I had to call FOUR different places before I got the time/location of that meeting tomorrow at which Newburyport will debate/decide whether to provide water and sewer to the Village at Little River development in Newbury.
It is tomorrow (Thursday) at 4 p.m. in City Council chambers.
I called:
The Mayor's Office (still no answer)
The Clerk's Office (referred me to the water dept.)
The Water Dept. (referred me to the Planning Office)
Finally! Nancy Colbert herself provided the info. I thought the Clerk's Office was the official meetings/keeping track of such place.
Not that I necessarily believe that anyone's presence will make the slightest difference, but you never know!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
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4 comments:
Are they going to decide? Or are they going to recommend?
Is this a public body meeting?
The snippet from the article made it sound more ad hoc, a committe appointed by the mayor.
Doesn't the ultimate decision belong to the water commissioners?
I think they will probably be making a recommendation to the water commission.
I don't think because it's an ad hoc meeting that the public is not welcome; I just don't think they will be able to have any input (hence my statement at the end).
Could have called me! I knew!
Water and Sewer Commissions would need to discuss and vote on this in full Commission Meeting before any commitment could be made to this project. Financing on such projects usually needs a solid commitment (ie; permits and approvals in hand) before shelling out such large sums of investors cash. At the moment there has been no solid discussion on any 'facts' of this project at the Sewer Commission level and there seems to be more questions than answers produced at these 'Ad-Hock' gatherings than each Commission can or has discussed. Policies and Laws would be compared to any suggestions that are 'presented' at these gatherings before any appointed board or commission would dare to approve such a controversial offer. I would assume that the Water and Sewer Commissioners would be encouraged to meet in Joint OPEN Meeting before voting in any capacity on this issue seeing that new findings in authorities have arisen over this proposed project and limits on the licensing, oversight and permit process/ allowances of each enterprise department. A quorum of each department may not be met at this or any such meeting, therefore any decision finalized would take at least one more meeting (sewer meets at 5:30 tomorrow evening at the Newburyport Public Library)would be necessary to pass such a authorization of a connection 'outside' the Newburyport Sewer System. As I remember this, the Newburyport placed a hold on all such connections at a previous meeting while discussing just this issue and new information delivered by the City Attorney on the legalities of allowing such connections to take place. There is a qualification to such connections that this project does not meet and there is history of the Sewer Commission denying such connections due to the Business nature of the property. I do suppose that these rules and policies may be changed, but I would hope that extreme caution would be in the fore front before any such changes be made to the future of the stability of the Water and Sewer System for the owners (ratepayers (not taxpayers because all taxpayers are not water or sewer rate payers or customers).
Thanks, Pedro!
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