On Oct. 12, my husband and I had a chance to see the “un-Mirror Ponded” river, and we thought it looked pretty good.

Unlike other reports of it being ugly and smelly, we could see so much potential for expanding existing park areas. In fact, most of the exposed flats are adjacent to existing park areas.

So what’s the problem?

If anything, fill them in a bit more, plant them, and possibly make some areas safely accessible. If done well, the public would never again have to spend millions to dredge these areas.

We wondered if the committee has thought about digging channels along some of the areas adjacent to private property and leaving wildlife islands; especially the flats near Newport Avenue seem to be conducive to that. The private property owners along there may want to explore that as an option and contribute money to pay for it. We think the only solutions that should be considered are those that are long-term and sustainable — meaning not periodically asking the public to spend millions to maintain.

Lynn Putnam

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