GA Blog: Newburyport

9.6.10 Newburyport Open Space and Community Preservation

The Newburyport Current reports the city of Newbuyport recently approved $820,982 in community preservation funding for 19 projects around the city.  Included in that amount is $20,000 which will be taken from the $50,000 granted to the open space reserve fund, which will be used to complete a comprehensive update of the city’s Open Space and Recreation Plan, in accordance with state regulations and to fund local matching for a possible grant from the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The grant funds can be used to revise master plans and city codes to promote sustainable development, with a particular focus on affordable housing, mixed-used development and redevelopment of old buildings. The Newburyport Affordable Housing Trust has already voted to allocate $40,000 towards the 20% match of $60,000. The balance in the Open Space Reserve Fund is $606,000.

Read the entire Newburyport Current article.

8.13.10 Foundation Gives $50,000 to Transitional Housing Group

According to the Daily News, The Institution for Savings Charitable Foundation has awarded $50,000 to Roof Over Head Collaborative.  ROOF was formed in 2009 to provide more transitional housing for the homeless of Greater Newburyport.  ROOF is hoping to raise funds and purchase properties in Amesbury, Newburyport and Salisbury. They intend to partner with a local social service organization that will then manage the property and screen tenants, as well as provide services.

ROOF’s goal is to purchase 3 properties a year over the next decade in order to provide hundreds with a transitional home and social services.

Read the entire Daily News article.

6.25.10 Brown Square Renovation in Newburyport

The Newburyport Current reported the recent renovation of historic Brown Square in downtown Newburyport.  The renovation was accomplished in part thanks to a $373,000 grant to renovate the 200-year-old park, which included a restoration of the 1873 bronze statue of William Lloyd Garrison, a wide brick plaza with granite curbing, historic interpretive panels, a new veterans plaza to host a number of monuments, brick sidewalks and lighting and benches, and new elm trees along the perimeter.

Read the entire Newburyport Current article.

5.21.10 Perking Building Restoration in Newburyport

According to the Newburyport Current, the Jacob Perkins Printing and Engraving Building in Newburyport is being restored.  The brick building, built in 1808, is tucked back off of Fruit Street, behind the Cushing House Museum, and is the oldest surviving printing/engraving plant in the United States.

The Perkins plant, from 1808 to 1830, produced money for many of the banks in New England.  Jacob Perkins, a local inventor and Newburyport native who held more than two dozen permits in his lifetime, pioneered a new money-printing method, one that is still in use today.  More recently the building was a car repair shop for a few decades, then sat unused.

Now, the Historical Society of Old Newbury owns the building, aided by the Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank, which donated $200,000 to purchase the building. The city of Newburyport, through Community Preservation Act (“CPA”) funds, donated $185,000 to do the initial restoration.  The historical society has launched an extensive renovation, seeking to restore the building to its original look and design. Structural repairs had to be made, bricks restored, historically accurate windows put in, and more.  The ultimate goal is to transform the building into a sort of living museum.

Read the entire Newburyport Current article.

3.23.10 Newburyport Downtown Group Works to Save Inn Street

The Newburyport Current reports that the Downtown Group involved in revitalizing the Newburyport waterfront district in the 1970’s has reemerged in an effort to save and restore the Inn Street fountain, which has grown into disrepair in the last few years.  Once considered the showpiece of the Newburyport waterfront revival, the Inn Street fountain is now decaying and is surrounded by smashed in lights, broken benches, missing bricks, dangerous depressions and blackened chewing gum.

The Downtown Group began to reverse the trend last spring when Sheriff Frank Cousins supplied a group of inmates for a spring-cleaning of downtown. Several concrete columns on Inn Street were also reinforced with the help of developer Wayne Capolupo and his SPS New England of Salisbury and some bricks were put back in place.

According to the Newburyport Current, next on the agenda is installing a water recycling system that will allow the fountain to run this summer. They have raised $30,000 of the $40,000 price tag; then, they plan to turn their attention to the lights, the bricks, and finally, the turrets. The ultimate goal is to establish a pool of money for future upkeep of downtown, to fix issues before they turn into thousand-dollar problems.

Read the entire Newburyport Current article.

3.16.10 Smart Growth Development in Newbuyport/Newbury

The Daily News is reporting that after a few years of being on hold, talks are back on between the MBTA, Newburyport and Newbury for a mixed use, retail and residential development which would be known as Little River Transit Village.

The MBTA recently notified Newburyport of their intent to release 4 surplus parcels of their property around the commuter station in an effort to encourage Newburyport and Newbury to create a Chapter 40R Smart Growth Overlay District, which has growing in popularity across the state with nearly 30 cities and towns approving such plans around commuter rail facilities.

To read more about Chapter 40R Smart Growth, please click here.

Read the entire Daily News article.