Steve Hutcheson, Ward 6


Friday, September 12, 2003


76 Longfellow Drive


1. What is your background? Please include community and civic involvement, experience in local government, family and professional background and how long you have been a Newburyport resident.

I worked at the North Andover Lucent plant as an engineer for the past 18 years until March of this year when I was laid off. I am currently a Newburyport Civic Commissioner which means that I am on the city board that oversees the city's interests in the lease agreement for the Firehouse Civic Center. I also have several years of constituency service experience as an elected member of the town of Reading's representative Town Meeting. I was also one of only eight precinct chairman out of 224 elected members total which is probably as close as ward councilor that you can get in a town version of government. I have been a resident of Newburyport for 10 years, all my children were born here and my wife grew up in Salisbury and she graduated from Triton Regional High School.


2. Why are you choosing to run for City Council?

I think giving back to the community that you live in is very important. I took a break from that for about 10 years as I got married and started a family. I decided to get back into community service again immediately after the police funeral of my wife's uncle, Sgt. Frank Allan Beevers. He was a police sergeant and acting police chief in Salisbury at one time. I saw how people appreciated what he did for the community that day and it put my community service career back on track with a new sense of urgency to do great things while I had the chance.


3. What do you see as the new City Council's most important priority next year and why?

Managing city finances is going to be the most important priority next year. We need to prioritize capital spending and get a handle on city expenses so that taxes don't go any higher from bad decisions or lack of planning. That is why I feel it is critically important for me to get elected so that I can start work on the Citizen Budget and Finance Advisory Committee that I have been pushing for since the 2001 election. Please visit my Web site, www.electhutch.us, for more on this subject since one paragraph isn't enough to cover it. Managing finances effectively so that our quality of life doesn't suffer or so that taxes don't go a lot higher is going to be a big city government priority for the next year and going forward.


4. How serious are the city's elementary school building needs and what should be done about it?

I think the issue is a very serious one since it affects the quality of life of our children. The city needs to make sure the kids are provided an atmosphere that is positive in such an early part to their school years. My daughter goes to elementary school in the public school system here, so I am going to be very keenly aware of all elementary school building needs in the coming years. I am hoping that the new rooms at the Bresnahan School will buy us some years so that we can do better financial planning (with my new Finance Board) to see what the city can afford to do in regards to building a new school or not. We can then look at the elementary school study that was done and better agree on a plan.


5. Should the Community Preservation Act surcharge be lowered from 2 percent and why?

I believe that by limiting growth in the city we will save money on taxes in the long run. That will be accomplished by eliminating the need to build more infrastructure to support that growth. The quality of life in the city will go down too if we get stuck in traffic all the time. Given that, I would not personally vote to reduce the percentage, but as a city councilor, I will go with the will of the voters. It really is up to the voters to decide by referendum, not the City Council, and I am glad they are getting a second chance to vote on it since a lot of people didn't understand the Community Preservation Act vote in the last election, as evidenced by the number of blanks.


6. Is enough being done to monitor the capping of the Crow Lane landfill? Should the city hire a licensed site professional to monitor it and why?

From what I heard of the problems at the start of the project, I would say that it would be a good idea as long as the contractor pays for it and not the city. I heard that was part of the deal with the city. So, if it is already paid for and the city's interests are better served by having a site professional, I can't see why we wouldn't take advantage of it.


7. Are there any city departments where you would you like to see fundamental changes? Which ones and why? How should such changes be carried out?

This is my favorite question because there needs to be fundamental changes in how the city manages finances. As I mentioned, we need a Citizen Budget and Finance Advisory Board to help the City Council do financial planning and to function as a perpetual base of city financial knowledge for the city. The City Council is losing Councilors Jack Pramberg, Brenda Reffett and Karen Kelley and they were some of the most knowledgeable people in this area. That wouldn't be as big of a problem if we had an appointed citizen board with staggered terms to always be there for financial advice on the budget and prioritizing capital spending. We also need to create a new board to oversee the local objectives set by the federal and state governments as it relates to how homeland security is carried out at the local level.


8. What's your position on the abandoned Interstate 95-roadbed/Little River Nature Trail area regarding industrial development versus preservation?

I support preservation in the area over industrial development. If any industrial development is done in the area, I will do whatever I can to ensure that the company is a safe one and a good neighbor. Newburyport Area Industrial Development (NAID) needs to do a better job of working with the residents in the area to find win-win situations when it comes to developing the area or not. Anything that could possibly ruin the quality of life for area residents will get a fight from me, especially since my family lives only about a half-mile away from the area. However, I want keep an open mind to be able to work with NAID though to find those win-win situations for the city and industry. That is why I have been attending all the Strategic Land Use (SLU) meetings.


9. How serious is the parking problem in the downtown/waterfront area and what actions, if any, need to be taken to address the problem?

First of all, I am disappointed that the Newburyport Redevelopment Authority thinks we need another park in this city over additional parking downtown. We can design a good-looking parking area instead of making it mostly park since we already have a park area behind the Firehouse Center and several around the city. I would like to explore the possibility of a private business(es) create the parking garage. Before the city does it, we decide how to fund and manage the new parking garage. In any scenario, I want to make sure that parking downtown is either free or very reasonable in cost for residents of Newburyport.


10. Where do you stand on the Plum Island water and sewer project? Should a closer look be taken regarding the specific needs of individual homeowners on the island?

I don't think this question can be answered well in five sentences, but I think that Plum Island needs water and sewer service. I just think that we need to make sure that we have water rights from Newbury that are fair. We need to make sure that the sewer system design works efficiently before all that money is spent on it. I would also like to make sure checks are in place to limit an explosion of growth on Plum Island once the service is available. I'm not sure how to fairly treat people who paid a lot of money to comply with Title V by installing their own systems, so I would like to see those individual needs looked at closer and try to be fair to them.


 

 
 
(This article replicated online with permission of the Merrimack River Current.)
 
 
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