Mayor’s Update to City Council
Mayor Donna D. Holaday
February 22, 2021
COVID-19 Update: We continue to see significantly low numbers of new daily new cases since the New Year. Last week our case rate reduced to 18.1 per 100,000, according to the State report. We have now seen week over week decreases since the beginning of 2021. Our rate had been over 50 per 100,000 over the holidays. Our positivity rate is now 2.07. It had been above 5% for the majority of the holiday season. This is encouraging news, and I ask that residents continue to be vigilant, make good decisions and following all the state’s guidelines.
COVID-19 Vaccine: The state created the 2-1-1 hotline for residents over 75 years old to sign up for a vaccine and now has a new website to make appointment online, vaxfinder.mass.gov.
Beth Israel Lahey Health (BILH) began their vaccination clinic at the Senior Community Center on February 15, but the number of appointments has been very limited due to the lack of vaccine supply statewide. BILH is continuing to find ways to ramp up this clinic; residents who are part of their network should have been contact by BILH to make an appointment
We continue to work with our neighboring communities to develop a regional vaccine site or sites. The group has expanded to 9 communities. We are working to meet the state’s recent changes on designated site priorities, requirements for the numbers of eligible residents, and supply and distribution of the vaccine. I have been in direct contact with both the Governor and Lt. Governor who are very supportive of our regionalization efforts. Tomorrow all the regional communities will be meeting to move this initiative forward.
Finally, I thank the General Government Subcommittee for their positive recommendation for declaring the first Monday in March as COVID Memorial Day. 32 Newburyport residents have died from complications from the virus. With a positive vote on the resolution tonight I will begin coordinating to have flags at half-staff on March 1st and to have local houses of worship ring their bells 32 times.
FY2022 Budget Update: We are now in the midst of our busy budgeting season. Department Heads have been working on their CIP requests and operating budgets for FY22 since the beginning of the calendar year and will be submitting them to my Office by the end of the week. Next will be a series of meetings with Department Heads to review these items. The CIP plan will be delivered to the City Council by April 1st, and we plan on submitting the FY22 budget document to the City Council at its May 10th meeting. On the school side, the School Committee will hold its first Fiscal Year 2022 budget meeting tomorrow night.
Purchase of 57 Low Street: Today you received a modification of the order to purchase 57 Low St. Council President Eigerman and I worked diligently to come up with a compromise plan which provides for Article 97 protection of the wetlands and excludes the buffer zone. I know that for many of us this was not the preferred approach, but we have reached a compromise position that is workable and I ask for your support. As you know, the process of acquiring the surplus property began nearly three years ago with ongoing communication on the status. We will not have this opportunity to purchase 2.1 acres of land for $220,000 within Newburyport. We have several municipal needs that would be appropriate for the site beginning with a 3 year use for a field office for the Parks Department. This gives time for a formal Youth Services site selection committee to review all possible options for a site. I thank all of you for the incredible time and diligence you have devoted to the review of this property and again, I ask for your affirmative vote.
Plum Island/ Reservation Terrace Update: I continue to work on short term solutions to get us through this winter. We continue to meet with the Lieutenant Governor, MassDOT, DEP, DCR, and EEA on short term protections. We should have a plan shortly. I also hosted a Zoom public meeting for Reservation Terrace residents and will follow up with future Zoom meetings once there’s more information.
We continue to work with the Army Corp of Engineers on the dredging of the Merrimack River, which should happen later in 2021. We’re also actively working with the Corp on permitting to place the dredged sand on Reservation Terrace to restore the dune network. We had a meeting earlier today with the Corp and all the state agencies involved on establishing a permitting timeline to get the river dredged this calendar year and to have the dredged sand placed on Reservation Terrace area to restore the dune network. We are also working with the state on the financial matching requirements for this portion of the project and expect the match with be between the state and federal government.
Waterfront Park: I am very pleased to announce tonight that Sasaki is in final contract negotiations for design of our Central Waterfront Park. Sasaki has decades of experience in planning waterfronts, parks and public spaces. They also have a history with our city as Sasaki designed the master plan protecting our historic downtown including the creation of Inn St. and the harborwalk. The review team had a strong consensus in support of Sasaki’s proposal. You will be voting on the acceptance at your next meeting.