Environment
Deal with more Drastic and Frequent Weather Events. I will work with the Town and its volunteer and professional resources, relying on the results of the MVP Grant study due in June, to identify and begin to design and deploy a realistic climate resilience plan and workable approach to increasingly frequent inundations on our coastline, embracing an approach that includes all townspeople. To establish a fiscal baseline for future planning, in addition to the $1.3 million recently approved at the Town Meeting for Rockport’s share of repair of the Long Beach Sea Wall, we need to examine current costs for ongoing management of our other barrier beaches in Town, such as Front Beach, Back Beach, Loblolly, Cape Hedge, Pebble, so we can track change over time and plan at least five years out. For example, what are we spending now to build back the popple berm behind Cape Hedge, or steam shovel water courses at Loblolly, clear the road behind Pebble Beach, after bad storms? When the Town hires a Town Planner, that professional will need this information to help us craft a 5-year Town Plan.
Ensure Public Access to the Atlantic Path. In 1985, my company partnered with Rockport Publishers (owned by Stan and Doris Patey — Stan was the Superintendent of Schools in Rockport back then) to form Walkabout Press in order to republish “Alluring Rockport,” first published in 1927, and republished by us in 1985. The last chapter entitled “Walkways to the Sea” was written by Harry Whalen, Town Poet Laureate and passionate defender of the Walkways and free access thereto. Enjoy his descriptions of the walks, the maps, and the walks themselves — as lovely today as they were forty years ago! If elected to serve, be assured that I will continue to cherish and protect these walkways for all.
