Beach Alliance meeting today

So enough slurring on Bruce Tarr ... he's actually doing a pretty good job of keeping this group focused and on target.

The target, however, is fast disappearing.

They still don't have all the easements signed, not even the ones in Salisbury, and no one mentioned the rights-of-way so who knows what the status of those is.

(Although Tarr said at the end of the meeting that everyone would be available to answer questions after the meeting, they all formed groups amongst themselves and were not, in fact, available. In this case, even Victor Tine was wandering around trying to get comments.)

So here's the short and sweet:

There are 3 scenarios that could go down ...

1. The easements aren't all signed and the sand from the dredging will be dumped near-shore;
2. All the easements in Salisbury are signed and they will get their 40,000 yards of sand (or all in Newbury and they will get their 120,000 yards);
3. All of the easements are signed and the nourishment project proceeds as planned.

The Army Corps of Engineers has prepared for all of these scenarios.

The drop-dead deadline is Oct. 2, which is Friday.

Some of the people present were asking if the Army Corps could put off the dredging, but there is that dreaded $1 million in stimulus funding that would be lost and of course the channel is used by the U.S. Coast Guard.

"Our first duty here is to maintain that channel," said Mark Habel of the Army Corps.

As for the eminent domain part - I talked to Bob Connors of the PI Foundation who put the warrant forward to the Town of Newbury.

The proposal is to only take the same 20 feet they are asking for access to in the easements. That's 20 ft. of each of the 26 properties.

Connors thinks the Corps might go for delaying the project if it is assured of the easements.

But another man from the Army Corps, whose name I did not catch, said that if they lose the stimulus money, they will have to wait for another appropriation in the next federal budget roundabout (my word, not his) ... so, oh well, your guess is as good as mine.