Press Release  Healey-Driscoll Administration Awards $13 Million for Park and Open Space Projects

GRANTEE 

PROJECT NAME 

PROJECT DESCRIPTION 

GRANT AWARD 

Beverly 

Holcroft Park 

The project will include renovations to the basketball court and playground; a new pavilion will be installed, along with picnic tables, benches, an embankment slide, and a small playing field next to the basketball court; and entrance, walkway, garden, lighting and fencing improvements. 

$400,200 

Boston 

Walsh Playground 

The project includes basketball and tennis court upgrades, a universally accessible playground, a water play feature, a ball field, park entrance improvements, a walking path loop and lighting, the addition of shade structures, as well as several dozen new trees and pruning of existing trees.  

$500,000 

Chelsea 

212 Congress Park Development 

The project will include an ADA-compliant path, a splash pad, rubber surfacing with tiered stone seating and shade sail, picnic tables, small fountains and tall misting structures, an open lawn, a central plaza that acts as a protected shade structure, perennial planting beds, 15 new trees, a low fence, and educational and interpretive signage. 

$500,000 

Leominster 

Prospect Park 

The project will include demolition and site preparation, earthwork, bridge and kiosk work, parking lot improvements, trail and site improvements, addition of a boardwalk, signage, and plantings. 

$363,188 

Lunenburg 

Marshall Park 

The project includes constructing a universally accessibly playground, multi-sport courts, and a central pavilion with a concession stand, accessible restrooms, and a shaded picnic pavilion. 

$500,000 

Lynn 

Lynn Commons Historic Fountain Plaza 

The project will bring the park's fountain back online and renovate the plaza.  

$350,000 

Malden 

Malden River Works 

The project will include shoreline restoration work, site elements such as park benches and bicycle racks, a floating public dock along the Malden River, architectural and engineering consultant fees, and construction management. 

$500,000 

Montague 

Montague Center Park 

The project will include constructing a playground, parking lot, pollinator and rain gardens, and planting trees. 

$340,000 

Norwood 

Hawes Pool Renovation 

The project will include the complete renovation of the pool facility and splash pad at Endean Playground. 

$500,000 

Pittsfield 

Pontoosuc Lake Park Improvements Project 

The project will construct a shoreline promenade walkway with seating, picnic tables, an ADA pathway, and a kayak/ canoe launch will be built. 

$500,000 

Salem 

Salem Willows, Phase II 

The project will remove the expanse of asphalt, pedestrian pathways will be resurfaced and reoriented around a central greenspace, several new trees will be planted, and root zone restoration will be performed for the remaining trees, existing fixtures, including benches and waste receptacles, will be redistributed throughout the site, and conduit will be laid. 

$500,000 

Somerville 

217 Somerville Avenue Pocket Park 

The project will construct a new park with native plantings, including comprehensive tree planting to create a shaded canopy, benches and tables, playground and spray features, and green infrastructure and stormwater management features. 

$500,000 

South Hadley 

Buttery Brook Park Improvements Phase 2 

The project will include walking trails, accessible playground equipment, improved access to shelters and other facilities, disc golf, a concert stage and pavilion, basketball court rehabilitation, environmental enhancements, including stream plantings, new tree plantings, tree removal, and environmental education signs/kiosks, and additional pickleball courts.  

$500,000 

Springfield 

Harriet Tubman Park 

The project includes the installation of a playground and swings, fitness course, picnic pavilion, outdoor classroom, fishing area, water-viewing, open space improvements, tree plantings, and landscaping that will all meet universal design standards. 

$500,000 

Webster 

May St Park 

The project will include renovating the basketball court, two playgrounds, as well as adding playground rubber surfacing, paved perimeter path, and benches. 

$421,209 

Yarmouth 

Riverwalk Park 

The project includes constructing the playground area, including earthwork and boulder placement, walkway access, picnic tables, benches, landscaping, and nature‐based‐play equipment, planting trees throughout the park, parking lot porous pavement system, and parking lot decorative lighting. 

$487,080 

GRANTEE 

PROJECT NAME 

PROJECT DESCRIPTION 

GRANT AWARD 

Ashfield 

Ashfield Tennis Court Renovation 

The project will revitalize Belding Memorial Park by restoring and repurposing the two existing tennis courts. 

$96,100 

Blackstone 

Turbesi Park Playground Renovation 

The proposed project includes updating the playground with an interactive modular playscape, new rubber surfacing, and assorted playground equipment. 

$100,000 

Mendon 

Memorial Park Field Lights 

The project will install field lights at Memorial Park on the Pezzella Baseball Field and Lowell Softball Field. 

$100,000 

Middlefield 

Town Center Park 

The project will include constructing site amenities associated with the town common. 

$10,608 

Swampscott  

Phillip's Park Pickleball Courts 

The project will construct four new pickleball courts. 

$58,167 

Templeton 

Houghton Park 

The project includes the renovation of the park's playground. 

$96,204 

Ware 

Grenville Park Playground 

The project includes building a pavilion, installing four ADA accessible picnic tables and a two-car ADA accessible permeable parking pad and a six-car permeable public parking pad adjacent to the playground, and one ADA accessible piece of playground equipment. 

$97,136 

Grantee 

Project Name 

Project Description 

Grant Award 

Haverhill 

Crystal Street Conservation Project 

The purchase of this 35.6-acre property will protect 1,000 feet of water frontage on Crystal Lake, a 175-acre lake that is one of the City’s primary water supplies.  There is currently a central trail system existing on the site; this project will catalyze a trail extension with the existing trail and connections to a landlocked 23.5-acre City-owned parcel that presently lacks feasible public access, contributing to the City's goal of creating a contiguous greenbelt around Crystal Lake. 

$404,231 

Haverhill 

Parsonage Hill Conservation Project 

This hardwood forest reflects an understory of hophornbeam and viburnums, ferns, and wildflowers that is remarkably free of invasive species and which hosts a well-used network of trails that connect with adjacent protected lands, including the Essex County Greenbelt Association (ECGA)-owned McPherson Woodlot and Town of Atkinson-owned conservation land. Protection of this forest will also serve to shelter the year-round Camp Brook, a tributary to the Merrimack River. 

 $217,600 

Leominster 

Pierce Street Leominster Land Purchase 

This forested property provides a diversity of habitat including vernal pools adjacent to protected agricultural lands to the south and wetlands to the east. The state-protected Massapoag Pond is located just past the Town border in Lunenburg. Confronted with a 22-home subdivision proposed as the alternative, the City is eager to preserve this land as open space. 

 $500,000  

Barnstable 

Wheeler Holly Preserve CR 

The purchase of a Conservation Restriction (CR) on this 5.5-acre pondfront parcel of pine-oak forest will extend the 22-acre Fuller Farm conservation area owned by the project partner Barnstable Land Trust, Inc. (BLT). A half-mile public walking loop trail will be created on the property, extending the existing 1-mile trail loop. Protecting this land will contribute to maintaining the water quality for three 'Great Ponds', important to ensure the viability of a Town beach and a spawning area for rare mussels and anadromous fish. 

 $488,700 

Palmer 

Barker Street Conservation Area 

This 13.3 acres of forested land abuts the Chicopee River, the Red Bridge State Park, and two other town-owned pieces parcels. Preserving this acreage will protect access to approximately 2,500 linear feet of bank associated with the Chicopee River, allowing the existing trail to remain active and available to the public with enhanced maintenance and access. 

 $84,350  

West Newbury 

Sawmill Brook Conservation Acquisition  

This project will permanently preserve 32 acres of open space and wildlife habitat designated NHESP Critical Natural Landscape and Core Habitat for rare wetland species.  The property will expand upon the existing passive recreational opportunities offered at the Town’s Pipestave Hill and Mill Pond Conservation Areas, allowing for expanded trails and improved public access. 

 $394,800  

Westfield   

Tekoa Narrows Conservation Area 

Conserving this property will secure rare wildlife habitat along a river corridor and improve connectivity among three additional inaccessible town-owned lands. This property will establish public access to the Westfield River for canoeing, kayaking, or tubing, as well as for fishing from a very accessible location. 

 $56,312  

Worcester 

St. George Forest 

Protects 14 acres of native deciduous forest withupland and wetland habitat, including an intermittent stream that is part of the Indian Lake watershed, an important recreational waterbody. Conservation of this forested land will maintain water quality, protect groundwater supply, and help mitigate flooding from the increasingly frequent heavy precipitation events. In addition, protecting this large area of tree canopy will mitigate urban heat island effects experienced in Worcester and promote carbon storage and sequestration. 

 $264,600 

Westminster 

Therriault Family Conservation Area 

This project will protect 80 acres of NHESP-designated Critical Land, including the cold water fishery of Philips Brook, which is of importance to rare fresh-water species identified in the vicinity. 

 $211,200  

Boylston 

Sewell/School Street Land Acquisition 

The protection of this forested 30-acre property will promote and permanently protect public access to existing trails that have been used for passive recreation by town residents for decades in alignment with the Town's Open Space and Recreation Plan (OSRP), which identifies “Protect and provide access to priority parcels through the purchase of land, acceptance of donated land, or implementation of conservation restrictions.” 

 $500,000 

Dunstable 

Morgan's Pond 

Protection of this 4.75-acre parcel will provide access to a Mill Pond that is easily accessed from the road and opportunities for ice skating and fishing. Blandings and other species of turtle have been sighted on this property, and the protection of this property helps ensure water and habitat value for this mill pond that feeds the Salmon River and Town well-field.  

 $37,793  

GRANTEE 

PROJECT NAME 

PROJECT DESCRIPTION 

GRANT AWARD 

Barnstable Land Trust, Inc 

Wheeler Holly Preserve Conservation Project 

A 2-acre pondfront parcel will be acquired to extend the 22-acre Fuller Farm conservation area owned by BLT in the historic Pondsville area of Barnstable and a 1/2 mile walking loop trail constructed through thickly wooded upland on Prime Forest Soils, with pitch pine, white pine, white and black oak, several American holly and American beech. 

$175,000 

Brewster Conservation Trust 

Washington Chase Bog 

The project is notable for 1) wetlands and wetland buffer zone protection, 2) adjacency to State, BCT, and Town of Brewster conserved lands; 3) connectivity between existing public trail systems at Nickerson State Park and Cape Cod Bay; and 4) potential to be the most visible bog to marsh ecological restoration project on Cape Cod, along the historic Old Kings Highway. 

$175,000 

Buzzards Bay Coalition, Inc. 

Douglass - Nasketucket Bay Conservation Project 

The project will protect a 22.25-acre waterfront property, long managed as a tree farm, expanding an important 397-acre contiguous block of conservation land protecting Sconticut Neck. 

$175,000 

Buzzards Bay Coalition, Inc. 

Carvalho Woods Conservation Project 

The land will protect an important coastal perennial stream and connect a regional multi-use recreation path with a large contiguous area of existing protected open space and walking trails that lead to Buzzards Bay. 

$90,000 

East Quabbin Land Trust, Inc. 

Kingdom of Bale Conservation Donation 

This nearly eight-acre property is part of a larger farm that was never developed with a small stand of mixed hardwoods and is currently managed as a hayfield, mowed twice a year, along with abutting parcels to manage for bobolinks.  The western edge of the parcel abuts the Raccoon Hill WMA and is designated as BioMap Critical Natural Landscape.    

$1,500 

Essex County Greenbelt Association, Inc. 

Mount Hunger/ Lyasis Pond 

Most of the property is BioMap Core Habitat: Forest Core and the remainder is BioMap Critical Natural Landscape: Landscape Blocks.  In addition, a portion of the project area is identified as BioMap Local Aquatic Habitat Buffers.  More than half of the project area is identified as Interior Forest, and CAPS ranks the project area among the top 10% of landscapes in the state for Forests and Freshwater Wetlands. 

$175,000 

Harwich Conservation Trust 

Squantum Path Conservation Area 

The 10.29-acre property is an upland pine-oak woodland connecting the Punkhorn Parklands, Robbins Pond, and the Herring River Greenbelt, contains priority habitat for Eastern Box Turtle, and is mapped as a forest of statewide and local importance. 

$155,250 

Harwich Conservation Trust 

Bells Neck Road - Herring River Land Preservation Project 

The property is a mix of pine-oak wooded upland and wooded and shrub wetland bordering the Herring River Marsh that provides a scenic view along Bells Neck Road with 1,180 feet of marsh shoreline along the Herring River Marsh. 

$163,025 

Kestrel Land Trust, Inc. 

Growing Green: Easthampton 

The subject property lies along the south branch of the Manhan River, a tributary of the Connecticut River, and is directly abutting over 50 acres of protected land anchored by the Town of Southampton’s Whitemore Conservation Area and Pascommuck Conservation Trust’s Pomeroy Meadows Conservation Area. 

$175,000 

Metacomet Land Trust 

Maple Farm Wildlife Preserve 

The property consists of 88 acres of upland forest, 16.3 acres of hay fields in active agriculture, 4.4 acres of old field, 2.3 acres of pasture, 1.3 acres of scrub-shrub and forested wetland, 1.3 acres of meadow habitat, and a 3.2-acre impoundment maintained by a dam on Muddy Brook. 

$175,000 

North County Land Trust 

Monomonac Hill Conservation Partnership 

The parcel is within BioMap's CNL, identified as a Local Rare Species Habitat, and directly drains into Lake Monomonac, a Great Pond. 

$31,200 

Orleans Conservation Trust 

Eli Rogers Road Woodland and Watershed Protection Project 

The property is entirely within a Zone II Wellhead Protection Area and abuts 500+ acres of Town of Orleans Water Supply Protection Land. 70% of the property is within Priority Habitat of Rare Species. 

$175,000 

The Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts, Inc. 

Pamet River Bank & Marsh 

This acquisition is strategically located between two existing protected land holdings in the river valley. It preserves frontage along a Scenic River and a Scenic Road identified in the Local Comprehensive Plan. 

$175,000 

Wareham Land Trust, Inc. 

Marks Cove Vista 

Acquisition and preservation of the parcel would provide the opportunity to have a small public parking area and a short trail to a waterfront view area overlooking Marks Cove and the more than 100 acres of existing open space across the waterway. 

$121,000