Community Action

So I heard Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate Scott Brown say again last night that the stimulus has created no jobs.

Well, folks, without stimulus funds to programs such as Community Action, Inc., I wouldn't be here doing Newburyport Business and hopefully we will soon be creating some writing jobs in the community. Not to mention that we hired a local, Cindy Barnard of CCB Creative, to design our site (I'd link to her site but she wants to update it).

And we're a pretty small operation (for now).

From Community Action I got fuel assistance, without which I might not have been able to stay in the city. I'm not saying that Newburyport Business is totally dependent on me, or even me being here, because it's not - but it was my idea and my partners and I (all of us really employees) hope to reap some modest benefit as well, and I thought it was important that I actually be here.

And furthermore, the dredging project and the sewer plant renovations are both using funds distributed through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to create jobs here.

So apparently Scott Brown doesn't pay attention to the city, or even the specific area (Plum Island), where his parents live. Maybe the local Republican Committee can clue him in ... ?

* I got assistance from other places as well - the Howard Benevolent Society, for one - but this post is about stimulus funds.

The beach today (Thursday)

This is the hole I nearly fell into on the beach last night ... and those are the sand bags, looking pretty raggedy.

Newburyport Business update

We decided to change from changing the content weekly to updating whenever ... well, as we get stories done, hopefully every day (because that's the way it's been going with all the breaking news).

Unfortunately today, everything got posted - even the thing that wasn't supposed to go live until tomorrow - but oh, well. I figure it was late enough in the day that people won't see it until tomorrow anyway.

Last week, as I know at least one of you (Mr. Salemi) noticed, there was a snafu and content didn't go up until late on Friday. So we got kind of sidetracked by an issue that was being sorted out ... well this is an end to that kind of thing.

Thank you to everyone who's been sending in news tips and ideas. Wow, we're never lacking for stories and most times when I go out for one thing, I find out about something else.

I really appreciate the support, and I hope you'll all come to our launch party. After that, we are really in overdrive.

And I may even have time to post more on here. Aside from direct entries, this is the #1 referral to our site. And thanks to the aforementioned Mr. Salemi, referrals from Newburyport Posts rank #2. Thanks, Tom!

Go see the wreaths

These are a couple of the wreaths that are on (silent) auction at the Custom House Maritime Museum. It's really cool to go in there and see all the wreaths hanging on the wall and up the staircase.

Proceeds from the auction, which marks the end of the Holiday House Tour this Saturday, will go towards exhibits at the museum.

I've never taken the house tour, but I know it's very popular. The wreaths were made by all kinds of people - doctors, businesses, kids, professional florists, a fly fisherman - it's very cool. Even if you don't need a wreath, it's pretty cool to look at them.

My fave is the patridge in the pear tree one. You can't tell but the partridge is all hand-made hooked. And the other one - well, I like the fact that the Christmas tree is reflected in the balls.

The bidding starts at $25.

Beach update

The parking lot at PI center was obviously flooded but it has receded. There is sand all down it, and foam - plus people told me waves came over.

Bob Connors of the PI Foundation drove up while I was just there at about 6. He said no one expected the high tide today and that he had never seen the tide so high. We walked closer to the beach and I almost fell into a hole that had been made by the surf, I think at the edge of the sand bags. When I looked around, there was another - bigger - hole, right in the middle of the path that goes from the parking lot to the beach. Bob left to go call the Newbury police and tell them they need to fence it off before someone gets hurt.

There is also a huge tree trunk resting across the stones/groin. We couldn't tell the condition of the sand bags but the surf was still heavy (although I can't hear it from here anymore, now that the wind has died down).

High tide in 40 minutes

And the ocean is already coming up the foot path to the beach at island center. This looks bad. A Newbury policeman came up and said there's nothing to be done and he thinks it will be in the street at high tide, which is 5 p.m.

I'm serious ... two waves came right up onto the path and one was swirling foam around our feet (it's still all over my boots). Waves were crashing on the sand bags and splashing up onto the dune.

As the woman standing next to me observed, "That's one angry ocean." I've never seen anything like it. Both of my cameras are out of battery and it's too dark anyway.

"Big Gus" up for sale

Oh blah, blah, blah ... now we find out that the Newburyport Trolley is up for sale, after just one summer of operation. Apparently this guy Michael Vetrano is making a living off being a police officer in Everett, resigning and going off for a year to do something else, then being hired back as a police officer by his buddy, Mayor Carlo DeMaria.

Not to mention he got $10,000-$12,000 in economic development money from the city ...

I think he's perfect for Pepperell

So he couldn't file an appeal with FEMA on behalf of 1,400 homeowners - or for that matter take New Ventures to court on behalf of other homeowners - but give him one big development company, and ...

The city filed an appeal of the preliminary Flood Insurance Rate Maps on behalf of New England Development on Monday, the last day possible to fight the imposition of new flood maps that will impact hundreds of properties in the city.

Mayor John Moak had said earlier this year that the city would not appeal the new maps, which will take effect June 1. However, the mayor said yesterday the city is the only party that can file an appeal and did so this week on behalf of the development company.

Read the whole story in the Daily News, here.

It's a done deal

I forgot to mention that Mayor Moak told me today that he signed the contract in Pepperell and he's outta here as soon as he's outta the corner office. As in, inauguration day he leaves the ceremony for work in Pepperell.

I thought it uncouth to ask him how much dough he'll be making (especially since we were standing in the hallway at City Hall), but it's not too uncouth to call Pepperell tomorrow, I guess, and ask.

Type this word - grogitudinous

Soon I'm going to have to turn on that awful word verification thing because I keep getting spam comments. Usually I simply reject them, but tonight I accidentally published four of them.

Oddly enough, three of them were on old posts from way back. They were mostly about anal fissures and other stuff that is better left unrevealed.

You guys aren't actually interested in anal fissures, are you?

Sorry for not posting more but I've been way too busy to do anything but work and collapse and oh yeah, offend people I'm very fond of.