Public Documents

Disclaimer: In an effort to foster a better informed citizenry, EBOL provides these documents in electronic form as a public service. East Boston OnLine bears no responsibility for typographical errors. Contact the document writers for hard copies. Some documents have been scanned using an Apple Scanner and OmniPage OCR software. Others have been obtained through e-mail and cut and pasted here. And others have been typed manually. Please send comments and suggestions to editor@eastboston.com Links to other documents on this web site have been also provided as a public service of EBOL.

MEETING NOTES
East Boston Greenway Coordinating Council
Harborside Community Center, Conference Room
Monday, January 21, 2000

map of the Marginal to Prescott Segment of the Greeenway
Click to see full map of proposed Greenway

Attending: Christopher Blackler, Connie Carbone, Aldo Cirone, Robert D’Amico, Blossom Hoag, Ethan Hoag, Terry Leone-Iantosca, Karen Maddalena, Police Officer Stephanie Morrow, Karyl Stoia, Mark Warren, Mary Ellen Welch, Joanne Zambuto, Grace Zuccaro, Lauri Webster.

1. Introductions and Welcome

After introductions we voted to accept the draft meeting minutes from the December meeting. Lauri showed people the picture of Congressman Capuano, Mayor Menino and Valerie in the Congressman’s most recent newsletter.

2. The East Boston Greenway Management Plan

Boston Natural Areas Fund issued a Request For Proposal for consultants to work with the East Boston Greenway Task Force to produce a Management Plan for the East Boston Greenway. Lauri provided copies of the consultants proposals to Greenway Council members on the Task Force so that they could review them before the next Task Force meeting on Friday, January 28, 2000. In addition to discussing the proposals, the Task Force will start to gather other Management Plans with which they are familiar to use as a model for our Management Plan.

3. The Greenway and the MBTA Car Yard in Orient Heights

On January 7, 2000 BNAF staff, several representatives from the Friends of Belle Isle Marsh and the Secretary of the Boston Conservation Commission met with MBTA’s project manager and several consultants working on the MBTA Car Yard renovation project at the Transportation Building downtown. The purpose of the meeting was to follow up on comments offered on the project ENF.

The T and their consultants described the renovation project which include, but is not limited to, making the maintenance facility able to accommodate six car trains (Blue Line Modernization Program), providing wheel truing facilities on site, and changing the facility’s entrance to Austin Street. BNAF, the Friends and the City are all interested in minimizing the impacts of the project to the neighborhood and the marsh and what the mitigation measures will be. Several Council members talked about the possibility of having the T build a new vehicular entrance into the Car Yard through the OSCO parking lot.

The larger issue revealed during the meeting with the T involved the funding for construction of the rest of the Blue Line stations. It appears the reconstruction of the Orient Heights T Station, which had reached 75% design, is being pushed way out (five years), with the Car Yard being prioritized before it. The schedule for reconstructing Maverick Station is also being pushed out. Airport Station is under construction as part of the Central Artery Project Improvements to the I-90/Route 1A Interchange. According to a Greenway Council member funds for the design of State, Aquarium and Government Stations have been appropriated, but there does not seem to be any money for construction of stations which are already in the design stage. Senator Travaglini, Representative Petruccelli and Councillor Scapicchio are all aware of the situation and have written letters to the MBTA.

4. Greenway - Conrail Corridor from Marginal to Porter Street

The Parks Department is working on the technical solution to the flooding with its consultants. They expect to have a solution to take to BWSC within the next few weeks. No word yet on the fate of the remainder of the ISTEA grant funding.

With respect to Phase II, Ken Crasco of the Parks Department said that he must write a letter to MHD to explain the design fee for the Phase II is included in the ISTEA grant which is different from most grants. Council members asked that BNAF encourage Parks to follow through as the project schedule is jeopardized and there must be a plan for this summer. Phase I will be done and the Greenway will look usable but not finished and without safety signage and amenities included in Phase II.

5. Greenway from Porter to Frankfort / Bremen Street Park

At the CAT meeting on January 19, Mike Lewis announced that the project will be preparing an ENF (instead of a NPC) that will address moving Park Ex to the Southwest Service Area and the Robey parcel. The next CA/T meeting will be on February 16, 2000 at the Jeffries Point Community Center. It will be very important for people to attend as it is only one of two meetings before the project plans on submitting the ENF at the end of March. A Council member noted that the Gove Street residents will attend.

The bids for the CO8A1 Project (the I-90/Route 1A Interchange) are scheduled to be opened the end of February. It is our understanding that Park Ex is going to design and construct its facility, but the CA/T is going to pay. This presents both an opportunity and a concern: the private sector may be able to move quicker but it will mean there is another set of designers and contractors to deal with.

Council members were originally impressed when the artery presented a drawing of the new Park Ex location with a large green buffer. It was only later they realized the big green area was for snow storage disposal. Now there is concern because there is no connection from Maverick Street to Memorial Stadium down Wellington Street.

The RFP for the Scolly building has not yet been released, but is expected out soon. A few Council members still think the building should be demolished.

6. Updates

The Snowy Owl Walk was great fun. We saw two owls, one male and one female.

The East Boston Greenway Signage System

The Boston Parks and Recreation Department, BNAF and several members of the Greenway Council made a presentation to the Browne Fund for a grant to provide and artful signage system for the Greenway on January 11, 2000 at City Hall. Other Greenway Council members prepared letters of support.

The East Boston Greenway makes the MUD

Mark Warren wrote a letter to the MUD, the Appalachian Mountain Club newsletter, talking about two efforts underway in East Boston: the Greenway and the Condor Street Urban Wild.

Friends of the East Boston Greenway - Mark Warren reported that it appears the law firm Robinson and Cole has agreed to offer us probono services in setting up the Friends of East Boston Greenway. They are looking over the document that Mark prepared and looking at models from other areas. A meeting will be set up soon.

Massport’s Waterfront Development Process - Responses to Massports RPF’s are due the 27th. The Massport working Group meeting is scheduled for tomorrow night.

Piers Park Phase II - A Council member reported the Jeffries Point Neighborhood is happy with a recent decision to move the maintenance building adjacent to Pier 1. The Council would very much like a presentation on the Piers Park Phase II at an upcoming Council meeting.

7. Other Business

Planning for the Municipal Harbor Plan is underway. Meetings are during the day time. Karen Buttiglieri is the current East Boston representative but may not be able to continue.

There are some in the community who are advocating for depressing the portals of the Sumner/Callahan Tunnels. Call the Mayor’s office with your opinion.

The hearing at Landmarks Commission for the Immigration Museum is scheduled for tomorrow night, January 25, 2000 at 6:30 PM at City Hall in the BRA Board Room.

Conrail donated the entire rail corridor from Marginal to Day Square to the Trust for Public Land for the Greenway. It seems that there are several entities interested in a small portion of this corridor, including the truck route, the North Shore link (the T is doing a feasibility study), and possibly the Urban Ring as well.

END/ccmn100

These notes are written to the best recollection of the authors. Please let BNAF know if corrections are necessary within 30 days of the date of the meeting notes. Contact BNAF@aol.com

BOSTON NATURAL AREAS FUND. INC.(BNAF)
59 Temple Place, Room 558
Boston, MA 02111-1307
(617)542-7696
(Fax)542-0383
e-mail: BNAF@aol.com

Go to other Greenway meeting minutes

posted 5/11/00