Port Pride

Nice letter in the paper today about the need to vote on June 5.

In fact, it leaves me wondering...why isn't every parent of school aged kids carrying signs and pushing for this question.

I understand some people oppose the project, and I respect their various reasons even if I don't agree with them.

But if I can send my kid to a new school for $30 a month tops, I'm finding a way to pay for that.

Meet the New Brez

I thought the dogs and ponies performed well last night at Mayor Holaday's school forum.

For those who haven't seen a picture of the proposed Bresnahan School, here you go...

For those without any sense of humor (or sense at all), that's actually the Garfield School, where I spent grades 5-8.

A fine place to attend school; a GREAT place to play stickball.

Anyway, no real revelations. As I noted in the comments to the previous post, the Solar Panels on the Nock will be used again. In fact, since the school's heat will be converted from electric (!!!) to gas (I think) the solar panels will be able to produce a great deal of the school's electricity.

Other revelations...
* Murphy Road, which will serve as an access point to the new school, will be upgraded with sidewalks and new sewer pipes, all part of the costs.
* The city, according to the reimbursement formula used by the state, has done a nice job of maintaining the buildings it currently has. In the eyes of the state, this isn't an issue of neglect.
* The fields behind the middle school will be upgraded to compensate somewhat for the loss of the fields at the Bres. (The new school will be built on the playing fields; the senior community center will stand where the current school does.)
* People seemed concerned about the bathrooms. The youngest kids will have a bathroom in their classroom. The older kids will not.
* The amountless ballot questions are required by the state.
* The Nock estimate went up from $17m to $27m because the city couldn't have a solid estimate done until the state gave a green light for reimbursement.
* Both schools will be highly energy efficent.

Let me know if I missed something. I attended the first part of the meeting, but The Boy was hungry (swimming lessons followed soccer practice followed by sign holding will do that to you) so I watched the rest from home. It's probably on cable if you're interested.

All in all, it's a good presentation. The one killer piece of info would be the anticipated cost of repairing, maintaining these buildings as they are for the next 20 years. Roofs, electrical systems, windows, skylights and many other things will need to be replaced or repaired. How much would that cost?

If we had that info, we could say, "We're going to be spending XX million anyway. So why don't we spend a little more and get two entirely new school buildings that will serve the community well for the next several decades." That seems like a winning argument.

Here's the actual picture, btw.

What's Wrong with Some Division?

Look, Newburyport folks don't agree on everything.

Yes, we love our town. Yes, we think it's the best place in the world to live. We have each other's back if someone needs help.

We care for each other. We really do.

But we don't agree on everything.

An outsider looking in might snicker at our hot button issues.

• Should we have a big park on the waterfront or a REALLY big park.
• Should we have protections for our huge inventory of beautiful historic homes or shouldn't we?
• Should union electricians have been hired to do the work on the expansion of our excellent community hospital?
• Should residents pay $5 a year - or visitors 50 cents an hour - to park downtown?
• Should we change zoning to accommodate the development of land that's adjacent to our commercial sector while preserving 20 or so acres of open space.

The answer to each question involves several shades of gray, but the above give succinct summaries of our larger controversies.

All in all, if those are our major disagreements. I think we're in pretty good shape.*

So let's put up our yard signs. Have spirited discussions. As long as we're respectful and peaceful I see nothing wrong with a little divisiveness.

At the end of the day, this will still be the best place in the world to live. I think we can all agree upon that.

*The one issue seems fairly black-and-white to me - the sorry state of our public school buildings. I'm a full support of the debt exclusion questions and I'll post more on this after I've toured the schools. To me, this falls under "having each other's back if someone needs help."