MR Beach Alliance meets next week

In case you've forgotten, the MRBA will meet at 10 a.m. next Friday, Aug. 14 (also my birthday).

One of the conditions of getting federal money for the dredging project is the re-opening of public access ways to the beach.

This situation has pretty much come to a head out here on Old Point, where three whole streets have been absorbed into people's "private" property.

There is one house that has been expanded over what is supposed to be, I believe, Q St. and there should be 2 streets beyond the circle at the end of Old Point Rd., off the missing Q St.

As long as I have lived here, residents have been trying to stop the public (me and some of my neighbors) from getting to the river by claiming we are on their personal property. Usually saying "I live out here" works, but in a couple of cases, that only gets you a dirty look and some foul language.

I once asked Mayor Moak about this and he said something lame like "all the public rights of way have been taken over and that's the way it is on Plum Island."

Sort of like the, "Oh, capping a landfill means odors and that's the way it is" argument that we're hearing now.

Oh where is someone who will ask these candidates for office some tough questions about this and other issues that are just swept under the rug in the name of "that's the way it is."

I'm beginning to hear increased rumblings about PI breaking away as its own community.

Someone today said, with all the revenue from property taxes, just think of the top-drawer services we would have. You know - the ones that have been taken away, like a fire station.

The Plum Island Taxpayers Association, or PITA, a while back got some state money (or Newbury got it, depending on who you talk to) for a services building at Newbury's island center. That money went towards erosion prevention.

Well, the beach is one of the worst in the world (according to Esquire magazine), so who cares about sandbags anyway? Or trash bins, or restrooms?

This is all in Newbury ... Newburyport has all that stuff, plus little problem with erosion.