Printing from the cloud

Startups & Venture Capital

HubCast delivers cloud-based printing services

 

Premium content from Boston Business Journal by Taryn Plumb, Special to the Journal

Friday, October 19, 2012

W. Marc Bernsau

In some cases, businesses can spend as much (or more) money shipping printed materials as they do printing them. Meanwhile, of the printed materials that are warehoused for future shipping, about a third are thrown away — useless before they’re even used.
“It seems archaic, and it is archaic,” said Tony Dolph, president of Wakefield-based HubCast, which aims to bring the premium printing process into the 21st century.
Through its cloud-based service, HubCast gives its customers the ability to load, store, manage, and order printed materials on demand, and ultimately have them printed close to their destination and then delivered. All told, this process not only drastically reduces printing and shipping costs, Dolph said, but it cuts down on the various environmental impacts that come from long-distance shipping and freight.
The company has partnerships with premium print suppliers in 50 countries, and its platform manages the full supply chain — pricing, routing, production, quality assurance, all the way to “the last mile of delivery,” Dolph explained.
Founded in 2005, HubCast is backed by $12.4 million in funding from Commonwealth Capital Ventures and Ascent Venture Partners. The company’s latest financing, a $4.3 million Series B round closed in late September, has been targeted for general expansion.
Dolph said the company is seeing “very robust” revenue growth, though he declined to offer specific dollar amounts. The company serves roughly 600 customers — typically companies with large global footprints in health and life sciences, manufacturing, and various technology fields, he said.
“We have grand ambitions,” Dolph said. “We want to be in every country and every region with next-day service, so no matter where you are and where you want to go, we can accommodate that.”
Although cost is certainly a factor, the advantage of using HubCast is “mainly in efficiency,” said Sean Ogarrio, senior manager of creative services at JDS Uniphase Corp. The Milpitas, Calif.-based company has 80 global locations and 5,000 employees, and provides optical, test and management products for the communications industry. JDS has used HubCast for more than a year now, typically for lower-volume runs of sales materials overseas, Ogarrio said.
“It’s printing only the amount that you need, when you need it, and more importantly, where you need it,” he said.
Ultimately, experts say this model positions HubCast for the future of printing. Commercial printing is shrinking, with a “major shift” from analog to digital printing taking place, said Gartner research director Pete Basiliere.
Over the next decade, the amount and types of print will also change; Basiliere noted the trend toward fewer office-printed pages, and more presentation and marketing materials displayed on mobile phones and tablets.
“The transition from pages to pixels is accelerating, no question,” he said in an email.
But HubCast is “well positioned” for this change, Basiliere said, because it “enables a wide range of print, and in dispersed, digital forms.”
“Those are the more valuable pages and products,” he said, “so the future for well-done, digital print is quite relevant, much more so than today.”
Dolph said he sees the old model of order-print-warehouse-ship-throw-away slipping into obsolescence.
“We see it increasingly evolving into an on-demand model,” he said. “It’s a trend that is going to accelerate and will become the new norm — simply because it makes a whole lot of sense, both physically and economically.”

Original story link here.

Fear of a Black Cat?

Black cats on display in Hudson

By Taryn Plumb |  Globe Correspondent 

October 14, 2012

They’re sly, mysterious creatures, sometimes considered harbingers of bad luck, or devious conspirators to witches — not to be trusted, and certainly to be avoided.
But Barbara Bonazzoli has been, well, bewitched by them.
The Hudson octogenarian has spent decades collecting likenesses of black cats — and just in time for Halloween, several of her antique figurines are on display at the Hudson Historical Society Museum.  
“I’ve always loved cats,” 83-year-old Bonazzoli said as she sat in the cavernous room in the Hudson Mill Business Center that houses the museum. “I’m cat crazy.”
Throughout history, felines of all kinds have inspired both devotion and disdain. But a particular mythos and mystique has developed around the shiny-coated, yellow-eyed black cat.
In the United States, they’ve become a Halloween cliché — many a lawn ornament has the familiar silhouette of arched back, claws out, fur standing on end — and, of course, there’s that ominous, well-known warning should one appear in your path.
But history shows that many cultures have linked them with good omens rather than bad.
In ancient Egypt, for instance, black cats were considered sacred; a home that kept one was blessed (they were said to capture the setting sun in their eyes and hold it safe until morning) and killing one was punishable by death, according to Hudson Historical Society Museum curator Peggi Sullivan, who did research for the exhibit.
Meanwhile, they were given as wedding gifts in England, and kept as “ship’s cats” on boats for good luck (with sailors’ wives doing the same at home to ensure their husbands’ safe return). Others around the world and through the course of time have seen them as a token to ward off evil, maintain a happy home, or ensure prosperity.
“The black cat has always gotten a bad rap,” said Sullivan. “It’s hard to understand black cats.”
But is Bonazzoli superstitious about them?
“No,” she said with a laugh, “not at all.”
As for Halloween? Although she gladly gives out candy to trick-or-treaters (and keeps some for herself, too), she said: “I don’t like it. Never did.”
Her collection began simply by chance and grew as the years accumulated: She got her first (a teapot cover) from her late mother, Anne LiPetri.  
“It was just a casual thing. She happened to have one,” said Bonazzoli, a retired secretary and mother of nine and grandmother of three. “I’m vague on when it all started.” (Maybe around 1980, she thinks.)
Since then, she’s amassed hundreds of cats — specifically post-World War II red clay figures made in Japan — that are occasionally repaired or tinkered with by her husband of 57 years, 82-year-old Richard Bonazzoli.  
On display among the more than 50 pieces at the museum are whimsical whiskey decanters, ash trays, pepper shakers, planters, creamer and sugar pots, mugs, boiled-egg holders, cookie jars – all cats in one shape or another, most with green eyes and red ribbons around their necks.
One teapot takes shape with a curled tail as a handle and demure paws as spouts; a small figurine has a tongue that pulls out to become a tape measure and a red felt back that serves as a pin cushion; another has a back that looks like a slinky (meant to hold letters or recipes); and there’s even a working cigarette lighter (a kitty curling up beside a miniature lamp).
Bonazzoli picked them up over time at flea markets and yard sales, and got others as gifts from family members (many of whom have since started their own collections). Usually, they’re displayed in a hutch in her kitchen, and added to now and again — most recently on her birthday in March.
“Most of the time, I just ignore them and they get dusty,” chuckled Bonazzoli, who has two live feline companions, as well.
She added with a shrug, “It’s just something we like, I guess.”
And are they valuable? “Only to me, probably.”
Not true, said Sullivan, noting that the museum aims to show off more collections from locals — other recent displays have included dental instruments, nutcrackers, and baby bottles.
Because collectively, she said, they tell the story of Hudson and its residents.
“It might not be significant to the world,” she said, “but it’s significant to our town.”
The exhibit will be on display through the end of October. The museum is open Tuesdays from 2 to 4 p.m.

Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe

© 2012 The New York Times Company

Payments, 2.0

Startups & Venture Capital

Punchey takes new swipe at payment systems

Dynamic databases can be formed to drive growth

 

Premium content from Boston Business Journal by Taryn Plumb, Special to the Journal

Friday, October 12, 2012

W. Marc Bernsau

Millions of times a day, all around the world, consumers swipe their credit and debit cards through those small, ubiquitous electronic readers.
And with each swipe, potentially valuable data that could be captured for merchants is simply getting lost in the retail ether. That’s where Boston-based startup Punchey comes in, with the goal of upending the payments process as we know it.
Founded by Nathaniel Stevens — best known for developing Yodle (an online marketing and technology platform) — and backed by $1.7 million from his Cambridge-based investment firm Stevens Ventures, Punchey aims to provide businesses with an intuitive, Web-enabled payments platform.
“I’ve always been fascinated by electronic commerce, and by the electronic movement of money,” Stevens said. “You’re looking at an industry that really hasn’t had much innovation for the last 30 to 40 years.”
When businesses sign up with Punchey, they swap their old card readers for mobile card terminals or countertop readers that attach to Internet-connected devices. Then, each time a customer swipes their card, a profile is created (and then updated) in the business’ Punchey dashboard. Over time, those profiles develop into a more dynamic database, and can begin to reflect various trends in the business, Stevens explained, from top customers, to transaction volume and frequency. Businesses also receive customized sales forecasting.
All that data can, in turn, help businesses improve their numbers or shift their focus when it comes to staffing, sales, promotions and marketing campaigns, Stevens said. They can also create reward and loyalty programs through the platform, and provide their customers with automatic email or text receipts.
“The idea is to give them a view into how their business is doing,” Stevens said. “It’s really designed to help them grow.”
Officially launched Aug. 16 — but in the works since mid-2011 — Punchey has secured “dozens” of small to-medium-sized customers, according to Stevens.
The startup has reeled companies in with lures such as no long-term contracts, a pledge against hidden fees and the option of flat-rate pricing. In contrast, fees from credit card companies vary widely based on the company, bank or type of card, and are typically 2 to 5 percent of the payment price, according to financial experts.
That can take a big chunk out of profits, said Peter Solomon, who expects to save 15 to 20 percent with Punchey at his Boston-based State Street Barbers.
He called the platform an “innovative” addition to an industry that has been “devoid” of change.
“Traditional payment processes are going to go under extreme scrutiny,” he said, calling them “dinosaurs.”
And with credit and debit cards accounting for 60 percent of in-store sales, according to Javelin Strategy and Research, Stevens sees immense opportunity.
Punchey has a “long road map” for the future, he said. A main goal is to further delve into business operations and analytics, and help businesses develop stronger relationships with customers.
Ultimately, “we’re hoping to create an East Coast tech giant,” Stevens said.

Original story link here.

The Real (?) Housewives of Wellesley

Suzy Duffy writes about Wellesley wives in her new book

 

By Taryn Plumb | Globe Correspondent

October 07, 2012

Suzanne Kreiter/Globe staff

 

WELLESLEY — They’re beautiful, spoiled rich, enviously thin, always well-styled, and naive to the day-to-day struggles of everyday Americans.
In short: They’re Wellesley wives.
Or so they are depicted — admittedly in caricature — in Suzy Duffy’s new novel, titled for its quartet of gorgeous, popular, more-privileged-than-the-rest-of-us socialites. But Duffy, a native of Ireland and a Wellesley wife herself, stressed that her book is “not an exposé on Wellesley women — it’s a celebration of life. Women around the world, we’re all the same: We think the same, we worry about the same things.”
Still, in“Wellesley Wives,” which was released Sept. 28 by the Writer’s Coffee Shop Publishing House, those larger, shared issues — such as romantic relationships and family dynamics — are intermingled with more superficial concerns, such as how to “work’’ a room, the proper flowers for accenting a palatial home, and whether a screaming-red Ferrari is the best accessory for driving around town.
The novel follows the high and low times of protagonist Popsy Power, a ditzy glam mom who only barely grasps the value of money; her best friend Sandra, an exercise fanatic who is trying to return the luster to her marriage; and Popsy’s daughters, Rosie and Lily, who are contending with their own romantic entanglements.
“It’s a story about women surviving together — we can really survive anything that life throws at us, as long as we have friends surrounding us,” explained Duffy, a mother of five who moved to Wellesley from Dublin three years ago, and, when asked her age, replied wryly that she has “seen 40 come and go.”
“It’s just to entertain women, to make them laugh. It’s pure escapism.”
Ultimately, Wellesley has long been an exotic and enigmatic lure for writers looking to expose the gilded underbelly of the affluent suburbs.
A 2003 film, “Mona Lisa Smile,” for example, portrayed several 1950s Wellesley College students as snobby husband-seekers (and drew widespread criticism as a result, including from the college’s president at the time, Diana Chapman Walsh).  
This spring, Dover author Janet Eve Josselyn set part of a novel about the cutthroat suburban social-climbing scene in Wellesley; and Linda Erin Keenan’s 2011 “Suburgatory: Twisted Tales from Darkest Suburbia” (recently adapted for an ABC show) took a few bits of inspiration from her experiences in town.
Meanwhile, exposing real-life dark tales, the new “A Murder in Wellesley” by Tom Farmer and Marty Foley, explores the 1999 murder of May Greineder by her physician husband Dirk Greineder, who purportedly lived a double life filled with pornography and prostitutes.
“Wellesley women (and men, for that matter), and Wellesley itself, are all easy targets for fiction writers’ imaginations and for exaggerated prose,” Bob Brown, author of the town news blog “The Swellesley Report,”  said in an e-mail interview.
The town has a “well-earned” reputation for being wealthy, he said, adding drolly that he’s “pretty sure it’s a law that anyone from outside of town who is writing about Wellesley has to (use) one of the following words on first reference: ‘affluent,’ ‘wealthy,’ ‘chic,’ ‘prosperous’ or ‘well-heeled.’ ”
Meanwhile, the fabulously stylish sisters Kimberly and Alexis Kissam, who run an upscale boutique, Isabel Harvey, said they believe it’s the “moral” issue that makes Wellesley a desirable backdrop for writers.
That is: “Thinking that money will make you happy,” Kimberly wrote in an e-mail. “However, as life unfolds, it’s not the material things that make people happy, it’s finding that perfect recipe for happiness — and that is a story that most people can relate to. It’s the perfect storm of the American dream vs. the pursuit of happiness. Happiness is not found in Ferraris or Lamborghinis.”
Well, at least in the beginning chapters of “Wellesley Wives,” it seems to be: In the opening pages, Popsy’s adoring husband dishes out $500,000 for a “special edition” red Ferrari.
And Duffy, an international best-selling author, is playful with the concept of a “Wellesley wife,” describing such a creature as a unique breed with “25 percent lower BMI than the average American wife, and 1,275 percent greater net worth.” They are smart, beautiful, and confident, “more capable than they realize and more envied than they wish,” she writes.
But as Sandra, Popsy, and her daughters struggle through hardships they’d never imagined — relationships gained and lost, love triangles, extramarital affairs, financial troubles, deaths and rebirth — they become even more endearing and accessible to the everyday reader, and even humbled.
“The story can be applied to any affluent town,” said Kimberly Kissam. “Every town has its share of different characters . . . its share of cliques.”
Brown agreed that Duffy’s book is meant to be light-hearted, and that, overall, “people in Wellesley are good at poking fun at themselves.”
And contrary to popular belief, he’s met “all types” in town, including “a bunch of smart women” who put their careers on hold to take care of children, and redirect their skills to organize school, athletic, art, and philanthropic programs.
This trait is evident with Duffy herself: She plans to donate 10 percent of what she earns from “Wellesley Wives” to the nonprofit Friends of Boston’s Homeless.  
That act embodies what the Kissams called the “thoughtful community” that Wellesley is, but that isn’t often emphasized. Ultimately, they stressed, Wellesley women are friendly, kind, thoughtful, health conscious, well educated, and hard workers, and they give back to the community.
Duffy, for her part, agreed, calling the upturned-nose, money-spilling-out-of-purse reputation “rubbish.”
“The women I’ve met in Wellesley are all highly normal women: If they eat a doughnut, it goes straight on their hips, just like any other woman in the country,” she said, laughing through her rolling Irish lilt.
They’re living their lives just like everybody else, “doing right by their kids,” she noted. She added that she and her family “fell in love with Wellesley,” and have found “incredibly good soul mates here.”
But look out, Newton and Natick: In the works for  next fall is “Newton Neighbors,” which explores the “ridiculous lengths” people will go to live in desirable areas; and after that, “Natick Nannies,” (its working title), inspired by what Duffy described as the “power that nannies can wield in a house.”
In the end, it’s all meant in good spirit.
“It’s really just about women on fun adventures,” she said.

Duffy will do a book signing at 7 p.m. Friday at Wellesley Books. Visit her website, www.suzyduffybooks.com, for more details or to buy the book.

© 2012 The New York Times Company

How well do you know your neighborhood?

Startups & Venture Capital

BlockAvenue: Taking it to the streets

Premium content from Boston Business Journal by Taryn Plumb, Special to the Journal

Friday, October 5, 2012

W. Marc Bernsau 

The Web is the ultimate equalizer: Any one of us can take to our keyboards to review restaurants, hotels, stores, books, movies, TV shows, news articles and consumer products.
But what about when it comes to one of the most important aspects of our lives: Our streets, blocks and neighborhoods? Where can we find — or lend our expertise to, or air our grievances about — the hidden-away spots and the nitty-gritty details, the areas to hit and the ones to avoid?
This is the “lifestyle platform” that Cambridge-based BlockAvenue aims to create, by bringing the Yelp and TripAdvisor review concept down to the street-by-street level.
Launched in beta on Sept. 20, the company’s Web platform aggregates 50 million data points — from transit options, to crime stats, to home values, to amenities — and integrates them onto a map with user-based reviews, scores and testimonials, to create a true picture (good, bad, or neutral) of a given neighborhood.
“Some really important decisions are made around location,” said BlockAvenue founder and CEO Anthony Longo, also the founder of Web-based real estate broker Condo Domain, acquired by Better Homes Realty in August.
The goal of BlockAvenue is to bring “transparency” to that process, Longo said, by providing data on “anything and everything that makes up a location, that creates the value of that location.”
In the works since December 2011, the site is most complete in metro areas of Boston, New York and Washington, D.C., but users and demand are expected to broaden that swath over the coming weeks and months.
Longo and his backers have no doubt about the appetite for such a site.
“There’s a lot of fragmented data out there,” said PJ Solomon, general partner of seed-stage investing and consulting firm Second & Fourth, which is advising BlockAvenue on product, monetization and growth strategies. “There’s nothing like it out there.”
The site faces competition from sites such as StreetAdvisor, but Longo said the site has seen an “overwhelming” response so far, with about 400 searches per minute on its launch day.
BlockAvenue employs four full-time staffers and is based at Dogpatch Labs in Cambridge. The startup has raised $300,000 in seed funding from angel investors — $100,000 of that in its first week of launching. The goal is to move forward with a “sizable” Series A round by year’s end, Longo said.
How the site works: Users type in a location, and are brought to a map with different-colored pinpoints — indicating spots of interest such as stores and restaurants, as well as the addresses of registered sex offenders — and an overall neighborhood rating ranging from “A” to “F.” Zooming in closer shows reviews and comments; or users can also simply give a location a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down.”
“That’s the real value: The tiny tidbits, the one sentence blurbs that people are going to write,” Longo said.
Looking ahead, the company aims to gain profitability by eventually selling B2B products, licensing its data and working ad components into the website. An immediate goal is to create a mobile platform and “get it on everybody’s iPhones,” Longo said, while longer-term plans are to integrate more with social networks and to access “more and better” data.
Ultimately, Longo pointed to the site’s potentially wider implications.
“Over time we’ll be able to see trends on what makes neighborhoods good and what makes them bad,” said Longo — potentially giving insights on how to improve the worse-off neighborhoods.

Original story link here.

Hope springs

Ugandan orphans’ chorus kicks off worldwide tour with Mass. shows

By Taryn Plumb |  Globe Correspondent

October 04, 2012

Watoto Child Care Ministries 

Brenda Namakula is only 9 — but the things the young Ugandan has seen and suffered through belie her years.
Orphaned at a young age, she grew up in a country where poverty and corruption have been the status quo; where HIV and AIDS strike the young, old, and unborn; and where education, health care, and sustainable employment are often luxuries.
But she’s a survivor: Adopted by Watoto Child Care Ministries, she now lives with a caring family.
Hers is a story of hope — and it’s one that she’ll share with thousands of people over the next several months as she dances, sings, and performs across the United States and Brazil with the Watoto Children’s Choir.
The traveling troupe of 22 orphaned Ugandan youths will begin their string of hundreds of shows in Vineyard Haven on Saturday, and will also make stops in Randolph, Foxborough, Braintree, and Weymouth over the next two weeks.
“What I love about being on choir is that we learn many new things,” Brenda said in a written comment, “and [we] get to have lots of fun, too.”
The Watoto Children’s Choir began touring in 1994, and has brought roughly 1,100 Ugandan youths ages 6 to 12 to six continents, with a goal to broaden not only their world views but those of their audience.
It was born of Watoto Child Care Ministries — “watoto” is Swahili for “the children” — founded in 1994 by Canadians Gary and Marilyn Skinner. Describing itself as a “holistic care program,” it provides for the physical, emotional, medical, educational, and spiritual needs of 2,500 children in six of its own villages.
“Everything that a child needs to grow up whole, we provide it, because they’re our kids,” said Watoto executive director Eugene Stutzman, who is based in Tampa. As an extension of that, the choir “does something for these kids that’s almost unexplainable. It develops their self-confidence. You see their characters and their personalities blossom.”
Performances consist of traditional dancing, spoken testimonies, and lively music — a fusion of contemporary gospel and traditional African rhythm — by the children and their adult chaperones.
Local shows will be held at Victory World Outreach Church in Randolph on Sunday, Bethany Congregational Church in Foxborough next Thursday, South Shore Plaza in Braintree and Community Baptist Church in Weymouth on Oct. 13; Church of Abundant Life in Braintree on Oct.14; and Spring of Water Christian Assembly in Randolph on Oct. 16. The group also will make stops this month in Boston, Burlington, Haverhill, and Bolton.
Previous choirs — there have been 57 in total — have performed in Africa, Australia, North and South America, Europe, and Asia — and in front of royals (Queen Elizabeth II) and presidents (George W. Bush), as well as athletes, politicians, and ministers.
One of the main goals is to draw awareness to Uganda’s plight: The small, landlocked country is estimated to have 2 million orphaned children.
“Many of them have experienced more hardship than most of us will in our lifetimes,” said Stutzman, describing children who are abandoned by relatives when their parents die, and a place where babies are in some cases “thrown out like trash.”
The primary cause of death in Uganda is HIV and AIDS, he said, and “the children are the ones who are left to deal with it.”
Watoto gains full custody of the children in its care, nurturing them through college. They live in three villages (while babies are tended to in three other villages), with eight children under the care of one surrogate mother.
As Stutzman explained, the women often come from “broken” backgrounds themselves (widowed, abused, or abandoned), and make a life commitment to caring for the children.
Ultimately, Watoto’s goal is to rescue 10,000 children in Uganda, and it will soon branch out to Juba, the capital of neighboring South Sudan. The hope, Stutzman noted, is eventually to replicate the model across Africa.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us,” he said.
As do the children about to embark on their life-altering journey with the choir.
Nine-year-old Majorine Nabulime, for her part, noted the group’s “energetic” dancing.
And what she’s looking forward to in America?
“Eating new foods,” she said in a written comment, “like a sandwich.”
Brenda, meanwhile, expressed excitement to see “tall buildings” — skyscrapers.
And her fellow performer, 8-year-old Maria Namukwaya, is eager to see snow for the first time.
“My friends have told me it is white and very cold,” she said.
Of what to expect of the performance, she added, “our beautiful smiles.”
Go to www.watoto.com/the-choir/see-the-choir for details on events.

© 2012 The New York Times Company

The battle against the tide continues

Residents must surrender Plum Island to the sea, author says

By Taryn Plumb |  Globe Correspondent

October 04, 2012

Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff

Like living creatures, they pulsate, stretch, shift, expand, and recede.
Barrier beaches such as Plum Island are fascinating and romantic formations, according to author, naturalist, and Ipswich resident William Sargent. 
But, as he posits in his new book, “Beach Wars: Ten Thousand Years of Conflict and Change on a Barrier Beach,” when permanent structures are built, it disrupts their natural flow and function: to protect the mainland and absorb the brunt of the brutal force of the wind and sea.
Such is the case with Plum Island, Sargent says.
The finger of land shared by Ipswich, Rowley, Newbury, and Newburyport should be slowly given back to nature, Sargent contends, a notion — not surprisingly — its residents reject.
The homes and other structures that cover it “don’t allow the beach to move,” said Sargent, “so it can’t re-form. You lose that ability of the barrier beach to rebuild itself.”
Plum Island’s battle against the sea, illuminated by every intense storm, took on a tone of personal tragedy when Geraldine Buzzotta lost her home in 2008. 
Short-term emergency measures to literally stem the tide in recent years have included installation of enormous hay-bale and sandbag walls, as well as a $5.5 million dredging project in 2010 that deposited more than 110,000 cubic yards of sandy sediment onto the beach.
Now comes a larger — and much-anticipated — measure of relief: The US Army Corps of Engineers has issued the first permit to allow beach scraping to protect five properties on Annapolis Way, work that was tentatively expected to start this week. 
But according to Sargent, the first director of the National Aquarium in Baltimore, who has taught science writing at Harvard University and marine biology at the Briarwood Field Station in Bourne, these efforts will prove largely futile.
“I hate to be the one that says this, but they’re all short-term and ultimately they’re not going to work,” said the author of about a dozen books, and whose “Beach Wars” focuses mostly on the culture, people, and tragedies that befell the barrier beach of Chatham.
Still, Sargent’s suggestion of retreating from the shore, leaving property, structures, and infrastructure behind, is absurd, countered Plum Island residents, not to mention simply not feasible, said Robert Connors, owner of R. D. Connors Corp., a construction management/consulting company in Woburn, who has lived on Plum Island since 1979. 
Sargent “simply overlooks the absolute right of private property,” Connors said from his seat on a beachside deck on a recent Saturday afternoon, before a backdrop of glittering waves, a white beach with a few straggling bathers and sea gulls, and a tiny white triangle of sailboats on the horizon.
Not to mention the fiscal implications, said Martin Saradjian, who has lived on Plum Island for nearly 45 years. In Newbury, island property owners provide more than 40 percent of the town’s property tax revenues, he said, so if they were to move away, it would create a “state of crisis” for the town.
Connors agreed, noting that nine properties with more than $7 million in assessed value — as well as federal flood insurance liabilities of $3.2 million — are currently at risk, while the sewer and water systems on Annapolis Way also are threatened.
The beach scraping permit, which was issued to Connors, allows the owners of 29, 31, 35, and 37 and 39 (Connors’s home) Annapolis Way to move sand via heavy equipment from one area of the beach to shore up the sand barrier in front of their imperiled homes. Residents also were expected to truck in up to 10 trailer loads of sand, with the total estimated cost of the project — roughly $9,000 — to be paid by the homeowners.
There are 78 seaside communities in the state along 1,519 miles of coastline, Connors said, with 36,000 homes located within 500 feet of shoreline. The public and private investment along the Massachusetts coastline approaches $1 trillion. 
“It is impossible to reverse some 300 years of development,” he said.
Fellow resident Harry Trout of Fordham Way said that some people look at barrier island principles “out of a textbook,” without considering the fiscal and personal effects.
Many Plum Island residents say the major issues leading to erosion on the island are the interruption of the natural movement of sand by two jetties on each side of the mouth of the Merrimack River, and by several stone groins, which are rock formations constructed perpendicular to the shore.
Although well-intentioned, both the jetties and the groins have “interrupted the natural coastal process, accelerating an unnatural rate of erosion requiring extraordinary measures unlike other coastal community beaches,” said Connors.
Meanwhile, the end of regular dredging of the Merrimack, as well as the lack of maintenance of the jetties, have exacerbated the problem, he said.
Sargent agreed that the jetties should be repaired, but at the same time maintained that he does not think it would greatly affect the houses downstream, as the flow of currents is south to north.
Connors, meanwhile, pointed out that state and federal policies and regulation issues prohibit owners from taking action to protect their properties. The regulatory framework is complex and lengthy, while regulations are laborious to overcome, he said, stressing that the state needs to be more proactive and implement a coastal plan.
“When you have an emergency, it’s a matter of hours and days,” he said. “When you’re dealing with the state and feds, it’s months and years.”
Trout agreed, saying that property owners simply want to be able to save their homes — with their own money — by creating sea walls and sacrificial dunes and completing near-shore dredging.
“It’s so basic, we have a home. It’s jeopardized,” he said.
With 681 barrier beaches in the state, according to Connors, Plum Island isn’t unique. Sargent agreed. Ultimately, he said, this is not just a problem confined to one beach. He believes that several barrier beaches should be slowly vacated and returned to their original state.
Barrier beaches up and down the east coast are “slowly migrating” toward the mainland, he said, and are becoming narrower and shorter.
But it is all indicative of a larger problem — notably the change in sea level, which is rising at a rate of 3 inches every 20 years, he said.
And if barrier beaches continue to erode and inevitably disappear?
Instead of absorbing the impact of the storm offshore, “all of a sudden you’ll have the full force of the Atlantic pounding up against the mainland,” Sargent said. With millions invested in infrastructure and buildings, people want to save their homes, “when really what you want to be doing is backing off.”
Residents, though, have no intention of doing so.
Moving ahead, they have filed for a local bylaw change in Newbury to create an emergency coastal mitigation plan, which would allow for quick response measures to protect the shoreline and dunes by waiving state and federal permits and performing beach scraping, adding sand, and creating barriers with items such as reinforced hay bales, gabions (cages, cylinders, or boxes filled with rocks and earth), and boulders. Connors said it is the first step toward seeking a special act of the state Legislature exempting Newbury during a declared emergency.
Because ultimately, it’s a community problem, he said. “We truly believe that if one house is in danger, we’re all in danger.”

 William Sargent’s “Beach Wars’’ focuses on the barrier beach of Chatham.

© 2012 The New York Times Company