Potential Solution for Beach Erosion: WhisprWave

Plum Island beaches are eroding at a rate of approximately 1.3 to 1.6 feet per year, according to an online mapping tool at the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management.

Numerous photographs of the ongoing erosion are at Port Reporter Unlimited.

I've never lived on a beach and have only basic knowledge of beach (or any other type of) erosion, but I am a quick study and a fairly good researcher.

What I've quickly learned over the past hour or two is that the problem with Plum Island and hundreds of other barrier islands around the world is officials build breakwaters, seawalls, or jetties to reflect or direct waves. But because the wave energy is typically misdirected, coastlines are regressed and land destruction leads to structure failure.

Groins, like the one in the aforementioned photos, are built with a different purpose, but they also cause destruction by interrupting the littoral flow of sand, causing more sand to accumulate on one side of the groin than on the other.

According to an environmental consultant living on San Padre Island, a barrier island like Plum Island but off the coast of Texas:

I could NOT find a single peer-reviewed study of any man-made devices that would slow or stop beach erosion in the US. This includes jetties, groins, geo-tubes, offshore artificial reefs, or even continuous dune systems. My conclusion is that none of them work...

Enter WhisprWave, a man-made floating breakwater designed by NJ-based Wave Dispersion Technologies. The system is comprised of interlocking plastic modules that disperse up to 90% of the energy from pounding waves.

If you agree that Lake Ontario with its 12-foot waves is comparable to the Merrimack River and the Atlantic Ocean (or the part that reaches the shoreline and beach), consider that a US Army Corps of Engineers-designed rubble breakwall costs about $4.7 million contrasted with the $1.5 million cost of the WhisprWave system. The local paper reported the facts here.

I don't know if WhisprWave can work for Plum Island, but can it hurt to contact the company and determine if it's even viable? My bet is yes and perhaps at a fraction of the cost of Marlowe & Co.

To Merge?

Newburyport blogger Tom Salemi argues that regionalization of city/town services is "difficult" and "tough." Not to sound cliche, but such is life if you sit on your pansy and don't stand up, walk beyond your backyard, and make things happen.

Travel south of Boston to the Plymouth County communities of Abington and Rockland and observe how life appears to be separate but equal in both towns. They each have their parades, festivals, libraries, and government boards that operate and exist in a unitary fashion. Dig a little deeper and you will find an entity called the Abington-Rockland Joint Water Works.

In the late 1800s, the two towns (along with neighboring Whitman) were once consolidated, but during the industrial revolution the three towns split off and incorporated as unique entities. The Joint Water Works remains a symbol of the former consolidation and a sign that communities can and do work together successfully in the name of commonality.

If you attend a Rockland Board of Water Commissioners meeting, you will observe a strange phenomenon: the board will sit and discuss for about 15-30 minutes the needs of its residents, and then they adjourn and the Abington commissioners meet. Then, both sets of commissioners re-form as a joint board. Any resident of either town who has a gripe or a complaint brings that issue before the joint board.

Travel farther south and a tad west to York County, Pennsylvania and observe the York Area Regional Police, formed in July 2000, by the merger of the York and Windsor township police departments. The regional police department serves five communities.

The police merger was so successful that earlier this month, two York County fire departments merged, as explained here.

Closer to home, the Greater Haverhill Chamber of Commerce and the Haverhill Downtown Association merged two months ago.

Mergers happen all the time, whether you look at the 1955 merger of the AFL and CIO, the 1996 merger of Boston City Hospital and the Boston University Medical Center, or the 2005 merger of Gillette and P&G. Exxon and Mobil, Daimler-Benz and Chrysler, Worldcom and MCI, the list goes on. Don't forget the 2003 merger of the City of Louisville, Kentucky and Jefferson County as explained in depth by the Brookings Institution.

What's the difference between regionalization and a merger, you ask?

According to this source, a northern New York blog post from two years ago, regionalization and consolidation are the same, which he defines as taking from one community to give to another, with the decisions of who wins and who loses left to an elite group of insiders. Contrast that with a merger when different localities are expected to share in the costs of services [and] in the benefits, and the decision-making.

Lastly, consider that the City of Boston and Suffolk County (except Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop) were consolidated as one government for most of the 20th century. The partnership only disbanded in 1999 with the dissolution of county governments in Massachusetts.

Instead of Newburyport and neighboring communities fighting with the state over local aid distributions and funding mechanisms, wouldn't a merger help?

Instead of Newburyport arguing over water consumption with proposed Newbury developments, wouldn't a merger help?

Instead of Newburyport sharing its ladder truck with neighboring communities every time they don't have the height, wouldn't a merger help?

Instead of Newburyport sharing the Merrimack River with communities on the opposite bank, wouldn't a merger help?

Instead of Plum Island concerns over beach erosion, river dredging, and limited access to police, fire, and health services be an issue of two communities, wouldn't a merger help?

I'm not suggesting that Newburyport straight out merge with another community, though I'm not opposed to that either down the road. Rather, let's follow the examples of the Abington-Rockland Joint Water Works, the York Area Regional Police, and Boston Medical Center, among countless other examples, and make something happen so the outcome is better than the status quo.

With all of the talk about the necessity for increased collaboration and coordination among state, regional, local, and business interests, let's stop brainstorming ideas, admit life is difficult, and start doing something.

Can't Port Turn Its Shit into Juice?

You gotta hand it to the Governator and his band of cronies up and down the Golden State who are saluting environmental stewardship and spearheading green justice programs to research, innovate, and implement ways for residents and communities to save money in a struggling economy.

Last fall, Orange County began constructing a desalinization plant to convert sewage into potable water. Fast forward to this month, and Los Angeles now wants to recycle its own municipal sewage into drinking water.

Fresno and Seal Beach trap methane gas and convert it &mdash at the wastewater plants into compressed natural gas that their municipal fleet uses at a far-reduced cost than gasoline.

Denver and Grand Junction are each intending to follow the California cities to convert sewage gas into CNG, reports yesterday's Rocky Mountain News.

With all of the talented minds living and working in Newburyport and throughout the Merrimack Valley, with the creative economy that we are always praising each other about possessing, can't we use our raw talents and imaginations to build something, anything, to put us on the international map of economic innovation?

I'll start with this not-so-new-at-all idea: Now that the city is investing millions of dollars to overhaul its wastewater treatment plant, can we follow California and Colorado and Washington and countless other communities to similarly trap the methane and convert it into electricity?

On guns

I am not surprised that the Daily News of Newburyport is subjecting itself to the centuries-old debate over the merits of the 2nd Amendment: A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.

What does surprise me is in the wake of three opinions that the Daily News published over the past two months, is nobody is connecting a common element that everyone is talking about but only insular to their own arguments.

First, though, it's important to trace the history:

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The series, if I may, began on March 25, 2008 in an op-ed written by Amesbury resident Robert McGlew.

Titled "Guns, gumption and government," McGlew argues that an armed professor at Virginia Tech would have, or at the least, could have, prevented many more deaths by shooting the shooter.

The best defense against a gun is a gun! One armed professor at Virginia Tech would have saved many lives. Sounds radical but we are in a crisis because of loose laws on gun ownership, and the easy availability of all kinds of guns and ammunition.

To me, it doesn't sound radical at all. Rather, it is reminiscent of the Hammurabi Code of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Surely, McGlew isn't suggesting society regress to Babylonian law?

He goes on and says evil is a reality and we are feeding the evil among us with music, movies, TV and the ever-expanding world of pornography. Without the stabilizing influence of faith in the one true God, people are spinning out of control.

I saw this one coming, as the op-ed's byline indicates McGlew is a semi-retired minister, so God forbid, of course mass media and porn are to blame for gun-crazy individuals.

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Next up in the series is Amesbury resident Andrew Shirshac who wrote this letter to the editor on May 7, 2008 with the title, "Guns are not the answer."

Shirshac directly responds to the former minister and says, Evil is certainly a fair description of certain acts, but they are committed by people, just people. People shaped by experience, other people, and sometimes mental illness. Massacre-scale violence is often committed by very sick people. Shooting them would end the specific situation, but is that the best general prescription?

This reads like a lot of fluff without any substance. People beget people and people's experience beget other experiences. I get it. Why doesn't Shirshac respond to the notion of faith in the one true God as McGlew suggested? No response necessary.

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The latest letter to the editor is published today, May 21, 2008, by Newburyport resident William Emmith, titled "Armed citizens best way to stop crime," cites studies by criminologists Gary Kleck and John R. Lott and suggests an armed citizen is the solution to crime.

In recent years the right to carry a firearm has been made law in over 38 states. The blood path feared by such as Mr. Shirshac did not occur. Indeed, the opposite was the result: Crime declined. The fact is you are 1,000 times more likely to be killed by your doctor than by an accident with a firearm. Do the research.

I'll give you research.

Between July 1995 and April 1997, gun homicides in Boston dropped 70 percent for males under 27 and 50 percent for males 25 and over, according to the April 4, 1997 issue of The CQ Researcher.

The reason for the homicidal decrease is because Boston police teamed up with federal law enforcers and targeted urban gangs; in one instance, a gang member with 15 prior convictions was sentenced to 20 years in a federal prison for carrying a single bullet in his pocket.

If you want to carry a gun, Bill, I have no problem with that. But should any person, at any age or any mental capacity, be able to similarly possess a firearm? Should the ability to fire a gun be no more limiting than the ability to tie one's shoelaces? That's how your letter reads.

And why do you mention the death-by-doctor angle? Are you implying if doctors are eliminated there would be less medical deaths? More people die every year from motor vehicle accidents than gun shootings; so do we ban cars?

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The common element that everyone mentions but doesn't relate to each other is that society must cleanse itself. McGlew and Shirshac come closest to agreeing on this by talking about the evil in society.

For clarification, I point you to an April 2007 article in the Anchorage Daily News by staff writer Craig Medred.

Medred talks about the Virginia Tech tragedy and concludes that regardless if an armed citizen duked it out with the killer or if gun control laws were tougher, the controversy is moot.

Both arguments are as valid as they are invalid, writes Medred.

Medred insists the problem is not gun control or lack of gun control, but there is a national epidemic of rage.

He goes on and says that guns are part of the problem that also include knives and baseball bats. Do we arm, as McGlew suggests for guns, every citizen with knives and bats too? Neither Kleck nor Lott, based on my cursory research, talk about knives and bats, let alone rage. Response, Emmith?

Guns aren't bad things or good things, Medred writes. They're things, inanimate objects, chunks of metal with no will of their own. They're really not the problem. We are.

Amen.

Should fire trucks be in parades?

In the wake of a recent City Council vote to approve a $500,000 bond order to purchase a new fire engine, and considering the skyrocketing costs of fuel, should fire engines continue to be used in parades?

This is a question asked by a Frederick County commissioner in Maryland.

Frederick County uses $1.1 million gallons of fuel a year. It includes gasoline for dumptrucks, cruisers, fire trucks and snow plows. Fifty-six percent of the fuel is diesel, ran The Frederick News-Post in this story yesterday.

Every morning I receive an email digest from the International City/County Management Association with snippets from domestic news outlets about municipal issues. The Frederick story was in today's digest.

The story goes on and mentions a county-wide "fuel conservation policy" is in the works for every county department, not just fire and rescue. Once the policy is complete, the county will ask each department to develop conservation strategies and send them back for review and adoption.

Granted, Newburyport's costs are miniscule compared to an entire county but the point remains valid: Should fire trucks (or any other city vehicles that drain financial resources) be used in parades or other extraneous circumstances? If so, who pays for the gas and depreciation?

Hutcheson's child day

Daily News reporter Steven Tait writes about Councilor Steven Hutcheson's desire for a national day of honor for children of American soldiers.

Please help to make February 20th a day that the country can remember and acknowledge both the large and small sacrifices that children endure while their parents serve our country, Hutcheson wrote in letters to Senator John Kerry, Congressman John Tierney, and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolton.

President Abraham Lincoln's son, Willie, died of typhoid fever on February 20, 1862.

Hutcheson had listened to an audio book on President Lincoln and was moved by Willie's 11-year life.

It's a noble idea but short-sighted.

I have some questions for Councilor Hutcheson:

First, for the past eight years, Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have proclaimed an "National Child's Day" to occur the first Monday in June. Here is a link to last year's proclamation when Bush said we underscore our commitment to our children and pledge to provide them with the care, protection, and education they deserve. How is your proposed day of honor different than this?

Second, do you care whether this "national day of honor" is a new federal holiday declared by Congress, an observance proclaimed by the President, or a national day observed by some association (such as National Teacher Day by the NEA)?

Third, the idea of a national day to honor children of parents who serve the country is vague. How do you define serving the country? If Willie Lincoln is the inspiration, you are not singling out those whose parents are "warfighters" in your words, but also children of parents who are elected or appointed officials in the federal government, right? What about kids of people who never joined the military or worked for the federal government? What about a woman who seams American flags; is she serving the country?

I can go on. Your idea is noble, but solely based on what I read in the newspaper today, I feel it could use some fleshing out.

For instance, more power is in numbers so why not approach a group of national associations with your idea for a solid backing and a more streamlined campaign? Approach the likes of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, the Child Welfare League of America, and the Military Child Education Coalition, explain your proposal, ask the PIRGs to enlist college students to take to the streets to get signatures, and so forth.

Do you like the name Newburyport?

Or should it be changed to Yeatville?

I ask this question in the wake of the deadly cyclonic disaster in Myanmar. Err, Burma. Err, Myanmar.

The United States and the United Kingdom call the Indian subcontinental nation Burma, despite the United Nations' name of Myanmar. BBC News delved into the colloquialism last fall.

So.

What about Newburyport? Anyone want to call it something else, and it can be known by two names?

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On a serious note, I hope everyone in Burma/Myanmar gets the help they deserve.

Senior center on Pond Street?

While looking at this 2006 Daily News story about New England Development's purchase of properties in and around downtown Newburyport, I remembered that the company owns 13 1/2 Pond Street.

13 1/2 Pond Street is the home of CVS, the White Hen, Panda's Cleaners, and an ATM. (Apparently, Express Video is at 13 Pond Street and I don't know if Stephen Karp's company also owns that.)

Presuming NED owns both the front and rear of that footprint, I am reminded of a January 10, 2008 post on the AroundTheNorthShore.com forum (see link on right of this page) by "bafergus68" who wrote the following:

I think we need a public private partnership for the senior center sited at the Pond st mall (which Karp owns).

Tear it down and rebuild with retail on the first floor and senior center above. Retain the White Hen and CVS so seniors can simply go downstairs to get their meds, cigs, and lottery tickets.

....it is a nice location - across from the Bartlett Mall, walking distance to downtown and across from the fire station.

Did the senior center site selection committee consider this as an option?

Is it an option? Should it be one? The idea clearly has merit.

With liberty and justice

Have you ever seen Newburyport's official city flag?

Only one exists today, and it's in the Massachusetts State House, along the east wall in the Great Hall. Look up at the middle row at position #50 and you'll see it.

The flag was designed by Byfield manufacturer Bisgrove Designs and they didn't make another copy.

Any other Newburyport flags you think you've seen, such as the greenish one hanging in the City Council chamber, is not official. (The greenish one was made exclusively for some city celebration.)

But even the State House flag is not official. Not really. It's more of a large-scale representation of the city seal that IS in the City Council chamber.

Before I left the employ of the mayor, I'd worked with Veteran's Agent Kevin Hunt to determine the best way to design, procure, and install new flags. I figured one to hang outside City Hall, one at the library, one for each of the schools, and so forth.

Kevin recently told me he is amid discussions with other city officials and some outside folks to best design this flag.

I don't know how much flags cost, but maybe some businesses could step in and sponsor the purchase of so many flags. And each sponsor could receive a free flag for their own business.

Imagine walking down State Street and instead of seeing U.S. flags suspended off buntings at Chase & Lunt, you'd see a proud city flag.

And we don't need new poles either. It appears that as long as the U.S. flag is highest, any other flag can fly below on the same pole.

Wouldn't it be great to hoist up new flags--and new designs--on National Flag Day on June 14?

Online restaurants

Considering it costs $10 to purchase a domain, $50-100 for a decent annual hosting plan, and minimal effort to create some HTML and upload pictures or scan PDF files, why isn't every restaurant and bakery online?

Take a look at the blogroll to the right; there's a simple explanation why the Thirsty Whale, Stella's, Park Lunch, and the Finest Kind are missing: no website. I'm all for restaurants thriving from word-of-mouth, but how would a tourist know of the delicious food at Stella's if there is no online menu?

Surely, service industry venues have the capital so if it comes down to finding that time and effort, I'll bet many high school students can do the work for cash or for free. If not, I will.

Maybe the solution is the Chamber of Commerce, if not an ad-hoc business association, should create a sub-folder on their website for this purpose. Call it chamberofcommerce.org/restaurants and list every restaurant with PDF menu.

Vodka brewery: far-fetched?

About 95 miles south of Newburyport, in the seaside community of Westport, located about halfway between New Bedford and Fall River, lie Buzzards Bay Brewing and Westport Rivers Winery. Sister community organizations, both entities were conceptualized about 15 years ago with the inspiration of big sky meeting blue water and hoping a brewery and a winery would benefit South Coast residents and tourists.

Here is the joint mission statement:
In 1982 the Russell Family purchased the historic, 140 acre "Long Acre Farm." Following a family discussion, a stewardship statement was drafted. At the heart of this statement is the Russell Family’s belief that they are stewards of both land and possessions; that these are not truly owned, but rather are temporarily gifted and to be used in a fashion honoring those who came before and those who follow afterward. The family declared they would use this South Coast farmland both for agricultural products (including food, wine and beer) and for education (about the value of working natural resources). The Russell's founded both Buzzards Bay Brewing and Westport Rivers Winery upon this deep regard for local agriculture and education. As of 2006 over 300 acres of working farmland has been permanently preserved by the companies.

Land stewardship and natural resource conservation and education. We already have that in Newburyport...but we don't have a brewery or a winery. The winery idea is unlikely due to the limitation of available land that could be used for such a purpose, not to mention the existing competition in the winery industry.

To the north, just over the state line in South Hampton, is the large Jewel Towne Vineyards, built up in the 1970s and now has nearly 100 vintages. To the south, in Ipswich, is the Russell Orchards and Winery, which has produced fruit wines and ciders since 1988. And on the other side of I-95, in Middleton, is the Red Oak Winery, formed in 2002 with the sole purpose of purchasing Napa Valley grapes and producing red and white vintages.

What about a brewery? Don't go frothing at the mouth yet. Sure, it could be a beer brewery, manufacturing bottles with names like Port Ale, Yeat IPA, or Newburyport Nectar. But after chatting today with one of SEED's activists, the idea arose to brew, err distill, a local variety of vodka.

For information, read this article from "Taste of the Seacoast" and this article from Boston Magazine which talk about vodka distilleries in Maine, New Hampshire, and comparable Nantucket.

Think about it.

Bowling for dollars

I just read this story from the Newburyport Daily News in April 2007 about a former bowling alley on Water Street which saw its last bowlers in the 1970s.

As a resident of this fair city, I'd love to see the return of a bowling alley. Cosmic bowling is the rage these days, for youth and adults, and moreover there are few indoor recreation venues in the city. Wouldn't it be grand if we could have a bowling alley instead of parents toting their kids to Amesbury, Georgetown, or Haverhill?