The word "community" came to mind as we worked our way through what could have been a contentious Special Town Meeting in Newbury Tuesday night, and what follows is a primer for those more newly arrived.

Poseidon was taking big chunks out of the beach in every northeast storm. He feeds off Plum Island, but doesn't really gorge himself until the jetties settle down on their fieldstone bedding and the granite blocks at the top fall into disarray. Then the seas drive through the gaps in the jetties and bad things happen.

Storms have always brought Plum Islanders closer together, but since their sharing of water and sewage systems and a sizeable uptick in tax revenues, there's been a lot more communing going on.

Communities come in all sizes and for all kinds of reasons. Cities and towns consist of groups of people sharing common interests. Neighborhoods do that once the inhabitants settle in and get to know one another.

Almost everyone knows that, but we just don't think of it that way until reason arises. It has at Plum Island, Newbury and Newburyport.

Both Newbury and Newburyport are linked in several ways. Organizations consist of residents from both towns. Churches gather them in. So do all the services and everyday fulfillment of needs.

Both communities are strung out geographically. Newburyport (born of Newbury) grew along its High Road to become the business center of the town.

Byfield settlers found a satisfactory site distant from the Lower Green by following the Parker River southwesterly before settling in upstream. I haven't measured the distance, but I'm guessing it's some 6 miles from its center to the Town Hall in Oldtown, and another two miles or so to Plum Island Center.

That's not much of a separation today, but it was sufficient for Byfielders to form their own, and still vibrant, community.

Plum Islanders share extended neighborhoods that come together to resolve problems of what can be, sometimes, contentious. Such contention as there was dissolved quickly in discussion because so many communities of interest were in agreement.

Byfield enjoys a kind of separate identity while maintaining a vigorous presence in town because of ongoing concerns relating to the intrusion of development as it might impact on open space in particular, and the unique character of the area in general.

All in all, that makes for more interesting town meetings when something's on the table that's more than routine and touches all bases. That certainly was in play Tuesday night.

I've lost count, but I've been to more than a half century of town meetings. This one ended with a great sigh of relief for a task well done. The challenge had been in play for more than two years because the problem didn't start with Poseidon adding a house to his diet. It began on the day when the jetties started settling again after its last rebuilding some 40 years ago.

Selectman Vincent Russo gave a tight summary of what amounted to yeoman efforts by some 50 representatives of all the related concern doing what had to be done to arrive at this point.

That's not over by a long shot. It being the end of October, we have already had a couple of northeasters, and with winter ahead, Poseidon will feed some more before the actual beach nourishment is in place. Even when that's done, there's the business of rebuilding the jetties because we can't count on pumping sand year after year while other stretches of the beach are eroding as well.

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Bill Plante is former executive editor of Essex County Newspapers. His e-mail address is plantejr@comcast.net.