The prospect of having open-heart surgery -- once regarded as the province of a select few hospitals -- performed at Salem's North Shore Medical Center, was only one of several positive developments to emerge from Legislature's budget deliberations this week.

Does it make sense to have a medical policy issue like this decided as part of the debate over how much the state will spend in the current fiscal year? Of course not. But that's the way things get done in the Great and General Court these days.

Nevertheless, Sen. Frederick E. Berry, D-Peabody, a major proponent of the language, views it as a coup for hard-pressed community hospitals like Salem's (others that will now be allowed to perform this procedure include Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis and Southcoast Hospital in New Bedford) and a benefit to patients who will no longer have to travel to Boston for the operation.

Berry feels the legislation, which still needs Gov. Paul Cellucci's signature, will be a "great asset" to both the regional medical facility and his constituents in Salem, Peabody, Beverly and Danvers.

In fact this provision was only one of several included in the final version of the state budget produced by the House-Senate conference committee and approved Tuesday, that augurs well for the North Shore. We suspect this might have something to do with the fact that both Berry and state Rep. J. Michael Ruane, D-Salem, are key members of their respective Ways & Means committees, but then that too, for better or worse, is the way things operate here.

Also worthy of note in the fiscal 2001 spending plan were the budget increases of 6.9 percent and 4.2 percent respectively for Salem State College and North Shore Community College in Danvers. Both institutions have made major strides in recent years upgrading their physical plants and program offerings, and are now poised to become major players in the economic and cultural life of the region.

Of note is the fact that Wayne Burton was recently named NSCC's president after having served several years as dean of the business school at Salem State, which sets the stage for some great synergy between these two institutions.

Also included in the new budget is $780,929 for the further development of the former GTE Sylvania facility on Loring Avenue -- now SSC's Central Campus -- which is already serving as an incubator for new businesses and is destined to become home to the business school and the college's outstanding performing arts program.

Finally, there was some rare good news for the region's fishing industry in the fact that the compromise spending plan included the $250,000 which the Senate has appropriated for the continued funding of the Massachusetts Fisheries Recovery Commission. The agency, which maintains an office in Gloucester, is dedicated to reversing the decline of the fishing industry on Cape Ann and in other ports.

Brian Rothschild, co-chairman of the commission and dean of the University of Massachusetts graduate school of marine science in New Bedford, told Ottaway News Service that the commission plans to use some of the money to track the migration patterns of groundfish. "It's exciting because now we can hire some people to work with the fishermen on stock assessments and the tagging of cod and other groundfish," he noted.

Further proof of the Legislature's commitment to helping revive this once vital part of the region's economy was in the $50,000 appropriated to allow Salem Sound 2000 to continue its study of the decline in fish and lobster stock in local waters. (Some claim that since the South Essex Sewerage District instituted its secondary treatment process, Salem Sound has become too clean to sustain the scavenging lobster population. We presume the environmental agency won't recommend returning the harbor to its former, polluted state.)