McCavitt: Potential liability forever

You can read about the special city council meeting in the Daily News story here. Stephen Tait did a really nice job covering the meeting. Here's some other stuff that isn't in the story.

Ward 1 City Councillor Larry McCavitt perhaps said it best when he said we could have "goop and crap" floating downstream from the landfill forever, which also could cause liability.

I have to say, I was shocked to learn that councillors had not heard about the depositions to which some residents who live near the landfill were subjected by New Ventures in the company's attempt to dispute its liability over the effects of hydrogen sulfide leaking from the landfill. If I'm not mistaken, it was in the Daily News.

Residents were grilled and raked over the coals for good measure, they say, by NV attorneys. Brenda Reffett spoke of this at the meeting, and this seems to have been what most outraged Tom O'Brien.

"I'm like that guy in the movie," he said. "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

One thing should have struck the council - when Tom Jones (councillor-at-large) said that there's a reason New Ventures is an LLC. "From day one, the intent of this entity was to limit its liability. It's the end of its useful life when profiting ceases ... The only constant is Newburyport."
Jones said he would "acquiesce" to the majority on whether to take a vote right then. His wife is on the ad hoc landfill advisory committee so I guess he kind of had to say that. He also invoked the name of former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who believed that being 'nice' to the Nazis pre-World War II was a good move.

Greg Earls, who sits next to Jones, said nothing. I already reported what Donna Holaday said. Steve Hutcheson said nothing. Tom O'Brien, as I said, was incensed and wanted to vote then and there. I already reported what Ed Cameron and Katie Ives said. Barry Connell said nothing, but before the meeting re-opened to the public, he said privately he had had a root canal that day. I already reported what Brian Derrivan said.

Derrivan seems like a pleasant enough guy, but I've too many times seen him and the mayor with their heads together (literally), in the shadowy parts of City Hall, before a City Council meeting.

McCavitt, my councillor (as in, I live in Ward 1), said a lot more. He doubts the structural integrity of the landfill ("I don't believe it's possible to even make this secure.") But he also said he needed to "look this over for the next week or so."

I just keep thinking about what Katie Ives said about doing what's best for all of Newburyport and how it was only fair to give the council enough time to consider the options. They haven't had time to consider how loathsome New Ventures is?

Is giving in to threats and selling out a whole neighborhood for money what's best for Newburyport? Someone after the meeting suggested to me that maybe we can pawn the landfill ... I mean offer the landfill to Stephen Karp. As I said before, Newburyport can ski ... and he loves it here sooooo much.