I love this place (a snark-free post)

Next week's Townie Tuesday column will be about native Don Pollard. Never fear, my dear readers - I've spent the better part of today researching all about Don Pollard (found out some good stuff, too).

Anyway, I met him earlier today in the laundromat. I don't usually hang around the laundromat (which would be the Village Washtub on Water St.). I usually run around downtown doing errands while my clothes are in the washer and then take the wet clothes home to the clothes line.

Damn if it isn't winter now.

I also don't usually talk to strange men (as in, men who are strangers), but he approached me because he had seen me on TV. Of course, as soon as he introduced himself, I recognized the name as one I had heard numerous times.

We talked way beyond the time when his clothes were clean and mine were dry.

One of the values of doing Townie Tuesday is not only interviewing the people but hearing all kinds of things that I don't have the room to put into the small column on Newburyport Today.

During the summer, I would also write a full story on the person for SeaCoast Scene, but that's done for this year.

I love hearing about the corner stores, the decrepit downtown that still inspires fond memories and, depending on how old the person is, whether or not they were allowed to swim in the river.

So Don was telling me about the factories downtown, and I guess I never thought about those buildings on Pleasant St. being actual factories. And I certainly did not know that the Custom House had been one, after it was de-commissioned by the feds (or at least I hadn't remembered; I do have Jean Doyle's first volume of Life in Newburyport).

A lot of heels were made in Newburyport. I mean actual heels for shoes.

So one thing I really get a kick out of are those people - and Don is one - who are descended from a First Settler. Oddly enough, the people I have met who are in this category are all descended through their mother.

The usual answer to a question about their father's family is something like, "Oh, the Pollards have only been here since 1850."

My family, on both sides, were kind of rambling folk.

So I'm always impressed when some family has stuck it out in one locale for even 160 years, much less since the 1600s.

Newbury turns 365 years old next year, you know.

I love it here.

It really is the best place in the world.

Who needs a newspaper?

Earlier this week I stopped in for a visit to someone I know who lives on the Newbury section of Plum Island.

I asked this person a question about the beach nourishment project, just off the cuff, and the person picked up the phone, called Newbury Town Hall, and got the answer.

I have to note here that although Newbury officials are quite forthcoming, I usually have to actually go to Town Hall and confront the person I need to talk to because they don't answer phone messages.

Then this person says to me about the local daily, "Oh, we all know it's controlled."

Is this the explanation for the death of newspapers?

People tell me of the days when freelance reporters - stringers - worked for any and all newspapers. There was competition, sure, but not the sense today that everyone and every publication out there is "the competition."

I've said this before, but I really object to this.

It doesn't matter who delivers the news as long as it's delivered in an accurate manner. I have at least twice now tipped off a "competing" reporter to a big story that needed to be told when the paper I write for either declined to cover it or could not do it in a timely manner (as in, the story would be dead before the paper came out).

And I have received such sharing back. We as reporters are a more cohesive group than people imagine. Much like people on Plum Island, who are islanders first and Newburyites or Newburyporters second, we reporters all share the desire to deliver the news.

Just about one year ago I was pretty unceremoniously told by the Boston Globe North editor that he couldn't guarantee me a story in the paper on a regular basis and that I had best go back to the "competition."

As it turned out, I was later cut back by the Current to just 2 stories/week, so I probably should have stuck it out at the Globe since they pay so much more - and I would have made almost the same with just one or two stories per month in the Globe - but oh, well.

The Globe considers other papers, no matter how local, and regional magazines to be competition - even though neither the Globe itself, nor its magazine, can possibly cover every story that is worth covering in this state.

The Daily News and the Current together cannot cover every story worth covering in this city, which is why it's good there's a Liberator and a Town Common. I don't know exactly what happened to the Port Planet.

I think every neighborhood in Boston has its own little paper. I know there's one for the Back Bay, the South End and Beacon Hill.

But the Daily News considers the Current to be the competition and vice versa, although I'm not sure the people at the Current would admit to it.

So why can't we just all get along and for sure not be "controlled" by anyone, if that is indeed the case?

Because that's just not the way it is. And now we are all paying the price.

A lot of reporters who have lost their jobs are starting online newspapers and blogs. A lot of these are non-profits.

Maybe that is the answer, although gods know that when I start such a thing, it will be a for-profit (but not controlled by anyone).

I'm off to garden

Today is gardening day, instead of the usual Saturday morning.

I expect there to be many, many weeds in our little plot behind the First Parish Church, but our veggies appear to be flourishing.

Or they were, last time I saw them.

I have to note here that I hear that the people who own the property that abuts the former field behind the church really object to having the community gardens there. They think it's too noisy, or intrusive, or something.

This goes back to people doing what they will with their own property and upsetting the neighbors; although I never imagined someone would be upset about a community garden.

Maybe they should stick a windmill in there and see how that goes over ...

Adding insult to injury

A reader sent me via email his observations regarding Newbury fire trucks getting stuck on the marsh and I guess breaking down, last Thursday.

We had really high tides last week, but I guess that didn't stop a brush fire from breaking out near the airport. There was one out here, too, the week before (see photo).

On Thursday as I was leaving the island, problably after 12:00, but didn't look at time, the large Volpe Tow truck was driving onto the apron at Plum Island International Airport.

With my curiosity piqued, I turned around and into the parking lot as the tow truck proceeded down the runway toward the west end. Asked a person with a camera what was happening and she said that a Newbury fire truck had driven down the runway for a brush fire and had gotten stuck (obviously after driving off the paved runway).

Upon leaving and heading east on High Road, saw the "tracked" fire truck (small one) being loaded on another flatbed tow truck.

All this at about the same time that Newbury Selectmen and woman were dismissing a fireman.

Not a good day for Newbury Fire Department.

I do wish Blogger didn't make it so difficult to format a post after you've inserted a photo ...

What took them so long?

The Newbury Beach Committee has resigned. All of the members have, or are about to, be history.

Read about it here, in the Daily News.

All six members of a Newbury committee charged with developing beach management plans have resigned.

Newbury Beach Advisory Committee Chairman Paul Ivaska, Linda Wood, Lois Smith, Martin Saradjian, Stanley Liffman and Gay Schoene, either turned in letters of resignation Tuesday night or plan to do so soon, according to committee members interviewed this week.

Charged with developing beach management plans - well, as I said in this post on June 18:

Isn't that what the Newbury Beach Committee was doing before all this started? With little or no funding? How many times do I have to say this? And when is the DN going to point this out? Never - that's my guess.

Seriously, these people gave their time (and lots of it) to try to save this beach (I still can't find the photos I took last year of them out installing snow fence in the cold, on a Saturday morning). And what did they get in return? Nary a mention in the mainstream media, and I imagine no calls to consult about the erosion situation on the beach.

No, instead they were circumvented, the Plum Island Foundation was created, and here now this group of dedicated people is gone. The only one of them I really talked to in depth was Paul Ivanska, but he sure knows that beach.

I only wonder what took them so long.

Newbury in the news (not ours)

From yesterday's Globe North:

NEWBURY PLANNER SOUGHT - Officials have posted the town planner position, vacant since Judy Tymon's dismissal on July 1. The job description states that the planner, in addition to overseeing Planning Board functions, will assist the board with amending existing bylaws or writing new ones, as well as implementing the town's master plan. The town is looking for someone with at least two years' related planning experience. - Taryn Plumb

If I crack wise about this, do you think it will lure Bubba back into the fold?

Let's see ... how about this? (Sung to the tune of "Who wants to be a millionnaire?")

Who wants to work in Ould New-bur-ee?
I don't
Who has the appropriate degree?
I don't
Who wants to deal with that board and that chair?
Deal with that bunch? Not even for lunch!
Would you do it for a beer?
I won't
Maybe they'd let you do it from there ...
I won't
But if you will, you should definitely click here!

Citizens for Newbury

I was reading this story in the Daily News about a new group that has been formed in Newbury in the wake of the defeat of the Little Village People River project (or whatever it was called).

Citizens for Newbury — or C4N — is a continuation and expansion of a loose coalition of local people who favored the Village at Little River, said Don Bade, spokesman for the group.

It made me think about the Town Meeting and how few Newbury residents actually came out to vote. (Those present supported the zoning measure 422-275, but it needed 465 votes to pass.)

"We're trying to build a network of people that will be informed and ready to vote and participate in town government," Bade said. "People should be made aware that they can participate in town government."

People aren't aware of this?

This was an important issue for Newbury, and people should have turned out to vote on it, one way or another. If they did not, they got what they deserved - or what they wanted all along.

"There is no such word as gotten"

Here is something that really grates on me: the word gotten.

I found online (Bartleby.com, citing the American Heritage Book of English Usage) this opening paragraph to a piece on the word:

"There is no such word as gotten,” an irritated reader recently wrote to The Boston Globe Magazine, objecting to the use of the word by a usage commentator, who should have known better. The notion that gotten is illegitimate has been around for over 200 years and refuses to die. The word itself is much older than the criticism against it.

Newburyport author Anne Easter Smith recently pointed out a quote attributed to her and said she was sure she hadn't said precisely that because she never uses the word "gotten" (which was in the quote).

Smith was born and raised in England, where the word has mostly passed out of usage, she (and the entry on Bartleby.com) notes.

So I read this opening to a small piece in today's Daily News and cringed: Just weeks after being relieved of her town planner duties in Newbury, Judy Tymon has gotten a new job.

Sounds really cumbersome, doesn't it? But is it also wrong?

"Gotten" is the past participle of "get." Again, from the Book of English Usage: Got often implies current possession, where gotten usually suggests the process of obtaining. I haven’t got any money suggests that you are broke. I haven’t gotten any money suggests that you have not been paid for your efforts.

So ... if Tymon has secured the job, does that mean she's got it? Yes. BUT, the English language being as complicated as it is, there is also the perfect aspect tense (a combination of some form of the verb "to have" and the active verb's past participle), which allegedly draws attention to the consequences generated by a person's action.

In that sense, and in the context used, "has gotten" is correct ... I guess. I would think the consequences came when the Newbury Selectmen gave her the boot.

Right or wrong, it still grates on me, though. I like lovely, flowing sentence constructions ... "Just weeks after being relieved of her town planning duties in Newbury, Judy Tymon can give Newbury the proverbial ..." uh-oh, better not go down that road!

Do you think whoever wrote/edited that piece gave it this much thought?

Tymon, by the way, will be town planner in North Andover.

One mocks where one can

After the shock of having Bubba agree 100% with me about something wore off, I thought I'd better post about Newbury again - just to keep things on an even keel.

But dammit, all I can find is something that on the face of it looks pretty sensible. But I still have complaints and plenty of opportunities to mock.

PLUM ISLAND — Police will begin issuing short-term parking permits to people who rent cottages on Plum Island for vacations, the July 10 story in the Daily News begins.

Nowhere does it say this is just in the Newbury section of the island, or even if it's only on Northern Blvd. (the main drag to the northern end of the island, on the ocean side), but oh well. In fact, I don't think the word "Newbury" appears anywhere in the story ...

Under the new policy, which (Newbury police Chief Michael) Reilly said will take effect in about two weeks, renters will have the option of buying a permit that will allow them to park legally in areas where they would normally be liable for a $20 ticket.

The permits will cost $15.

The only problem left, according to the person who earlier today told me about this, is figuring out what happens when renters say the landlords should pay for the parking permits, not them. The story says the permits, which should be left on the dashboard of the vehicle, will have an expiration date.

Of what? Who knows?

Although the policy will initally (sic) cover only people renting cottages or houses on Plum Island, Reilly said in the future he would like to extend temporary permits to people holding weddings or parties on the island. The host, he said, could apply for one-day permits for a specified number of guests' vehicles.

I think that about 1/3 of the homes on Plum Island are actually in Newburyport, if I recall correctly. I know that Newbury and Newburyport have an inter-community agreement in which each community's PD patrols out here, but can some Newbury cop now come and ticket someone parked on Old Point Rd. (the main drag on this side of the island - actually, the ONLY drag - and who is parked in Newburyport but who does not have a permit on display?

It's all sooo confusing to me!

Little Village floats away from Newbury

I agree with Tom Salemi about the vote on River Village at Little: Wow. I, too, am shocked.

While I think that Newbury was rushing headlong into it (considering they didn't yet have permission to use our water/sewer services), it was probably due to expediency of circumstances - and I really thought it would go through, nevertheless.

While I'm not overly fond of developments, this one seemed like a good fit for Rte. 1, which everyone has to admit is not Commonwealth Ave. (Boston).

I agree with commenter (to Tom's post) Dick Monahan - but that's nothing new!

Newburyport is already planning its own development in that area (at least I think we are still), so why not make it one big, happy area? People getting off the train could run over to the shopping area, pick up whatever they need, and head on home without another stop.

With the city trying to lure businesses into our industrial park, what better fly could you use than having affordable housing a hop, skip and jump away? Plus it would tie that area together, which it sorely needs.

Let's face it, everybody and his brother is capitalizing on building near the commuter rail stations, where they can. Why not us? And them (Newbury).

God, I hope this wasn't all about "poor folks" moving to town ...

Yikes stripes

I was blissfully reading this letter in the Daily News, about the Little River development in Newbury, and is it good for the town, and yada, yada, yada.

Then I read this bit:

Newburyport is being offered $3.9 million (by the developers) in cash and infrastructure work, and is asking for more before allowing a connection to the city sewer and water. At $3.9 million it will be 8.9 years after the project is complete before Newbury nets the amount Newburyport is being offered up front. It is not clear what more Newburyport is looking for, but it could be too much.

I read it again, just to make sure I was reading it right. WHAT?! We get $3.9 mil in considerations out of this? And we want even more? Was this reported in the paper?

I know sometimes stories from the print edition don't make it to the online edition of the DN, so I'm just curious ...

Little River project

I know, this ain't Newbury and I'm not the NEWBURY Reporter Unlimited ... but I didn't realize there was so much opposition to the project. I mean, I should have, seeing all those letters to the editor of the DN telling people why it would be good.



And, of course, (a couple of) people in Newbury apparently do read this blog.

There was another one of these signs, perched on top of huge bales of hay that had been made to look like a comical figure, but when I saw that, I didn't have my camera on me. I'll try to get a shot of it - I think they were making another, closer to Tendercrop Farm, where this sign was.

Matthew Kozazcki of Tendercrop had a little flier he wrote up available for shoppers to pick up, so I grabbed one. It is headlined, "I like Newbury just like it is - that's why I live here."

It's not entirely clear to me, but it seems that, aside from tax and conservation issues, Kozazcki's objection has to do with the state-required 10% low income housing and that only 30% of the units designated low income are Newbury resident preferred. And, he says, "we are only protected for two years according to the planning board." Newbury, he says, is currently at 3-1/2% low income housing.

"Newbury residents - do you understand that if this vote passes - that area of Route 1 has the potential for 500-600 more housing units. This will be Newbury's future."

Does Newbury have any poor or diminished income people, at all?

Also, he talks about Newburyport's water and sewer and that Newburyport "will need a Newbury site for a sewer plant and Tendercrop Farm land for a water source."

Excerpt from a story in today's Daily News:

In order to provide sewer service outside its boundaries, Newburyport would need to get a special act of the state Legislature. Special acts are usually the result of what are known as "home rule petitions." In Newburyport, getting a home rule petition passed requires positive votes from eight of the City Council's 11 members, so just four "no" votes by city councilors could kill the deal.

No such requirement exists for providing water service. Indeed, Newburyport already provides water to several streets in the Oldtown section of Newbury.

Hmmmm ... did the people on those streets have to pay betterments, I wonder? I believe I heard a whisper at one point that they did not ...

*Sigh*

From what I can gather from this report in the Daily News (and it's not hard to gather, given the headline 'Hostile' letter keeps Salisbury's Harrington away from Plum Island ), this Plum Island Foundation really knows how to win friends and influence people.

It seems that the Foundation and a citizens' group last March sent Town Manager Neil Harrington a letter threatening a law suit if Salisbury does not agree to allow sand dredged from the mouth of the river to be deposited on Plum Island.

"We simply cannot grant legitimacy to a meeting organized by a group that ostensibly wants our support at the same time it is threatening to take legal action against us," Harrington wrote to [Plum Island Foundation Vice President Robert] Connors last Friday.

Wow, does this sound at all familiar, people in Ward 5?

Harrington did not attend last week's meeting at PITA Hall on Plum Island, at which the Army Corps of Engineers talked erosion.

Connors responded with this, to Harrington: "Wouldn't the citizens of Salisbury be better served having their town manager attend to learn firsthand of the necessary steps, the possible solutions of erosion control and beach nourishment?" he added.

Again, according to the Daily News, Salisbury and Plum Island had previously agreed to alternate on who gets the sand from the dredging. (Not sure what political entity Plum Island is.) Plum Island got the last load, 10 years ago.

Salisbury had apparently agreed that the next load should go to Plum Island , so I don't see the impetus behind the nastiness. The letter threatening legal action was written by a Boston attorney.

All this is, again, kind of jumping the gun, in that the Army Corps of Engineers has said again and again that they don't do beach replenishment, and that the sand would probably be dumped off shore from Plum Island, as it was 10 years ago.

Jerry Klima, chairman of the Salisbury Selectmen, did attend the meeting, but said his presence should not be construed as an endorsement of the Plum Island Foundation. He said he thought the communities could probably persuade federal officials to give their financial support to beach nourishment projects — but only if they work together.

What, he doesn't think threatening a lawsuit is working together?!

Daily socks it to Russo

I sort of remember when our mayor did not renew the appointment of our city planner, Nick Cracknell. I remember what a furor it caused, and up until I left the Current, I still heard it as a major criticism of the mayor.

I see in today's (that would still be Thursday's) Daily News an editorial, I guess, about Newbury's decision to "toss out" its town planner.

With Newbury voters poised to accept or reject the biggest private construction development in their town's history, they clearly need all the professional firepower they can get to make sure the town's interests are met.

With that in mind, it's astonishing that two selectmen have chosen this very moment to toss out the town planner, Judy Tymon. Perhaps even more surprising is the lack of definitive and defensible reasons they gave as the basis for their decision.

Monday night, selectmen voted 2-1 to get rid of Tymon when her term expires on June 30. Selectmen Joe Story and Vincent Russo cited two central reasons — Tymon's failure to bring in grants and her failure to improve communication between town agencies.

But those reasons didn't wash with many who attended the angry meeting. Selectman Jen Wright, who favored keeping Tymon, produced a list of some $522,000 in grants that Tymon has secured since 2004.

Russo's response — "Look at that... she doesn't give it to us. She gives it to the press" — doesn't say much for his own research into the matter. If anything, it sends the message that he was more aggravated that he was publicly blindsided with facts than with the ugly realization that perhaps he hadn't done his own homework.

I don't have much to add to this, because I am no longer astonished by anything that happens around here, or there, government-wise, and I already expressed my feelings here, only not quite as eloquently.

Good going.

One ringy-dingy, two ringy-dingies, three ...

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!

More Newbury nonsense

This, at the VERY end of another story in today's DN about Newbury's proposed Village at Little River:

Coincidentally, a meeting is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon for a committee formed by Newburyport Mayor John Moak to make a recommendation on whether the city will provide water and sewer service to the development.

How about a time and place, Daily News? And it's not listed in the schedule of public meetings on the city's website. You'd almost think they don't want anyone to attend ... AND there's no answer at the mayor's office.

This was my favorite part of the whole piece:

Selectmen Jennifer Wright, who had negotiated with the developers as the board's representative, said copies of the [agreement with the developer] document were e-mailed to both Story and Russo on Sunday. Story said he did not receive it. Russo said his copy arrived at an inopportune time.

"You e-mailed me during the Celtics game," he said, referring to the NBA championship series that is underway between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers.

Hee hee; what a Yahoo (read Gulliver's Travels).

Oh, cripes

I hope it had nothing to do with my complimenting her ...

Of course, I knew that something/someone that was actually a responsible entity in Newbury would be removed. Read about Judy Tymon's ouster as Newbury Town Planner here, in the DN story.

This meeting sounds a lot like the ones of the old Municipal Council, in Amesbury.

I have to say, ever since I heard Vincent Russo refer to a Plum Island resident as a "cracker" in a public meeting, I have not been disposed to .... ummmm ... like him. It was one of those PI workgroup meetings, and he was saying that this man had said he wasn't going to pay the betterment for the water/sewer service.

Russo waved his hand dismissively, made the "cracker" comment, and added that "we'll just take his house."

It was the first PI workgroup meeting I had covered for the Current, and Russo had looked around to see if there was a reporter there before making his telling comment. Well, he did not know me (and he still doesn't, because I avoid him like the plague). But Mayor John Moak did, and he looked over at me after Russo made the comment. The look on the mayor's face was priceless.

No, I did not put the comment in the piece that I wrote. But I remember it like it was just yesterday. Not a good analogy, actually, since I can't remember what I did yesterday ... anyhow, it soured me on Russo.

Hooray for Newbury! (seriously)

So Newbury has received approval to sell that land they have just lurking around, unused, on Plum Island. Well, part of it, at any rate. There are still a few lots here and there that I assume they can sell for development, or whatever.

What's great is that voters will only allow sale to "governmental entities and non-profit land conservation organizations." Not sure how many non-profit organizations have $5 mil lying around in their coffers, though.

This is from our daily (I just copied the whole piece, since it's short):

NEWBURY — Selectmen can sell a large tract of town-owned Plum Island land, but only under several restrictions, Town Meeting voters decided last week.

By a 77-15 tally, voters approved an article last Tuesday night that would allow the Board of Selectmen to offer a 5.4-acre parcel on Temple Boulevard for sale to "governmental entities and non-profit land conservation organizations." Selectmen Chairman Vincent Russo has estimated the value of the property at more than $5 million.

But voters also approved an amendment proposed by island resident Scott Ackerly that would require Town Meeting authorization before any sale could actually be executed and would also prohibit the town from selling the beachfront and primary dune portions of the land.

Ackerly said he wanted to preserve public access in an area where much of the beachfront is privately owned.

"This is the only piece of property that the town of Newbury owns that guarantees that the people of Newbury can use this beach," he said.

Russo later disputed that statement, contending the town owns the beach from the Newburyport-Newbury line to the border of the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge.

The parcel town officials want to sell is on the northerly border of the refuge.

Finance Committee Chairman Frank Remley said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is conducting an appraisal with an eye toward adding the land to the wildlife sanctuary.

Does this exclude a waste treatment plant? Because that's all we need out here.

Hmmmm ... shall I be picky, or no? OK, you talked me into it.

Is Russo an appraiser? I thought he was a doctor! And what's the deal with reporting something that happened nearly a week ago? Which, of course, has not stopped me from commenting on it.

Anyway, I'm not sure what that Ackerly guy is on about. As I understand it, none of the beach is privately owned. I'm always rampaging all over it and no one yet has told me to cease and desist.

Seriously, though, I'm all for adding onto the refuge. I'm not sure all our plover-tastes-like-chicken friends will agree, though.

Newbury optimistic about development

OK, this boggles the mind. In this story from today's Daily News, it would seem optimism abounds regarding the development in Newbury that needs our water and sewer to go forward:

NEWBURY — There were expressions of optimism at an information session Saturday morning about the Village at Little River mixed-use development on Route 1, but, as selectmen Chairman Vincent Russo noted, "The devil is in the details."

Selectman Jennifer Wright, who is leading the negotiations with the development team, voiced optimism that an agreement on benefits and obligations would be reached by June 9.

A principal member of the development team said he was optimistic that neighboring Newburyport would agree to provide water and sewer service for the project.

Getting the necessary water and sewer service from a neighboring community is a "detail?"

I wonder what they know that we don't?

More bitching

I'm an equal-opportunity mocker. I just don't usually read the Newburyport Current since my unfortunate 'incarceration' there. But I was reading it a while ago, on line.

The story I was reading was about Newbury's River at Little Village, or whatever. It has about 3 different names, at least in the papers.

So, I was reading this big, long story by Ms. Buckley, the editor, and trying to stay awake. Then I came to the final paragraph, which reads:

Should the project win approval at Newbury’s special Town Meeting Tuesday, June 24, the final hurdle would be Newburyport’s decision about water and sewer service. Without that OK, the project would be scrapped, Tymon said. (That would be the delightful Judy Tymon, Newbury's town planner.)

The first paragraph, by the way, reads:

With recent approvals from the Newbury Planning Board and Finance Committee and a special Town Meeting planned for next month to approve the plan, Newbury’s Village at Little River mixed-use development project is nearing reality.

I would think that bit about scrapping the project should be one of the first paragraphs, not the last. Maybe I'm being too critical. But I remember being instructed on more than one occasion by said Ms. Buckley on how to construct a news story. I believe that should have been the "nut" paragraph?