[Jennifer Keenan]: Real quick, we are going to recap the overall master plan for the park that was developed back in 2020. We will do a recap of the phase one work that has already been completed to date. That includes Pomp's Wall restoration, the Fieldstone Wall restoration, and the archaeological dig, which I know some of you came to check out and participate in, so thank you for that. we have what we're calling a new update to the master plan. So from our archeological dig, we have been provided some recommendations to implement from that. And that's really kind of the crux of the presentation tonight that we wanted to share with the community. And that's really going to help build our pipeline for what we're calling phase three of the work in the park. So we have done phase one, we are, in the next few months we'll be starting phase two, and then now we're kind of building the pipeline for phase three, which is what this, we're calling a history walk, some signage, some historic markers. And again, these are just concepts that we're going to share with you tonight. We don't have the funding yet for this phase, and we are still seeking community feedback. But kind of in the vein of, you know, we're starting phase two, and we got to kind of look to the future for phase three, wanted to just kind of keep the ball rolling here on some of the things in the master plan. And then we will circle back at the end to talk about phase two and the work that's forthcoming, which I know a lot of you probably are going to be excited about, that we have secured the funding for. We are about to start sending out some RFPs to secure vendors, and that work is going to get slated to get done. the early part of next year. And then at the end, we'll have comments, questions, feedback. We kindly ask that we get through the presentation before we take any questions or comments, and then everybody will have a chance to speak at the end on anything that you'd like at that point. So from this point, I'm going to turn it over to Ryan Hayward and Peter Hedlund, who will be going over the crux of the presentation. And guys, take it away.
[SPEAKER_14]: Thank you, Jen, for that introduction, and I think Ryan's going to get the. Presentation up on the screen. Great. Thanks, Ryan. So everybody should be looking at just the title slide here. My name is Peter Headland, a landscape architect and a planner based in Arlington right next door. I was fortunate enough to work on the master plan project and have now been doing a little study on this concept design. And we'll talk about that shortly here. Okay, next slide. Great. The 2020 master plan, we started in 2019. It was almost a year process. It went through 2020. And that's all on the historical commission website. And at the end of that, we came up with a series of phased implementation projects that could happen over a period of 20 years, and we'll talk about the first phase of that with the next slide. So this shows the first, say, seven of these implementation ideas that came out of the master plan, restoring the wall, the historic wall right on the edge of Grove Street. an archaeological dig at the estate, which has also taken place. We'll talk about that a little bit. Making improvements to the Grove Street edge, the fieldstone wall there. Those were in phase one and we'll go over those in a little bit. Other projects from the master planning include new crosswalks, improvements to the trails, some type of signage to identify the park, and some planting in this central planted LA. Okay, on the next slide, we'll talk about that. The first step and really the reason for this whole park is what's now known as Pomp's Wall. In 2019, the image on the upper left, that was the condition when we began the master plan and we had a historic masonry consultant, Richard Irons, come and maybe some of you heard him talk. He gave a presentation a number of years ago. He evaluated the wall. I wrote up a pretty detailed technical memo about the wall and went over some options to restore the wall. Some of you might know that a wall that part of the, in the deed when this part was given to the city of Medford, it stipulated that this wall, they were so proud of this wall, that this wall needed to be forever maintained. The preservation and restoration of this wall is really important or else technically, the old estate could take this part back over, but luckily, that's not going to happen. The middle slide there shows the previous joint conditions, pretty deteriorated and the capstone needed some significant repair. So, in the next slide, we show the process in 2023. Mason was hired to do that work. This is that restoration. A lot of the wall really had to be taken apart and put back together. And maybe some of you. were there or witnessed some of that progress. And the brick on the right side is pretty interesting. The contractor pulled that out and you can see a fingerprints on the top of that brick. So that's Pretty interesting, the wall was said to have been built in 1760, and so those are over 250 years old. Were they from Pompeii, the former enslaved person who built the wall? Perhaps Medford was known for local brick making and these bricks were sourced locally, but that's really sort of a neat glimpse of history and all those bricks went back into that wall. On the next slide, you can see the final result from last year of the newly restored wall with newly pointed bricks. They ended up putting a new cap on top of it to really seal that with flashing. Hopefully, this will last for the next few generations. Okay, so the next project that came out of the master plan in phase 1 was improving the Grove Street edge, the old field stone wall. It's an interesting historic image on the right hand side of the screen here, which shows it's looking up Grove Street. That is the historic wall, formerly known as the slave wall, now known as Pompe's wall. And you can see the wall as it was historically, but over time, it had sort of fallen apart in some areas more than others. The image on the left here is showing prior to the master plan, you know, the wall in this area was pretty gone, and so the thought there was to improve this fieldstone wall. And so the next slide shows the results of that. With the wall repaired, it really helps to define the edge of the park. Also, cutouts were left at intersections for crosswalks to access the park. And... Another part of that project was for five feet behind that wall, clearing out the understory, a lot of invasive plants have popped up in there. Clearing that out a little bit, let these big trees, you can see this one over on the right side, give them a little bit more room to grow. Ryan, at the end, we'll talk a little bit about some upcoming planting maintenance improvements. Okay, on the next slide, we talk about the third part of this first phase of projects coming out of the master plan, the archaeological dig at the estate. Here we see illustration of the Thomas Brooks house that was right behind that wall. This later colored here, that's that wall, that's Pomp's Wall. You can see the drive right behind it and what this house looked like. It was built in 1727. The house was demolished in 1860. Then it just really sat there because it was never redeveloped and became a park. The archaeologists we brought on for the master plan were determined, and they were correct, that this is a highly sensitive area for archaeological findings. And the master plan proposed an archaeological dig with a professional and to work collaboratively with community volunteers, and that happened. And they thought that there was the possibility to find, very good possibility to find both pre-contact and post-contact artifacts. And on the next slide, we see that dig, which happened in 2022 and 23. Maybe some people on this call, this Zoom meeting were part of that. You can see some of the people from the community along with the professionals working on that dig. There were 23 test pits and over 1,600 post-contact artifacts and 64 pre-contact artifacts. And post-contact and pre-contact mean either pre-contact is pre-colonial settlement and post-contact is after settlers arrived. So there was both interesting findings from both of those areas, which is pretty neat. And here's some of the things that were found. That piece of pottery was on that site. Okay, next slide please Ryan. So there is a pretty detailed survey report from the master plan that made some recommendations. They recommended to protect and preserve this site, specifically this estate site area. They thought it was a highly sensitive area in and around the house site, and that in this area, that any below ground disturbance should be avoided or ideally kept at a real minimum. And that will come into play when we talk about the concept for this area. Okay, the next slide, Ryan. We see where that area is. This is the approximate house location. We're looking south on the dirt path. You can kind of see the back of Pomp's wall there. So that's generally where that house was. On the next slide, we have a couple images looking both south on that site. Some low vinca has grown up there. Maybe, A remnant from ground cover that was planted originally that could be possible. And then this is looking north. It was a pretty open site originally around that estate, but trees have have grown in over time. Okay, and the next slide. We see a couple other just context views of the north entrance. This is the newly reconstructed wall and the break in the wall at the roadway opposite. This is looking south on the south approach and you can see the open lawn there. These are the two ways that visitors would get to this area. Next slide. Okay, so we've been working for the last number of months and through a couple meetings on a design concept for this central area for this historically sensitive area, and I'll walk you through the main. Concepts here, and with the 3 big ideas for the design concept to improve accessibility to the park. And help identify the park as such as as a park and to make some of this really interesting history visible. I remember when I first started working on the master plan, and I. was out exploring the park, it's definitely not evident that it is or was a town-owned property. And so the improvements to the walls certainly help. And some simple signage will help to identify it as an important historical park for the town of Medford. So the first concept is a history wall. which is a, these paths really sort of already exist, they're dirt pathways, mostly, and creating a loop here in this thicker orange line that would help to connect a number of these historically sensitive areas and use historic markers to interpret the history a little bit. And we'll go through each of those. But these blue circles are those 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 markers there. Also, two potential areas for welcome signs to the park. We'll talk about the interpretation and stabilization measures around the former estate site. And you have to be able to get to the park, so new crosswalks and accessible parking. Okay, the next slide, Ryan, we'll kind of walk through each of these. First is the history walk. The walk, again, in this thicker orange here, it would be an accessible path in terms of slope and surfacing. We haven't done a detailed, there hasn't been a detailed field survey done of this area of the park, but we think that it can be an accessible path below 5% slope. And we'd like to connect that to new crosswalks so people from this community, or maybe who are parking there could get into this park. Okay, on the next slide. There are 2 potential areas for welcome signs, and Ryan will talk a little bit more about this at the end. It would be great to identify the park, to name it, and to welcome visitors, to make them feel welcome. So here, opposite Jackson Road or potentially Ravine Road to the north are 2 potential areas for welcome signs. Okay, on the next slide. just a little bit history about Thomas Brooks Park. This is 1860 Brooks estate plan, which was pretty big. A lot of this land has since been given to the city of Medford. Our little sliver right there is Thomas Brooks Park. You can tell it's this almost like sharp triangle. Up on the upper right is at H.F. Walling Plan from 1855. And here we see our park there. It's easy to identify the railroad, which is this diagonal line, and then Grove Street. And so that sliver right there is what the future park looked like in 1855. It is adjacent to the Boston and Lowell Railroad. And then the six-acre park was conveyed to the city in 1924, again, with the stipulation that the brick wall, now known as Pomp's Wall, be forever maintained. On the next slide, we talk about these historic markers. Originally, in earlier iteration, this walk was just a linear path from here to here. But then as we took some feedback and evolved it a little bit, it's become more of a loop. Pomp's wall is right here just to orient everyone. It's great. And Grove Street is right here. So the proposal is to have a series of five simple historic markers so that visitors to the site would help to understand the rich history here a little bit better. Both the Native American history, which marker could be there, the African American history with this pretty remarkable wall, Pomp's Wall, that's just been restored. There's a pretty fascinating history of water systems and the Middlesex Canal here, and This is an appropriate place for that historic marker because it looks out over this lawn. We'll talk about that in a little bit. And then on the back of the park here, you're right next to the Boston and Lowell Railroad, now known as the MBTA Lowell Branch Railroad. which also has a rich history, and then coming around to the colonial American history of the site and the sort of remains of the Thomas Brooke estate and thinking about how to interpret and mark that. Okay, so over the next handful of slides, we move to the next one, we'll talk about how to do that and why that's important. So the Native American historic marker, again, with the archaic, I have a hard time saying that word today. With the dig that was just done, there were 64 pre-contact artifacts found collected during the 22-23 dig, which is pretty neat. Maybe some community members on this call or in this picture, I don't know. Largely, the items that were found were chipping debris and pottery shards. presumably from the middle to late Woodlands period, 2000 to 450 years ago. So pretty significant historical resource. And this has a potential for rich Native American history, given the proximity of water resources and the topography. So that's pretty invisible now, but it'd be great to make that history a little bit more visible, just with a simple interpretive marker. Okay, and on the next slide, we talk about Pomp's Wall. Okay, the existing marker, which is there, if you want to Sneak on the edge of the roadway and or peek at it from your car is shown on the upper right there. This upper left is a historic photo, which the date is unknown of, and the photo in the middle is from 1899. So you can look up Grove Street. You can see the wall, it's beginning to get overgrown there, but pretty open behind it, some of the big trees there. We know the wall was constructed around 1760, that the city is required to preserve and forever maintain it in that deed. to the city, it stipulates that. And then there was this recent, very important restoration and renaming of the wall. So that's an important history to help make visible. Okay, if we go to the next slide, we can help to mark in a way the importance of the Medford water systems. This picture on the left is a little hard to see. All these slides will be posted on the Historical Commission website. And if you look on there, there's a lot of information from the past number of years from all the studies and meetings that were done. This is a plaque elsewhere in Medford that shows the Middlesex Canal and the route. Our little park is right here. You can see the railroad and Grove Street. And so this Middlesex Canal was right to the south of this area. The Middlesex Canal was around from 1793 to 1853, ran from Charlestown to Lowell. It was partly financed by the Brooks family, which has such a prominent role. in the city of Medford. It supplied much of the lumber for shipbuilding in Medford. That was such a big industry in the city. On the lower right is an image of one of the bridges. There were a number of bridges, 50 bridges, all along the canal. And this was one in Medford that was taken down. But we think that some of these blocks were used in this Grove Street field stone wall, especially south of Pomp's Wall. You can go look and the stones there are more cut in. rectilinear blocks. I can't get into a lot of it here, but there's really a fascinating study that the head of the MWRA did on the role of Medford in the whole water and sewer development for the city of Boston in the nearby area. It's pretty fascinating. area where we're proposing this historic marker looking out on that field, well part of the reason the field is there and it's not overgrown is because there's a sewer easement that actually runs through there. And so there's a lot of interesting things to talk about for a potential historic marker talking about these water systems and the task will be how to distill this information in a concise way. Okay. If we go to the next slide, I talked a little bit about the Boston and Lowell Railroad and the proposals for historic marker on the backside of Thomas Brooks Park, talking about this, that this railroad was constructed in 1835. Also, partly financed by the Brooks family, the people didn't really want the railroad to happen, especially the people who were invested in the canal because the railroad made the canal not as necessary. And it essentially replaced the canal in order to speed up. Transportation provide year-round freight transportation because the canal would freeze in the winter. This railroad, it was the first major railroad in the state, one of the first in the whole Northeast, and it's still used today. It's an active rail line as the MBTA Lowell line. That's an image on the bottom right. You can see Boston and Lowell there. Okay, and Ryan, if you go to the next slide, the last historic marker kind of gets back to what we started with, with the dig on the site. Now, this is an image of the Brooks Estate House, and the historic marker would help to reinterpret that or interpret that history. that this house was built in 1727, you can see here there was a little curved driveway behind that brick wall. And that's essentially where, if you walk out there, where that dirt footpath is and where that history walk would be. Then you can see the brick wall between the street and the driveway, that's the palms wall. We know historically it was noted that there were three black walnut trees in front of the house. You can see them in this illustration and also those original trees aren't there. But if you're out there in that park, there are black walnut trees that are descendants, I think, of these original trees. Then as we know, there are a lot of artifacts recovered. from the dig over 1600 from the post-contact or colonial era. Okay, on the next slide, we looked at this site. This is the general area of that estate house, and the proposal is to both protect and preserve and interpret this site a little bit by marking the Corners of where the house was with simple stone blocks and stabilizing the surface with low plantings. And then this would be the blue circle that historic marker, which would be able to interpret it. So, if you go to the next slide. This was one of the site precedents that we looked at, Robbins Farm Park. It's a neat park right next door to Medford, up on the top of the hill. There's an old farm there. It was given to the city, turned into a park, and maybe probably 10 years or so ago, Park and Recreation Commission wanted to sort of memorialize the house in the former farm there. And so they put, they marked the foundation here with these stone blocks. These are kind of similar to what we're thinking for Thomas Brooks Park. And they had a simple sign in their case, it was right on the block. In our case, maybe it would be a separate standing element as a way to Talk about the former farmhouse that was there and give people a sense of that history a little bit. Okay, on the next slide we have another site that's interpreted the historic history, tracing the foundations of historic house. This is the Governor Winthrop House in Charleston, the great house site where they used found stones and some foundation stones and brought those to the surface and Trace that foundation there and then just a simple lawn is a very different setting their more urban area and more extensive historic sign that you can see on the bottom right. Okay, on the next slide. We also would like to stabilize the surface in a very simple way with ground cover planting. There's already a little bit of that there with a vinca that's taken over, naturalized the site a little bit. And on the next slide, we'd like to add to that a little bit with a nice native plant, gold star. It's native, shade-tolerant, a lot of trees around, pretty low, 6-12 inches tall, and has a nice bloom from the late spring into the fall. You can imagine walking on this path and coming across these blocks and a little burst of flowers might be a pretty elegant, beautiful, but yet subtle way to think about this site. On the next slide, we talked about another way that we could use plants to bring back the history. This is Syringa vulgaris, a common lilac, which is for hundreds of years been part of New England's horticultural heritage. And the quote on the bottom here is from the Medford paper in 1912, that some of the historic research which the state did, which predated the master plan, they pulled together, and I'll just read the quote, beside the street, Grove Street, and between the ends of the drive was this brick wall constructed and bordered with a row of lilacs. So they're talking about Palm's Wall and they're talking about Grove Street, which by the looks of this was originally bordered with lilac. So wouldn't it be neat, the upper right image is of the Arnold Arboretum on Lilac Sunday. Pro tip, that's a great place to go. Amazingly, blooms in the middle of May. We'd like to bring those lilacs back at the wall. On the next slide, we can see a picture of the wall. This is looking right up Grove Street and Palm's wall over on the right hand side with a field stone wall next to it. And on the next slide, just a little illustration of what some lilacs would look like right behind that wall. It would look pretty nice for vehicles or people on the sidewalk over on the other side here. It's a nice southern orientation there, southwest orientation. So I think those lilacs would do well. And at the same time, we could plant some, just a low ground cover on the roadside to help stabilize that embankment there. Okay, and on the next slide, we have a look at the existing conditions behind Pompe's wall and up that path so this would be the history walk and then the next slide shows a little illustration of what that might look like with some lilacs over on the side in this simple walkway that would then loop around with a series of historic markers and then the stone blocks at the estate house to give a deeper understanding of the rich history of this site. Okay, on the next slide, I believe we're hopping into some information Ryan from the historical commission can share on the upcoming improvements for the second phase at the park.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Thank you, Peter. All right, so now I just want to very quickly dig into the phase 2 construction update. So just to reiterate what Jen said at the beginning, we have a master plan from 2020, but the document is a living document subject to change. it's gonna evolve. So whatever's in the master plan, some of you I'm sure have read it, the phasing that we're using is different than the phasing that it's called out for in construction. So for this phase of funding, which has been fully funded thanks to a generous grant from the Community Preservation Commission, we're looking to do a larger archeological dig, we're looking to do some tree trimming and deadwood removal, the required American with Disabilities Act, architectural access for curb cuts, the sidewalk and their parking space. We're looking to identify crosswalks by striping them and having some signage put up and then of course we're looking to identify this location as a public park. There are some things that are being considered. We are looking at, of course, this archaeological cap that Peter just talked about that is in the early, early, early planning phases. And of course, we're considering things like improving trail definition, adding appropriate trees to the site, and some underbrush thinning and invasive cuttings as we plant trees. But of course, what is not being considered, we heard you way back when we had the public meeting and we've heard you along at this point, even though it's in the master plan, we're not considering at all the community garden or the railroad bridge. So I'll just get that out of the way so that folks know that what we're considering is low impact stuff still to the park, okay? So for the archaeology, we are looking to hire an archaeologist to explore the Thomas Brooks House site and the people that live there, both the Brooks family and their indentured servants. It's a little known topic that's been explored. The site has a lot of ties to slavery in New England, so it's a really important location. So prior to doing any sort of cap that permanently protects the site, we wanna finish up the archeological due diligence on this. And we'll be looking for community volunteers, just like the previous time, we can have people help us out with the soil sifting and lab work for the artifacts so people could see it. So we certainly will reach out for that. And what will conclude our work with the archeology portion of it will be the cap that we're hoping to install between you know, Peter's history walk and the house interpretation and interpretive panels and all that to protect this site from any sort of negative impact. There is a lot of tree trimming that needs to get done. So for this we are looking at the most immediate concerns which relate to the 50 or so 150 year old trees that are on this site. Of them, there are 30 historic trees that are in relatively good condition. They need pruning, like pruning light, and just to remove there, some deadwood branches, some leaders have split off, but there are 10 trees in and around the park that are completely dead. You can see on the right here this image where their leaders have split entirely and there's nothing left and those trees need to be removed for public safety. Other ones like the image on the far left you can see that the leader has split off and it's hanging precariously over some of the trails. So we're looking to trim all of those so that the park is safe from one end to the other. And there are two invasive Norway maples that are completely dead. They tower over the site. They're about 20 feet tall, but they're only about 15 years old. Those we're hoping to have removed because they are, any tree that's that size is a nuisance and it's overlooking the MBTA's right of way. But with all of that tree trimming, we're hoping to plant 15 new trees. And I say oak trees, but in talking with the City Tree Warden, it could be an oak tree, it could be sugar maples, trees that are native to New England and native to this site that we want to replace the invasive Norway maples that are here and have a plan to continue to plant trees that will be curated, so to speak, so that the park becomes like a park and maintains that wooded feeling. Now, as part of this project, one of the big key pieces is that we are looking to remove all of the deadwood throughout the site. So we know there were some pieces of deadwood that were taken off of the street when the ice storm happened on Grove Street. The DPW has been chipping away at that. We're going to complete that work. And then, of course, there were several trees that were taken down during the wall for public safety. All of those are going to be removed. And then all of the miscellaneous tree droppings that have come from the historic trees that are dying or are dead will all be removed from one end of the park to the other. So it'll be a total top to bottom clean out. A lot of that material, if it's too big, it will be taken off site. If it's smaller, and can be shredded, we'll put some of that back on the path so that there will be some definition to the paths. For accessibility improvements, we have a number of those up and down the park. The big one is that we are going to reconnect the sidewalk along the east side of Grove Street that currently is dead-ended at Newton Street down to the new entrance at Jackson Road. We'll put curb cuts at all of the wall openings. There will be striped walkways at Jackson Road, Gravine Road, and Layard Road. There'll be crosswalk signage. And of course, all of this is gonna take a lot of time because there's many key players. So we're exploring it and we're working on designs and concepts, but the city department of public works, traffic department, all of them have to come into play as we start to move forward with this project. So we're just getting underway and they're many, many months out. but we're hoping to get off the ground with construction maybe spring of 2025 so that we can basically start the year off right and at first possible period of construction after the winter we'll get in the ground and deliver on these things that we've been working on for over a year. For the space, they will need to be striped somewhere nearby as part of the accessible route and accessible path around the park, a single parking space. When we were originally developing the master plan, it was asked that we keep cars out of the park. So we do have to provide a ADA accessible space somewhere. We will work with the residents, you guys, all to try to locate that in a location that's convenient for both the accessible route and the residents. But it also requires that the city hold a public hearing with the traffic department. So there'll be many, many more opportunities to engage with where and how this space fits on. And of course, Thoughts have changed. There is access. It's not preferred, but we could put the parking space on the site again if needed. For striping of sidewalks, we do want to just keep it simple. You know, just a simple painted sidewalk will suffice. Signage at a minimum. We talked with traffic department the other day. The preference maybe for a lighted sign, if at all, would be Jackson Road. where there's a high concentration of people crossing for the main entrance of the park, maybe even a safe route for residents going to and from school. But depending on what we hear back for feedback, that's subject to discussion. And then park signage, we, there's two different types of park signage. So there's the signage that welcomes people to the history walk and the interpretive signage. But really, for this phase, we're looking to identify the park as a park. And we're hoping to have something similar to the Brooks Estate sign just up the street. This site does relate to the Brooks Estate property, but it can have its own identity. So we don't have yet a true design, but something that identifies this as a city park with some history so that everybody knows that it's not just a derelict piece of woodland, that it really is a location that is important to Medford. And then, of course, with ongoing planning, there's things that we're looking at as part of this project that will lead into other projects. We have historic tree work. At some point, there's an alley of oak trees and black walnut trees that we'd like to open up and. maybe thin out some of the invasive Norway maples. But we are listening and we do understand that currently the vegetation acts as a sort of sound screen. So as part of that, we would talk about maybe planting some trees so that those larger and more appropriate trees can come up in size while the existing landscape is then thinned out. And so that sound buffer is always maintained. But again, that's a later phase, many, many, many, many phases out. But the big one is some of the tree work that's being done will alleviate the damage to the MBTA's fence. So we'll get the MBTA to work with us to repair their fence so that the park will be safe, so that nobody can cut through the rail bed when all is said and done. And so that's the crux of what we're doing for phase two. So we know that you guys have comments and questions. So I think if you'd like to make a comment or have some questions for us, we're happy to take them. We just ask that people raise their hand. And of course, you know, not all the comments need to be made tonight. It's not the be all end all. We're going to try to work forward with the archaeological field work, which doesn't any impact on the park other than digging and excavating and then capping and then some of the tree work to for safety purposes but the rest of the stuff again six months out to finalize design so we'll be taking comments and we're happy to have emails if you know stuff comes up later and if you guys want to take some time to digest what you've heard this evening and and put it in And of course, as I said at the beginning of the meeting, if we don't have your email, if you're not on our contact list, just shoot us an email and we're happy to add you to our mailings and publicity.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Thank you, Ryan. Thank you, Peter. And as Ryan said, I'm happy to open the floor for comments or questions at this point. If anybody has anything, if you'd like to raise your hand, I will unmute you and call on you. Tamara, if you'd like to unmute yourself. Nick, can we get your address for the record, please?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes. 14 Newton Road in West Medford on the south side of the Thomas Brook Park. Very briefly, I just want to say thank you to everyone for your thoughtfulness, for your listening to the community, for your attempts and hard work to preserve what is historical and endemic to this area. I just want to say thank you. Obviously, your presentation put in a lot of hard work. You're clearly listening to the community and I love what you're doing and really appreciate it. So thank you so much for all your hard work.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Thank you so much. Dave, I see your hand if you'd like to unmute yourself. Can we get your name and address for the record, please?
[SPEAKER_08]: So my question is, is, has there been any consideration to get. What is and has been happening for well before we lived here, people who go to the park just cut through there and the wall is not completed on our side. So that is a bit of an annoyance for us living here. A lot of people just cut through the lawn, cut over the lawn, cut through the driveway. And my thinking is that if that part of the wall is not completed, people from our side of the street down to High Street, everyone who are on that area, are going to still continue to cut through over our property and cut through into the Brooks Estate that way. And less people are going to utilize all the goals that you guys have with the different Um, you know, placements and the walkways and everything else. So I don't know if there's has there been any talks of finishing that portion of the wall on our side of where we live.
[Jennifer Keenan]: So I can make a comment and then Ryan probably want to jump in as well. So we've heard a lot of comments about that end of the wall. And for exactly the reason you're talking about, which was why it was kind of closed off on that spot, because folks were crossing over private property to get into the park. And so for that reason and the sight lines from a traffic perspective was why the opening was moved up so that there is an easier way to cross the street. Now, we know it's not ideal to have to zigzag back and forth across. And that's why in this next phase, we will be extending the sidewalk on the same side of the street to the opening that is now there so that people don't have to crisscross back and forth nor do they have to cross over your driveway, Dave, and into your property to get into the grassy area of the park. So we are working on it, and we understand and we hear the frustrations from the folks at the lower end of Grove Street and on those side streets, and we are trying to make it easier for folks on that side of the street to not have to cross the street twice. And Ryan, feel free to jump in.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Yeah, I just, you know, we definitely want to put in that sidewalk. We deliberately left the wall back five feet just to make sure that there was room to put in a sidewalk. And there'll be, you know, there's a tree on that side that the wall kind of curves around, so that will be gone. And I think there's one sign for the speed hump that will have to be adjusted. But then there'll be a nice welcoming sidewalk all the way down to the main entrance. it will be clear that, you know, if with some signage in the crosswalk and, you know, if we put up some lighted signage, so to speak, so that people know in the evenings or during dim lighting that it is a crosswalk, it'll become more evident to come down to the main entrance of the park and stop there. You know, currently it's, It's a desire path, but if we give people an alternative that's clean and maintained, it will slowly work itself out. Just like at the opposite end of the park, we closed the other end at the Grove Street Railroad Bridge for public safety as well. And again, residents were climbing over the wall because people had been doing it, but it seems to have worked itself out. So we think over time, it too will work itself out.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Zoe, I see your hand. If you could give us your name and address on the record, please. Yep.
[Zoe Moutsos]: I'm Zoe Moutsos from 33 Johnson Ave. Hi, Dave. Neighbor of Dave. And I'm a scofflaw who walks around his property to get into the park. I do want to speak about the folks who are on our island of Tyler and Johnson Ave. and this is why we do this. In the original plan that I saw, there was an entrance at Newton Road, and that would have been great. I don't know why that was removed or why it didn't happen, but we live in a part of Medford that just doesn't have easy access to green space. Our kids have to cross multiple busy, scary streets To get to play said we're crossing literally a railroad track and play said road right to get to this little park. We're crossing, you know, unless we can walk down grocery and get into the park. You know, we're crossing Grove street, which is like a highway. So I think this is why the. This is why the, I forget what the language Ryan used was, this is why people are walking that way, and this is why we were so disappointed when the plan wasn't followed and that was closed off. I think we could have done something there to take some of those trees down and let people come in and not be walking through Dave's property, because I understand that is, that's not, Appropriate is not ideal, but what you've left us is the choice of running across traffic with kids and dogs in the dark that's not well lit, walking on a path that is, I would be doubtful that that path is wide enough to be even ADA compliant for streets. I can't imagine that it is. And right now it's bumpy, it's glass filled, it's just really, So much of that park is so beautiful, and I know it's going to be wonderful when it's done, but it's a great disappointment to at least me on Johnson Ave, and I know other folks in the area that essentially, again, we're trapped in a highway of streets where people speed. And we can't get to the closest green space that we have. So I would really just, I guess my point is, maybe we could consider putting that Newton Road in that was supposed to be in there. And also, separately from all of my rant on that, thank you for listening to me. There are tons of invasives in that park. There's black swallow wart, there's garlic mustard, there's poison ivy, like it needs to, like the invasives are not just the Norways, right? So I wonder when folks are in there, is there a plan to kind of handle those invasives? Because my goodness, the garlic mustard over the last two years, if you're in sort of the, clearing of the park. I don't know what we talked about. We didn't really pay a lot of attention to that area in this presentation, but the clear area that's right by Newton Road, if you look in, it's almost all garlic mustard and black swallow wart now. That's only going to continue to get worse. Anyway, thank you. I know it's going to be great, but I would really just love some real thought around the safe entrance and just the fact that Grove Street is really dangerous. People drive really fast on that road. Thank you.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Thank you, Zoe. And I live on Grove Street as well, so I completely hear you. I'd like to just go to John Ardizzone, because I see your hand up, and I saw it up before, and I know that you're not using the hand on Zoom. So I just wanted to save you the holding your hand up. So John, if you'd like to unmute yourself, and if we could get your name and address for the record, please.
[SPEAKER_12]: John art is only lived on 53 Johnson Avenue for 30 years. So I know all the history of this park. and I own 69 Grove Street. My tenant is David. People walk down my driveway into the park there, they shouldn't be. It was supposed to be blocked off. That's only one issue. The other issue is this whole process of making so much, there's so much traffic on this street and you're just putting more and more traffic in it. The other thing is we're talking about people bringing their kids. It's strictly a dog park. I'm one of the, I've been here longer than anybody in this picture here. Peter, Ryan, any of these people have come on. They haven't been there as long as I have. I was there when it was a victory garden, when they used to have community gardens there. It was beautiful. You're talking about when they built the wall, they destroyed all the plants that were behind those walls and all the trees. The guys who did the wall were supposed to put it up gently like they did in the upper part of grocery. These guys just mowed it down. They made piles of rock. Then the other thing is you're talking about your sight being so sensitive. They took in five, ten wheels of three quarter inch stone over my driveway, cracked my driveway, and dumped them in the field. Okay? That stone was supposed to be used for the base of that beautiful wall that they built. They never used any of the stone. When they were all done, they came in with a backhoe and they leveled the thing. I work in the area. I've worked in the area for 30 years. I know the history of this. You're talking about canals and you talk about archaeological digs. The town, the city has been mowing grass in there and tearing the place up for years. It used to be very quiet along Grove Street. Now all you do is hear the trains because you removed all the junk around those rocks. You got they literally came in and mowed down 20 feet behind that wall, knock every wall out of there. They didn't start that way. When they started the bridge, they did a nice and neat. They even use stone in the beginning. I'm in the construction business. I know this. When they got about third of the way down there, forget the stone. Forget going around trees. They just mowed everything down. Now it's a mess in back there. What you should have done is you should just clean the park. The noise, the drinking, you want to take people's pocket. But what the problem is, is all these people are talking about how great this is. They don't live next door to it. It doesn't affect them. You put a walk down. My friend, Mike David, his wife is my niece. There's people down there at 10 o'clock at nighttime, walking their dogs. There's no kids, the only kids that are playing in that park live on the house next to 69 Grove. They go in there, they're lacrosse kids. There's no kids in it, it's a dog park. Okay, full of dog crap. You're talking about this big site that you wanna keep nice and clean. You've been letting the dogs crap in there for 30 years. No one knows the history of this property. You're talking about history, about water. You have a Massachusetts water easement going through there. There's an MBTA easement next door to my house. I am the only true abuttor to that property. You never notified me. It's just like, why? I've talked to the traffic department. You're going to put a crosswalk at the end of my driveway? What's going to happen then when someone backs out? They back out, they're going to be back into a crosswalk. Crosswalks are supposed to be 120 feet from an existing structure unless it calls for it. It doesn't call for it. You're gonna walk, people are gonna walk, and where are they gonna go? You're talking, and someone else said that the only place for the kids. Medford has more green space. My son is wildlife. He knows every piece of green space in this town. We have more green space in Medford, Mystic Lakes, Brooks Estates. There must be 100 acres in back there. You have to cross the street to green space. People are so lucky to live in West Medford. And what happens, they're destroying it by doing things like this. Go in there and clean the park up. The wall in my driveway, why don't you just complete it? You're gonna make a wall, you're gonna put sidewalk, just get the, send your guys over tomorrow and complete the wall. Why don't you do that? You think if you live to 69 grocery and you went out there and someone's walking behind your car, you'd be out of your mind. At 10 o'clock in the nighttime, there's people walking their dogs. It's not in your backyard, so it doesn't bother you. One person lives on Jackson Road, one person lives on Tyler, one person lives on John. None of these people have been there as long as I have. I was there, never a problem. Beautiful neighborhood. The woods were much better than they are right now. You didn't take care of them for years. Once in a while, you would cut the grass in them. That opening, that driveway, that was a very small opening. What happened was they removed the big rocks so they could get their lawnmowers in it. That's how it all started. I've owned that house since 2003, and I've lived on Johnson Avenue since, for 30 years. I just sold my house there, and I still own 69 Grocery. I've already made contacts. Traffic department's gonna come out here. They don't want a problem there. We never had a problem on Johnson Avenue. They destroyed the other part where Johnson Avenue meets the grocery. They destroyed that area. There was never an accident there. John, thank you so much for your comments.
[Jennifer Keenan]: I need to move on to some other comments now.
[SPEAKER_12]: You should have notified me. You never notified me. I'm the only abutter. Never gonna notify. I get notifications from people in the neighborhood. You know what they do? You can take people's pocketbooks. It's not in your backyard, so it doesn't bother you. And that's what that's what the whole thing is. You want to invasive plants. You've been digging stuff and those guys destroyed the place and you're saying it's a sensitive thing. Would allow you to come to my property with 510 510 wheels of stone and dump it in there without even asking me. I had the police there. They said, hey, if they crack the driveway, they have to fix it. Who allowed that?
[Jennifer Keenan]: John, thank you so much. I'm sorry I have to move on to other comments. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Frank, I see your hand, and if you could get your name and address for the record, please, you're up next.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, thanks very much, Frank Miller. I live at 56 Grove, so I am one of the abutters that John says. So I do live very close to the park, closer than John lived. My grandson plays over there all the time. He's 10 years old. He's used it extensively. I see other children there as well, so I know it's used. Certainly people walk their dogs there as well, but that aside, just a couple of things. First of all, thank you so much. I think it's a major improvement. I'm glad you're cleaning up all the The deadwood and I'm always concerned there's going to be a fire in them because of all the deadwood and dead trees. So that's a great improvement. And I like everything you're doing. The only thing I'm a little bit disappointed about, because I think in the initial plan, you had said they were going to be gray sidewalks and it looks like you've backed away from that. So, is that still a possibility?
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: So, we, we talked about doing raised sidewalks with the traffic department and the problem is that it involves the installation of a catch basin, which adds a monumental amount of cost. If there's not 1 already there. And in most cases, there is not one near where we're proposing for the crosswalk. So what we're focusing on, you know, there's the speed hump that is existing there. We could work with traffic to try to put in another one. The other thing we had talked about with them is perhaps establishing a safety zone along the edge of the park so that the speed limit, instead of being what it is citywide, 25, would be more like 20 miles an hour. But we know that people speed along this road, sight lines are an issue, and that some people want to make it safe by getting people to slow down. And we do know that it is a cut through on the way to get to places. I myself have gone through here from other parts of Medford, but maybe getting people to slow down will help make it safer. Maybe even just use with the signage will help. make it a little bit safer. But if we can put in the raised sidewalks, we will. But otherwise, we'll do the opposite and just make sure that it's accessible with the ramps on either side.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks very much.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Thank you, Frank. Diane, I see you up next.
[XXXXXX00119_SPEAKER_04]: Okay, hi, Diane Noel. I live on 11 Newton Road, right across from the park, One House Inn. I think I agree with every speaker here in at least one way, which is to say, thank you so much for this presentation. I'm really impressed and proud that we're looking at Medford history and being very thoughtful about it. So thank you for that work. Echoing John, I would like to say that I think that community awareness is sort of key. I feel that, you know, if I didn't sign up for your newsletter and if I wasn't sort of interested in this topic, I wouldn't have known about this meeting tonight. And I think there are a lot of interested people in the community that just aren't aware that decisions are being made. So I don't know if that means literally like Papering the neighborhood to John's point, you know, I just feel that there's not a lot of transparency into decision making and there's a lot of interested. Uh, butters and community members that I think would at least like awareness, if not the ability to, you know, to speak up at meetings.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Can I just cut in real quick and ask a question for the general public. For those of you who are here, did any of you get a reverse 911 call because we asked the city to put one out about two weeks ago and if one wasn't put out, I know they put it up on the city calendar but I did ask them to do a reverse call just so just so the word gets out you know we do want to make sure that you know there are other other ways for people you know i i posted this on social media city put it on their calendar but yes we we do know that not everybody's on facebook not everybody's on social media so um you know we do want to make sure we capture the people like you know john who would you know hear their phone and pick up the message like that everybody used to
[Jennifer Keenan]: And I did get one, but I I mean, I live at the other end of Grove and I'm signed up for the city alerts. So are you guys all signed up for the city alerts?
[Zoe Moutsos]: Yes, I did not get one.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay, then we'll check into that because we specifically asked for I mean, I know it went out because I got it. But what good does that I mean, I'm running a meeting.
[Alicia Hunt]: So, so, if I could just briefly, if you are signed up for city alerts, and you didn't and you are in this area and didn't get a message, you may not have your address in the system. And that's something that we've been identifying as a problem. So you can go on the city's website to the alerts. You can customize it, whether it's your cell phone, if it's a text message, you can get it in the email, you can get a paper, not paper, landline. But if you don't have your address in there, then you will not get localized messages like this one. So I just wanted people to realize that.
[XXXXXX00119_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I know it's hard and I know no one gets a paper anymore, but I mean, there are avenues for sure, both old school and social media. I just know that it's really hard to get keyed into these meetings and there's so many people that are interested in this park, in this neighborhood. I think they would appreciate more of an awareness. So if you could try maybe a little bit harder on different avenues to at least get that word out. I think that would be helpful. I want to again reiterate another commenter with the closing of the Newton Road entrance. Obviously, as a person on Newton Road, I really miss that. It really makes that end of the park almost a dead end. for the south side, not only for access, but for also enjoyment. Not a lot of people are gonna go into the middle of the park and then wander back toward that area, which was really, until you closed it, the way in, the way in for literally everyone on the south side. And I hear John's frustration and the renter's frustration as well. everyone's frustrated. You know, we want it back. We want the entrance back just to open up the full extent of the park. So I know that's a pretty consistent message that most everyone in the neighborhood Other than perhaps john and the right to support. But, you know, just make an entrance that that everyone had back again. And then, and then my, my, my comment, which is, I think, unique and not not one that's been said so far as. Again, I think the planning is great. I think what you're doing is great. My concern is always with maintenance and future state. It's one thing to have a beautiful park that's done and pretty pictures, but as we've seen, if you don't have a budget or thought to maintaining this, It can get pretty crappy in a really short time. And so please just consider that as you're planning that there's a line item in your budget or in your thought for how to keep it as beautiful as it can be the day you make it. So thank you. Thank you, Diane.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: I just want to jump in on that note. And I think this is a good philosophy for the entire city to have. I would treat this landscape just like I would a historic building. The more maintenance and preservation you do on it, the less it's going to take for upkeep and catching up, so to speak. So, yes, we're moving forward with cleaning up the park in the hopes that it will stay clean and well-maintained and well-used so that it does get the budget that it deserves.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay, next commenter, I see C. Mariano. If you'd like to give us your name and address for the record, please.
[SPEAKER_11]: It's actually her husband, Terrodon Collins, 91 Ravine Road. There's a lot of things going on. I like the overall plan. It looks good. There are a lot of Widowmaker trees out there. It's kind of like doing a project at home, right? The archaeological flags are still out there. So, that's garbage. You walk those trails. I'm in this woods at least 30 minutes a day, every day. My son and I go out there and have had to clean up all the broken glass that the wall makers tossed up and that are in the trail. We still aren't even close. If you go out and you want to do a sidewalk on the side of Grove, on that side, it's not wide enough. You're not going to now have a wide enough road. So the wall should have been pushed back at that point to alleviate John's issues. And I agree, there should be a south entrance, 100%. The leftover trees that are still in there lead the entire neighborhood up and down the entire road of Grove to throw their own trash in there. It's becoming a pile of garbage over and over. I agree with the invasive species. We go out there and we pull garlic mustard all the time. I do it on every dog walk. I pull garlic mustard while he's sniffing around, you know, and there are definitely areas we've made a difference, but This whole area, it used to be kind of nice. Now there's mud piles because the trail is dirty and deep. There's glass. I can't get over the amount of glass that was torn up with the wall. It's ridiculous. There's so much more that can be done. But to everybody else's concerns, this is not a public park. This is a local park. This is not going to be a draw for people to come visit. I live across from the wall. maybe four times a year, I see someone actually stop in Grove Street and go up and read the sign. You know what I mean? So I really, I appreciate the idea of making it better, but I think you just need to measure yourself when it comes to, it's not going to be a draw. to the greater public. You know what I mean? So your input from the people that abut it, whether it be directly or on the roads that are around it, are the most important things. I mean, if there's going to be a victory garden in there and... The victory garden is off the table. Okay, that's good because we've been having internal conversations on that because we've had rat problems in the entire area. So, okay. So that was one thing, but like, you know, the field hardly gets mowed maybe twice a year. even from their guys, there's still a pile of gravel. So in there, uh, I literally pulled the bottom of a cone out from the park the other day and sat it on the side of the road, hoping that someone from the town would finally come pick it up. Cause it's been in there since the wall was done. Um, I saw one time on C clicks fix, someone complained about the dumping in there. And I guess that turned into an argument with whoever came out to look at it, but I mean, if you, if you don't, if you start a project and you leave it looking like garbage, people are going to turn around and think, oh, this is still garbage. I can do whatever I want with it. So it seems like the project was started, but not finished for phase one. You know, with the flags around the guard, like it's just, it's gross in there. It used to be a lot nicer before the wall was starting to be quite honest with you. I hope that the plan that you have laid forth comes to fruition and away. I would love that, you know, hopefully that's still on the board, the bridge over to the park, because once again, people have to walk all the way up. The kids have to go all the way up and around Grove Street. I'll tell you this, Mike, there's a fence down. My son goes across the train tracks, you know, because it's almost safer than going up and around the corner of Grove to go down to play center. You know, so those are my concerns. There's a lot of them. I should have been making a list, but I'd probably take 30 minutes. But I would definitely involve the locals more, you know, because if you don't live around here, you're not coming to this park. You know, this isn't car park. This isn't hickey. This isn't anything like that. So.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Thank you so much, and certainly feel free to email us if you think of more things. You know, this is a continuing conversation. And I have one more point. Hold on, John. John, I need to, I have other folks that have had their hand up, so I just like to make one point.
[SPEAKER_12]: Very quickly. Diane was talking about her child walking down the driveway and bringing the people walking there. How would anyone else feel if they lived there? And they had kids, and there's people walking down their driveway. My privacy's in. And why don't they just close off the wall and put the opening on the middle of the street? I don't understand why they just don't do that. Close that wall off tomorrow and open it up on Grove Street. And that sidewalk, like he was correct, that sidewalk is not wide enough to do that sidewalk. And the wall was a terrible job, and it is a mess in there. And it's noisier than it was before, because all that junk is out of there. They need to go back to phase 1.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Thank you, John. Thank you so much.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Before the folks chime in, let me just offer some clarification, which may help. So in the discussion of closing off that far end, there's a couple of different things. We couldn't put a crosswalk there because there's an existing crosswalk. We don't want people crossing at the driveway location. But beyond that, We do want, as I mentioned before, to focus people on the main crossing at Jackson Road, so that needs the sidewalk. There's five feet along the entire wall. There actually is more than that in a few locations, but there's five feet. The ADA sidewalk needs to be 48 inches, wall to curb, and 36 inches clear. We have that. We measured it the other day while we were on the park. In terms of cost, we looked at the cost of both opening the wall back up or the cost of extending the sidewalk. The sidewalk down to Jackson Road is infinitely cheaper to the tune of about $10,000. It was going to cost somewhere in the vicinity of $36,000 to get the contractor to come back, mobilize, open up the wall, pull back the sidewalk, and pull the walls in, have that opening. It's gonna cost about $20,000 or less, depending on how much that ties into the larger project, to put the sidewalk in, put the curb cut in, put the crosswalk in and identify. So we're just trying to weigh the pros and cons of both. public comments versus also making sure that we're fiscally responsible with the amount of money that we're given with taxes. But again, all of this is up for discussion. Everybody, it's an opinion. So traffic could all of a sudden say, no, don't do that. Let's go back to the idea of putting in the wall and we'll do that. But, you know, we also have to provide the ADA amenities to make sure that the park is accessible, because we've received, you know, we've received comments that people want to use the park, and we are obligated. And as part of that previous work, we wanted to say, if we're going to be opening, closing entrances, they're all going to be accessible. The park's going to be universally accessible to all, you know, and even if it's not used by people from the other parts of the community, it's there so that it could be. Right. So I think that's the general consensus is that it is, you know, even though the public may not come to it, it's available to them if they want to come to it. You can't certainly can't make somebody or for somebody to come to it. But, you know, I. You guys as neighbors, certainly we want to make it work for you, but we also need to make sure that we are doing everything we can to make it work for the entire city as well. This is, you know, M-Belt and the Royal House have their own little locations, but this is really the only city's park that celebrates some part of history.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Benjamin O'Cady, you can make your comment. If we can get your name and address for the record, please.
[SPEAKER_06]: Hi, I'm Olga, Katie, I'm Benjamin's wife. So I have a couple of comments I'd like to share. And we're at 38 Jackson Road. So thank you for this presentation. And it's, it's obvious that you've, you know, taken a lot of community input to heart and in designing the presentation and coming back with another rendition for phase two. So I appreciate you listening to the community so closely, especially those of us who use the park every day and are very active stakeholders in its preservation and utility for the members of this community. The comments I have specifically relate to the tree planning for the park and the sound barrier and maintenance. So what we've noticed, my husband and I, in the last three years that we've lived here, is that since phase one was completed, the sound barrier has been completely destroyed. The noise from the train is is ridiculous and our house shakes. Like there's a mini earthquake happening several times a day because of the shaking as a result of the trees that were taken down for the wall restoration of part one. So I'm very concerned about the additional trees that will be taken down in later phases of the project because even though you'll be planting some new ones, hopefully the timeline is just mismatched because the time will take those trees to mature to the level of the current trees being taken down is gonna be 20, 30 years. So before they're able to be an effective sound barrier is going to be quite a bit of length of time. And in the meantime, the noise from the trains is ridiculous. The shaking is awful as far as the sound barrier destruction that's happened. And it's causing issues for foundation and just additional negative externalities that you probably may not have thought of initially in designing this project. So I think other measures need to be taken to reduce the sound barrier effect of taking down additional trees and any trees that are planted need to be very fast growing to replace that sound barrier. as fast as possible. The second concern I have is with respect to the maintenance of those trees. Specifically, who is handling those projects? Will that be Medford Forestry Department? Will that be a private arborist? Is there money set aside for watering those trees, the new trees, and making sure they survive? because a lot of the trees planted in Medford, the new trees, first of all, they take forever to get planted for issues we're not gonna discuss today, but also there's no maintenance of those trees because no one's watering them because there's no money. So any new trees being planted basically need to be babied for three years at least on a regular basis to make sure they survive.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Yeah, so, You know, while I'm trying to think of, like, good ideas for sound barrier, you know, and maybe it makes sense to find a way to landscape the edge along the railroad side with more low shrubbery type things that will dissipate the noise for the entirety of the park. And, you know, maybe we could make the tree budget go farther. That way, that's something we can certainly discuss with Peter, who's a landscape architect, who would certainly be able to help and look at that. And we can address that. We can try to look at that. The MBTA fence, as somebody mentioned, it's down. We want to make sure that that goes back up after the tree work is done. Done so that, you know, there is a no longer an unsafe crossing there because the trains, once the construction is done, they're going to start. You know, heading back up full speed and not all of them stop through there.
[SPEAKER_11]: So I will hate to interject a little bit, but my son and I, and we can attest this because she's kind of made fun of me in the past, but. We've actually tried to clean off from the left of Poms Walter Ravine by the roadside and in back of it, and actually weed stuff and go in and do native planting flowers, like an actual pollinated type garden on that side. Everything on the front and back side of that wall is a sliver of dirt, not soil, dirt, with nothing but rock below it. The sheer fact that we have friends donate different irises and different like, you know, bulbs this year that we tried to plant in that back of the wall, you know, by the, if you know the area, there's a tree, like a little hump behind the left of the wall. But one thing to keep in mind is definitely the watering, because I'm not sure if any of those are going to take. My seeds, I put down $60 worth of seeds this year, $80 worth of seeds last year. We have a few that took, but with, I hate to say the term, because some people don't like it, I don't know who's on here, but with the climate change, it has been a very hot, dry winter. If you live here, you know where that sun comes. The sun does not necessarily hit that area directly. And it is super, super dry over there and it's not soil. There's no soil. on either side of that wall directly. Once you're inside or in the past, there's a ton of soil full of weeds. But if you're going to do anything decorative, like the irises or whatever those plants were, someone's got to take care of it, especially with the tree plantings. Then there's no direct water over there. I've literally considered asking my neighbors so I can use their house on the corner and run a hose off their house across the street. It's just pointless at this point, I think. And the weeds are ridiculous everywhere. I mean, the town just comes by once a year in the fall and weed whacks everything. I actually had a garden that was growing last year and they came through and weed whacked everything. So, yeah. But that's it. I just want to point that out. Something else you'll have to budget for if you're thinking of doing that, so.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Thank you so much. Thank you Olga as well for those comments and we will definitely take another look at the landscaping plan, the trees, maintenance. I made a list here and so you know we will consult with Peter and some of our other folks to talk about that and and think deeper about that. So thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, next up, I see BNIC. If you could unmute yourself and give us your name and address for the record. Hello, BNIC. Would you like to make a comment? You have your hand raised. We cannot hear you if you're trying to speak.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: They unmuted themselves, but we can't hear them.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Okay, I'm gonna go on to the next person and I will come back to you. Diane, if you'd like to make, I saw your hand up again.
[XXXXXX00119_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah, I just wanted to address Ryan's comment about doing a cost analysis for, what was it, a sidewalk versus the wall. And again, just going back to getting input, I think if you would have asked before you closed off the Newton Road wall, we could have saved you $36,000. Right. So that's a frustration that I think that, you know, a lot of us will address. I also think if you ask the community, which would you prefer? I think we all would say we would prefer that entrance versus spending the money. So in other words, please reach out to the community and get real volumes of answers, not just the 20 of us who are fortunate enough to have found this meeting. Do a Google poll, do something where you'll actually get consensus before you make decisions. You know, we didn't ask you to cut that access off. You did. And so now we're asking you to put it back. And you're saying it would be expensive, but it's not anything you should have done in the first place. So that's a real frustration that I think we all share. So please listen and seek broad community input before you make decisions like that.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Thank you, Diane.
[SPEAKER_12]: Again, I'm going to interrupt on that. It's not in their backyard. If it was next to their house, these people, let me speak, these people. No.
[XXXXXX00119_SPEAKER_04]: John, I'm agreeing with you. I agree that the access to your property is your property. I'm asking for the public access to be reopened. So we actually are, John, agreeing with each other.
[SPEAKER_12]: No, you're not. You're still walking down my driveway at 10 o'clock to walk the dog. Everyone's walking dog. It's a dog park. We have to clarify this. John, you're not listening.
[Zoe Moutsos]: We are asking for a Newton Road entrance that it avoids your driveway. And I don't know if you actually own all the way to that wall, which is the second question, whatever. We can all pick that up. All right, guys.
[Jennifer Keenan]: All right, guys. Thank you so much. I'm going to have you please take this conversation offline. We have heard the comments. We've heard John's side. We've heard the Newton Road neighbor's side. I'm going to leave it at that for tonight. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. And I'm going to move on to our next person who has their hand raised, which was BNIC. If you are unable to mute yourself, and we could not hear you before, if you can make yourself known, if you have a comment, otherwise, I'm going to lower your hand and move on to the next person. Okay, I'm not hearing anything from BNIC. So again, I will go back to tomorrow. I see your hand raised. Feel free to make your comment.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. Hey, Jen. And I, you know, I really agree with a lot of our community members and I hear John's frustration and Diane's and I think that there should be access on the south side of Grove Street that doesn't obviously interfere with someone's personal rights and their personal property. So I hear you guys loud and clear. You know, John, I know you've been here for a long time, but I've been here for well over 20 years as well. You know, I'm not a newbie to this community and it's not just a dog park. We see a lot of kids coming in and out of there. I enjoy the park. I know that there's, you know, reticence for change for a lot of us, right? We get older and we get to the point in our lives where we don't want to see a lot of change. But for me, I see us sitting in a neighborhood here where we have real access to something kind of historical. And I'm not looking to flood our neighborhood with buses and a bunch of school kids either, or like a massive amount of influx of people in the public. But at the same time, there is a history here, and I think it should be appreciated. And so my thoughts are, you know, let's do it as I think the folks are doing it in a careful, thoughtful, community-minded way, not trying to introduce a lot of, you know, unnecessary traffic. But at the same time, this is an area that could be helpful for You know the brooks school kids to like walk down the street and do like a walking tour one day in the spring, where they understand a little bit more about the history of this area, which I think is very valuable for them to learn about. And I, among many people, maybe on the call don't want to see history forgotten. I want to see history appreciated, and I think that there's some really neat stuff about the ship making the ship building and the use of the. canal and other such things that could be of real value. That's all I have to say, but I appreciate the carefulness and thoughtfulness of all this. But I also don't have the same concern about change as long as it's reflective of the community and people understanding that there's a real piece of history here to be told and to be explored in a safe, modest way. I appreciate everyone doing what they're doing.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Thank you, Tamara. Is there anybody else that hasn't spoken that would like to speak? It is 830. I just want to be cognizant of the time and appreciate everybody that's come on and hung on with us here for 90 minutes. I'm not seeing anybody else raise their hand. Come on. I'm sorry. Is there somebody that would like to speak? Is there anybody else that would like to make a comment?
[SPEAKER_13]: Hello?
[Jennifer Keenan]: Hi, are you trying to make a comment? Yes, please. Can I get your name and address for the record, please?
[SPEAKER_13]: Hi, Bill Stevens, Wellgate Road. Thank you so much. Go ahead. Just like everybody else, I've lived here for about 30 years. I'm a little concerned because I think you guys kind of have jumped the gun on this whole project without talking to the neighbors or the residents of this community. I myself too like the green space. I like the Mystic Lakes. I like this little park that we have there. I'm not one for change, but I do see what you're trying to do making the park more accessible to individuals with wheelchairs, handicapped individuals, but I think Nobody has actually thought this through where you can actually park an ADA van or type of vehicle on the side streets that you have proposed. I look at the plans and so far I've seen two parking spaces on the side roads. Can someone explain to me how they think they can actually park an ADA van on the side road and allow access with a wheelchair in and out? Has anybody given that any thought before this project that it actually has moved forward with the ADA sidewalks?
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: So the next step for us is to take the schematic design that we have and work with an engineer through the traffic department, DPW, and planning department, and to really dig into the specifics of that very question. You know, how would it be feasible or not? to park a van or an ADA vehicle on the street or versus on the site, you know, somewhere, right? So those specifics... You put the cop before the husband.
[SPEAKER_13]: So we've had all these conversations and all these zoning laws and by-law changes, and you guys haven't really figured out how accessible this park is going to be to handicapped individuals. So we're changing the whole narrative here by actually allowing cars to park in the park.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Well, the community asked us to not allow cars in the park, but certainly... You can't park on a side street.
[SPEAKER_13]: We need 96 inches wide.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Correct.
[SPEAKER_13]: So one of the things that we certainly... You can't drop a ramp out of a side of a van onto a sidewalk. That's a resident's walkway.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: Well, I'm not I'm not sure because we would have to have an engineer look at it, but that's part of the next process along now that we've secured funding that we will have the designs. Prepared so that then we can at least show them to the community so that we have those specific answers. You know, this is just the. The start of this phase work, right? And, of course, the focus will be on taking care of the safety issue, the trees, the, you know, and the archaeology that don't impact any of these other more. I wouldn't say, you know, more debated items, right? So, for those debatable items, we have. you know, at least six months before we even, you know, get out to bid or construction. So, but we want to move quickly, right? So, you know, as soon as we have those designs, we can present them to the community for your feedback.
[SPEAKER_13]: And then- Let's wrap up a minute. What if those designs don't work? We've now spent three years and up team amount of money on a project that can't move forward. So what can be workable first before we spend all this time and energy moving forward.
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: So it's not about whether or not it does work. It's a matter of making something work.
[SPEAKER_13]: So I live here for 30 years. I've seen the parking enforcement on that road. I've seen police trying to slow the road down, you put speed bumps in, that road is like a highway. I travel that road 15 times a day going back and forth to work, bring my kids to work, down to the train. The road's a highway. You've put these signs up, speed bumps, nothing controls the speed. Yeah, to actually think you can slow down the road to get someone going over there with a wheelchair, someone's going to get killed. And I don't think you guys have put much thought into this at all. It's all blind corners. So before we move forward, I'd like to really, really put some consideration before I spend more tax money than I really need to on this project. I know it's a grant. I do know how all that works. I do know this town is suffering from maintenance workers. We have no maintenance plan in the budget for this property. I echo the woman talking about the trees. The neighborhood, every tree is falling down in front of every house. Every house has rotted trees. This is a neglected piece of land. I just think you guys are jumping the gun on this project, especially with the handicap provisions for this law.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Thank you, Bill. Thank you so much for your comments. We will definitely take them into consideration. OK, one more time for BNIC, if you'd like to unmute yourself.
[SPEAKER_15]: OK, how am I doing?
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yes, go ahead, sir. Can we get your name and address for the record, please?
[SPEAKER_15]: Yeah, I'm Bobby Nicotero at 3 Newton Road, and I've been here forever. The house vibrates from the train at like 1 a.m. some nights, and so, I mean, everything that everyone's touched upon here, excuse me, I've either experienced directly or indirectly, and I must say, my wife made an interesting comment when we moved here in 93. She said, Bob, I grew up in Medford, I went to Medford High, I thought I knew everything about Method, but I never even knew Rose Street at all, never been here before. And you couldn't be more right. This is an extremely local, local situation here. And we're very sensitive about it because we live, I live right next door. And I've seen all of the things that people have mentioned. And it would be a shame that it would change at all, to be honest with you, because it's the charm that this park and this neighborhood brings to the people who live here. And people love it here. They all do. It's a great community. But number one, John couldn't have been more right. I needed two of my neighbors to tell me about the meeting tonight, so I was not notified for whatever reason. I don't blame anybody. It's just that It's 2024, so I know this should have been given to at least the people in Grove, and those are better. But again, it's a local park. I do appreciate the history. I never would have known about Sagamore Park unless my sons hung around the streets with their friends and discovered that there were Native Indians in this part of the country. Very interesting about the history, and we love that. But there is a charm and a love for history around him. And people are very responsive to all of it. But I must say, Grove Street is like a gauntlet for speeding. It seems like cars are either speeding up or slowing down at a rapid rate. Unfortunately, a dog was hit by a car and killed not too long ago on Grove. And it was very, very sad. And it hit home. And, you know, I was always afraid that my children would be walking along Grove and my dog would run out to Grove in fear of, you know, cars traveling. You'll hear a bang and stuff falling off of a truck when it hits the speed bump still. So all of these things together, and then you have a park and more people parking and traveling and visiting. You know, the sidewalk is narrow. There's no question. If I go across the street on that sidewalk, across from my house on Grove, that dirt path, it looks, I guess technically it might look wide, but it doesn't feel wide when the cars are flying by you. It's very, very dangerous. That's the biggest concern that I have there. And it's a busy road, Newton and Grove. It's a busy intersection. Either trucks are new turn there or driving down delivering stuff. People turn around there all the time, Uber drivers turn around at that corner. I do agree that it is a local travel. I do think that they should have rethought that entrance big time. Because if they rethought it and got a lot more input, I mean, everybody was totally confused about that entrance as I was. And it should have been well, well thought out. And there should have been a ton more input because it is a local thing. And I say spend the money. Money spent now is nothing, pennies, compared to what it might turn out to be. So by all means, spend the money. Spend it wisely. The last time I checked, it doesn't move that quickly. So when you set it, it's forever. And it is historic. So it's really important to do that correctly. So I'm directly impacted too, as we all are. We've all been here for a while. We've all invested a lot of effort in our homes here and we love it here. So I recommend to rethink that opening near John's house. John works a lot on his house and takes good care of his property. Do something about the noise. When you're out in the yard, basically years ago before COVID, all you hear is, you'd always hear a bus, a train, a plane when you're in your backyard over here. So anything you can do to make, to use the plant trees and shrubs would be awesome. And I mean, that's it basically, but the speed, it is like a gauntlet at Newton and Grove and that's the big ticket item for me.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Thank you, Bobby. Thank you so much. And I'm glad we got to hear your comment. Thank you so much. Elyse, you're up next. Name and address for the record, please.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, Elyse Jennings, 94 Grove Street, so directly across from the slave wall. Thank you for holding this meeting and for all of the information. I agree with a lot of the things that have been said. I wake up thinking there's an earthquake a lot of nights since that work had been done. But I just wanted to raise a point that hadn't come up yet. Oh, and by the way, I am a dog owner and have a young child on Grove Street. But I wanted to raise the point of the crosswalks. Well, I understand the need for accessibility, and it would probably be helpful to slow down traffic I just am concerned about the eyesores of a lot of signage or flashing lights. I don't know what these crosswalks are going to look like. I don't know how many we really need. So I just wanted to raise that point because I hadn't heard it yet. And also wanted to echo the getting the information out. I heard from a neighbor who knows that I live here and they told me about this and that I have the fortune that I know some of the neighbors because I've been here for eight years now, but we have some newer neighbors that they aren't as networked in yet. And so it would be really nice if they could more easily get the information that these meetings are going on and these plans are being made. Then just a small comment about when the slave wall and all the other wall was being put in. Again, on the subject of eyesores, there was a port-a-potty that was directly across the street from us. Cars would stop and people would be using the port-a-potty. It was there for months beyond when the work, or at least weeks beyond when the work was finished. I don't know if the upcoming work is going to involve a port-a-potty, but just to To put in the plug to maybe have that make sure that's managed well so that we, it doesn't need to be there for any longer than the work is going on. And yeah, those are just the comments I wanted to make. Thank you. Thank you so much.
[SPEAKER_11]: By the way, throughout there, whoever went around and stapled the meeting information to the. power poles, thank you, that's how I actually found out about it, was actually walking my dog and someone had stapled the signage up on there, so thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I heard about it from a neighbor too, from Diane actually, not from the city unfortunately.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Are there any other comments of anybody that would like to make tonight before we wrap it up?
[hsUGO5ihrRw_SPEAKER_31]: No, but I, I, I do want to make a point if people have places that they go to for information, it would be superior that when you email us just just just tell us, you know, if you have a go to place, like, we did try to throw it up on next door and. Uh, you know, and there used to be years ago, there used to be, like, the Yahoo chat boards where everybody was on. But, you know, if there's something like that now, we're happy to try to tap into those resources to make sure that we hit every available one. And Jen, maybe we can try to, you know, if we get moving on design work or whatever, if we have another meeting, maybe you can go out on the tax bill and, you know, that will hit. At least the home.
[Jennifer Keenan]: Yeah, I think I mean, I talked to Dennis about the water bill. It's just hard. Like you got to hit it right with the mail. And you know, it's, you know, unfortunately, we don't really have a budget, we have to work with the city to, to, you know, try to do a mailing. So, but we hear you, and we'll see what we can do and make it try to make it work. And try to get is, you know, maybe we'll do some door door drops, you can walk the neighborhood. We'll come up with some ideas and we really appreciate everybody's comments tonight. And again, please email us at the commission if you have thoughts after this meeting. This is not, certainly not the end of the process. This is the beginning or the middle and we welcome comments. If you'd like to be on our mailing list, please send us your, if you send us an email, we'll make sure that you're on our list. And we're always open to feedback, comments, suggestions. So thank you as always. Thank you everybody for coming tonight. Thank you for hanging in here for over 90 minutes and we will see you next time. Thank you so much. Have a good night.