PLUM ISLAND — Despite ebbing public financial support, a local group seeking to hire a lobbyist to help get federal money for beach replenishment has escalated its fundraising efforts and formed a nonprofit foundation.
Two leaders of the group yesterday said they have filed requests for $4.25 million in federal funds for three island-related projects.
The Newbury Finance Committee this week postponed action on a request by the Board of Selectmen to take up to $10,000 from the town's reserve fund as part of the fee for Marlowe & Company, a Washington, D.C., lobbying firm that specializes in getting Congress to appropriate money for beach replenishment projects.
Selectmen had voted last month to make the request.
A group of island homeowners had previously raised $4,000 to hire Marlowe & Company and had sought $18,000 each from Newbury and Newburyport to make up the company's $40,000 annual fee. Mayor John Moak last week declined to bring the funding request for Newburyport's share to the City Council.
Plum Island has sustained serious beach erosion in recent years, particularly in the Patriots' Day storm last April. The damage is especially evident in the vicinity of Plum Island Center, at the junction of Northern Boulevard, Southern Boulevard and Plum Island Boulevard.
The spokesmen for the homeowners group — Marc Sarkady of Northern Boulevard and Robert Connors of Annapolis Way — said they have contracted with Marlowe & Company and have in hand approximately $14,000 in donations and pledges.
The homeowners group is establishing the nonprofit Plum Island Foundation to handle the fundraising effort.
"We are going to make this happen," Sarkady said.
Connors asked the Finance Committee Tuesday evening to consider tabling the Marlowe & Company funding request, although, he said, "We may come back to you at the end of this process."
Connors told the Finance Committee that the foundation is planning a fundraiser at the Plum Island Grill that he hopes will raise another $10,000.
"We could have $25,000 by April," he said.
In a conference call yesterday afternoon, Sarkady and Connors said Newbury selectmen Chairman Vincent Russo has filed funding requests with U.S. Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, and Congressman John Tierney for three projects:
r $3 million for studying and repairing the south jetty at the mouth of the Merrimack River.
r $750,000 for dredging the Merrimack River channel, in addition to the $654,000 obtained by Tierney in an appropriation for the current fiscal year.
r $500,000 to deposit the dredged sand directly onto the beach at Plum Island.
The money would cover the federal government's 65 percent share of the cost. The remaining 35 percent, about $300,000, would have to be borne by state and local funding sources. Sarkady and Connors said they will ask the state to sponsor the onshore deposit of dredged sand. As the sponsor, Connors said, the state could contribute up to $225,000, leaving a $75,000 local share.
Connors and Sarkady said that, after the immediate problems are solved, the Plum Island Foundation could be a mechanism for long-term planning and management of the beach.
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