Frog Pond or Drinking Water: What’s a Bigger Priority?

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There has been much ado about the drinking water in Newburyport and for very good reason.  Not only is the taste, odor and appearance completely intolerable, but the risks to our drinking water infrastructure are even worse.  As I stated in a previous article, the fixes will be incredibly expensive and will have a major impact on residents’ wallets for a long time to come.  In light of that, I’m incredulous that the Mayor is asking the City Council to pass a bond for a $5.2M project to fix the frog pond at the Bartlet Mall.  

To be clear, that “fix” according to the city website includes: 1. Dewatering the pond (and dumping the water into the Merrimack)  2. Drilling a bedrock well, installing a water quality system, including a pump shed, to house equipment to keep the water circulating and aerated 3. Installing a liner system to encapsulate the impacted sediment, including a geogrid layer to provide structural support, a high‐density polyethylene (HDPE) layer, and 6” of armor stone and benthic sand to provide habitat and facilitate maintenance 4. Restoring the central fountain 5. Installing a dock to support a future boating recreation program 6. Installing a walkway surrounding the pond 7. Installing plantings 8. An unfunded potential add-on installing a granite perimeter around the pond.  If that sounds like a fancy swimming pool for frogs to you, it does to me too.  In fact, over the years residents that are experts in the restoration of bodies of water just like the frog pond have written to the administration and appeared at Council meetings to say that the project was over-engineered and could be fixed for far less money.  As a former City Councillor, I chaired these meetings and was very compelled by the discussion but they were summarily dismissed by the administration. To make matters worse, the city estimates that it will cost an additional $20-$30K per year to run the system. 

The argument from the administration is that we can afford to do the frog pond project because they intend to use Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding for the project which cannot be used for water infrastructure.  In isolation, this statement is true but the devil is in the details.  If you don’t understand the CPA, I encourage you to learn more on the city website here which also includes a nice summary of all the appropriations of CPA funds since its inception in 2005.  The most basic description is that CPA money is your tax dollars that have been put into a separate bucket to be used specifically for projects related to affordable housing, historic preservation, open space preservation and recreation as defined by the law. 

Over the years, the city has spent $37M of CPA funds on various projects in the city.  Each year the city utilizes roughly $1M – $5M on projects such as much needed affordable housing, open space preservation including watershed protection around our fragile reservoir system, the Memorial stadium at the high school, Fuller field track, the rail trail, the waterfront park, lower Atkinson commons/Pioneer park improvements, Nock tennis courts as well as improvements to many churches, the Customs House Museum, the Museum of Old Newbury, the Firehouse, City Hall, etc…  The city needs these funds and uses them on many important projects every year.  If the administration gets its wish and the Council says yes to a $3.5M bond for the frog pond, it will be the largest ever appropriation in the history of the CPA.  It will tie up these CPA funds for many years to come and those funds won’t be available for all the other projects we typically fund through CPA.   Therefore, those projects will need to be funded through the general fund which will drive up your taxes. 

Everything is a trade off in municipal budgeting.  The needs never end and the only way to fund those needs is through your taxes.  Listen to any Council meeting these days and you will hear a never-ending theme of how difficult it will be to balance the budget next fiscal year and the need to tighten our belts.  Things are extremely challenging and it’s entirely possible that the city will need to cut even more positions, after cutting 14 positions last year, to make ends meet.  More importantly, we cannot lose sight of the $120M++ that the city needs to ensure we have clean water to drink. How can we even be considering a $5.2M swimming pool for frogs?   

I’m sure you’re wondering why the administration would even consider this project. The people behind this effort are a very small group of individuals that are very well-connected politically. They are good citizens that have contributed a lot to the city over the years. However, I cannot justify $5.2M for a passion project for a handful of good people when the city has much bigger issues to fix.  

The Bartlet Mall is beautiful and our most historic park.  However, in a world where we are cutting positions, it’s ludicrous to even consider tying up funds for many years that would be better spent on much more critical needs.  For my tax dollar, the protection of my drinking water is much more important than a fancy frog swimming pool.  I encourage you to join me in reaching out to our elected officials to implore them to vote no on using CPA money for the Bartlet Mall frog pond project by emailing them at CityCouncil@newburyportma.gov. 

Connie Preston
Newburyport resident
Former City Councilor At-large

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