Waterfront park last chance to make Keyport proud Taking a clue from the movie line: if you build it, they will come, Keyport's concerned citizens continue to wrestle with the question, build what? A parking lot or a park on its American Legion Drive waterfront. From the tone of it, the special public meeting of Oct. 17 vibrated a vivid green rather than a redundant dull gray. Grass was in, and asphalt was has-been. Democracy was a-humming, personal views acclaimed by over 50 attending citizens all in favor of a "last chance in a lifetime" to make Keyport's waterfront Keyport proud. At its first meeting on this important topic held April 21 of this year in the school auditorium, over 200 interested citizens spoke or listened while the discussion fluttered between the merits of generous parking and a scenic, lawn-filled space for viewing Keyport's beautiful waterfront. But the reality is that the one can't do well without the other. A balance between the two, well worked-out, is when the fat lady sings. The incumbent in this park tuggle-war is the parking lot. It's always been there. Now with the growing national sense of "green" in how we use natural resources, how we regenerate ourselves through recreation, and how we want Keyport to be for ourselves and others in the future, the challenger is grass, lawn, fountain and tree. This contested area will be the closest we will ever come to our "commons" of older, venerated communities. We twist, we toil to do it right. At the beginning of the meeting, Mayor Robert Bergen asked one favor of the audience - to say something nice before it criticized the engineer's plan. But the favor was granted him "before" anyone spoke. Their enthusiastic presence in the room. Their choice to be in attendance rather than eating supper or watching TV was their "saying something nice." Actions of involvement always out shout words. Hurray for Keyport's forthcoming waterfront park and promenade. Sidney Becnel Keyport