Newburyport Council Votes 10-1 to Advance $5.3 Million Frog Pond Restoration Bond

NEWBURYPORT -- April 28, 2026, Newburyport City Council voted 10-1 to advance a $5.3 million Bartlett Mall Frog Pond restoration, committing to a future $3.5 million Community Preservation Act bond in the largest CPA bond the city has ever taken on. Councilor Tom Zeed, the lone no vote, argued that bonding the project would squeeze available CPA discretionary funds to as little as $325,000 per year by 2041 and crowd out competing priorities including a $1.9 million Turkey Hill open space acquisition and an $800,000 City Hall assessment study already in the capital plan. The $5.3 million project, assembled from the proposed bond, a $700,000 state grant, and roughly $700,000 from the Mayor Gaydon Morrill Foundation, involves dewatering the pond, installing a liner, restoring the fountain, and adding a dock. CPC Chair Mike DeSette told the council that annual debt service will run approximately $350,000, leaving available CPA funds between $630,000 and $770,000 in the near term. In the same meeting, the council unanimously redirected the Inn Street and Patrick Tracy Square brickwork project, originally a CPA ask, to the city's downtown paid parking fund via a $221,350 transfer, freeing the CPA to potentially fund the Fuller Field track renovation instead. The formal bond order for the Frog Pond has not yet been filed and will require a separate council vote.