To scrape or not to scrape?

That is the issue.

Newbury wants to scrape the beach in front of those 2 houses in peril on Plum Island and the state does not want the town to do that. Scraping would bulldoze 3 inches of sand from however many yards from the low water up the beach to replenish the eroded dune.

Apparently this was done back in 2005. In the meantime, the town and the state are working on emergency certification to put hay bales, sand bags and beach grass on the beach there. And maybe at Dr. Hemani's house on 55th St. in Newburyport.

That's basically the upshot of today's meeting.