I mean, bully for them. I'm happy they're getting this guy on the case. And I'm glad it came so easily.
But I've got to wonder. Why didn't they just do this in the first place?
I recognize it would have been a great deal cheaper to have Newbury and Newburyport cover most of the cost. But didn't the campaign to convince Newbury and Newburyport officials take a few months of valuable time. Wouldn't it have been more prudent to raise as much as they could before approaching our cash-strapped towns.
Once they were rebuffed I figured we'd be looking at a summer of fund-raising. But lo and behold they are nearly done, and they could have raised more.
The fledgling Plum Island Foundation held its first official fundraiser last night, with about 150 people gathered at the Plum Island Grille to nibble appetizers and sip beverages. Foundation board member Robert Connors of Annapolis Way said organizers had stopped selling the $100 tickets to the event after 135 were purchased.
Again, I commend these folks for stepping up. I really do. I just think it might have been more politically prudent to have tried to raise the money privately before approaching the city and town.
Or perhaps the foundation needed the rejection as a rallying cry to get more islanders involved.
In any case, I'm glad they're going to get the help they want.
7 comments:
I'm confused. Mayor Moak is quoted in the story, so was he at the fundraiser? Or was he separately contacted for a comment?
And when Moak and Vincent Russo went to DC, it seems like they only met with federal staffers, not the congressmen. Huh?
Tom,
We're talking about a public beach here. But that's OK, I'll expect folks in town to raise their own funds to address their needs - schools, parks, etc.
Well,
People do that already don't they?
I think the playgrounds in town were paid for with donations. And schools are raising money all the time. Plus parents pay user fees.
You have to admit. A lobbyist isn't a standard line item in a city budget.
Remember, I was all for the city kicking in their share for the fee. But I think this fund-raising makes the city councilors, who had no interest, look fairly shrewd.
We may be talking about a public beach, but it's a public beach that the Army Corp of Engineers has decided not to actively restore (for a variety of what I personally believe are good reasons).
Given that I can see where the PI residents might be tempted to hire a lobbyist, which I'm not fundamentally opposed to PROVIDED he doesn't receive any public money. I'm not sure that overpaying for property on a barrier island with a historically shifting shoreline (during a time of climage change, no less!) is a public issue. It's certainly not a regional issue, which is what a recent edition of the local birdcage liner stated.
Look, I'd like to see Plum Island saved. I've spent many an enjoyable day on the island thinning the deer population, sunning myself on a rowboat in the Basin or marveling at the audacity of blu. Sometimes I weep at the loss of the BeachComa.
I'm thinking that the lobbyist won't matter in the long run, because by the time anything gets accomplished another major storm will have hit the island...
- The Carrot
Carrot,
Isnt't the beach a public resource ? What if it was Cashman Park that was eroding ?
The beach IS a public resource, but to my trained eye it appears that the issue on Plum Island isn't necessarily about the beach itself but the property abutting it. Let's be clear about the motives here, OK? If we don't do a thing, there'll still be a beach where Plum Island is located today. It might not look like the same place, but there'll be a beach.
We're not really paying to save the beach; we're paying to save the homes next to the beach. One wonders if the sense of urgency would still be there if the 'old' Plum Island were still there, filled with rickety summer shacks rather than $800,000 homes. I'd like to think it would, but my inner cynicism tells me no.
Plum Island is a barrier island and as such is destined to change, and perhaps even disappear. That's the very nature of an island like Plum Island. If one is foolish enough to build an expensive home on a place like that, one should expect a little water in the basement, so to speak.
Comparing Cashman Park (a completely public space that's been completely engineered) and Plum Island (an area that's been settled)is a false analogy; I will not fall for that bait. I will say, though, that if Cashman Park is threatened by crashing tides we'll all have a lot more to worry about than a playground, some ballfields and a boat ramp.
- The Carrot
I no doubt that the Newburyport Mother's club would muster the resources necessary to save Cashman Park.
Post a Comment