excerpt from the anti-garage argument from the anonymous Downtown Newburyport Residents and Abutters blog now with over 200 non-anonymous petitioners. The entire argument can be seen here.

Choosing downtown Newburyport as the location for a large multilevel parking garage is a mistake. It is inappropriate, incorrectly researched and will benefit the few and not the many citizens of Newburyport.

1: Inappropriate:

Trying to force fit a big box downtown is dangerously out of scale with its surroundings and will irreversibly damage the unique charming historic essence of our city. In the 1970s, when shortsighted commercial interests wanted to bulldoze our beautiful downtown brick row houses, visionary leaders rallied the residents of the city to save what is now the center of our historic seacoast community. Over the years, we have nurtured and protected the fragile charm of our wonderful city. Today, we are thankful that our city was not destroyed by ill-considered development, and we mustn’t let that happen again now.

By inserting a large oversized structure into our elegant fragile city, we will be driving more traffic and more cars and buses into our downtown area. Do we really want this to happen? Does anyone know of any residents who do? Have we looked at the impact that such a facility will have on crime, vagrants, pollution and many of the other well documented negative results of similar facilities? Most importantly, installing the proposed out of scale facility, will be irreversible. The historic essence, harmony and beauty of our downtown will be changed forever. There will be no going back from such an unnecessary project.

I wasn't aware of the 'well documented negative results' like 'vagrants'.

Anyways, here's the anti-anti-garage case for a parking garage from the anonymous P. Preservationist. The entire post can be read here:

In addition, the anti-parking garage people’s arguments for this petition are incredibly weak.

Here below are their points and below, some counter-points:

Inappropriate and out of scale and historically inappropriate.

A parking garage can be done terribly or it can be done well. By having historic storefront architecture hiding the parking garage on the street level is doing it well. A good example is along Tremont Street in Boston. The ghastly parking garages in Boston and Worcester that stand out like hideous sore thumbs are done terribly. In Newburyport, the consultants if they want to sell these garages need to do a better job of hiding them. As for inappropriate, garages in Portsmouth and Salem are to scale and have certainly not harmed the historic downtown. How historically appropriate are large impervious surfaces called parking lots? Hardly a facet of 18th and 19th century Newburyport. On the other hand, a hidden parking garage will actually compliment the historic feel of the city with street-facing compatible architecture.

Incorrectly researched.

How much research is needed so common sense prevails? Newburyport is already a nightmare for parking during the main tourist season. When the waterfront parking disappears and is replaced by the Maritime Park, we will begin to see businesses impacted severely when customers find no place to put their cars. What about the hue and cry by residents as people begin to park blocks away?

Benefits the few and not the many.

As I have already re-affirmed, this group wants Newburyport for themselves. They hate visitors and they hate the customers who will prosper our businesses who we want to come in ever increasing numbers. Our city is not a charming historic country club for residents only. How are 17,000 plus people suppose to support our large tally of restaurants and shops? Our economy is based on increasing visitors not chasing them away. Those “few”(visitors) just happen to be the very economic base of our community. Their absence will harm "the many" (i.e. locals). We need to fight xenophobia. Xeno in Greek is “stranger”. We need to stop a fear of strangers in our midst. A healthier attitude is to say, “Welcome to Newburyport, spend your money…and get out”. I can live with that!*

Should be a very interesting public meeting on Thursday, April 29 at 7PM at City Hall Auditorium. I'll be a few minutes late celebrating my 7 year old's birthday, so save me a seat and I'll bring you a piece of cake;-).

Ed Cameron

Video of City Council Meeting, April 26, 2010

Some of the more interesting parts are:

Public Comment in the beginning
Expedited Permitting to gain Green Community status at 66:00 minute mark
Plum Island erosion budget transfers at 78:00 minute mark
Wind Turbine at 100:00 minute mark

Common Pasture Walk Sunday, April 25

From Open Space Committee member Mary Harbaugh....

NEWBURYPORT and NEWBURY -- Anyone curious about the Common Pasture is invited to a free guided walking tour from 1 to 3 pm Sunday April 25. The walk will be led by Dave Rimmer of Essex County Greenbelt Association and Mary Harbaugh of the Newburyport Open Space Committee.

This opportunity to explore the scenic, historic landscape will include a look at both habitat and pastoral activities in the Wet Meadows section of the 1,500-acre area. Walkers will also hear a bit of history of the Common Pasture and get an update on current efforts to protect the entire heritage landscape.

Walkers should wear long pants and mud-ready footwear and meet at Greenbelt's viewing platform at Wet Meadows on Scotland Road in Newbury. The leisurely tour will include time at the wildlife-viewing platform to scan for spring migrants, including waterfowl and shorebirds. The walk is not appropriate for dogs.