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Description
Docket #0137 - Grant appropriation for capital improvements to the Noyes Playground in East Boston
A
Sustainability
and
Parks
I
enjoyed
to
my
right
by
councillor
Lydia
Edwards,
who
represents
district
1,
primarily
the
8
neighborhoods
of
East
Boston
in
the
North
End
Charlestown
a
little
bit
of
downtown.
No,
no.
We
got
three
wonderful
neighborhoods
there.
We
are
here
today
to
discuss
docket
number
zero
137
in
order
to
accept
and
expand
the
Commonwealth
of
mass
use
me
in
order
to
accept
and
expand
the
Commonwealth
of
Massachusetts
executive
office
of
environmental
affairs,
division
of
Conservation
services,
parkland
acquisitions
and
renovations
for
communities
program
grant.
A
What's
in
a
name
of
four
hundred
thousand
dollars
for
the
noise
playground,
this
matter
was
sponsored
by
Mayor
Walsh
and
was
referred
to
the
Committee
on
January
24th
of
2018.
These
funds
will
provide
capital
improvements
to
noise
playground
located
in
the
wonderful
neighborhood
of
East
Boston.
As
the
chair
of
the
City
Council's
Committee
on
environment
sustainability
and
parks,
I'm
encouraged
to
see
all
efforts
to
improve
the
public
parks
for
our
over
300
parks
in
the
city
of
Boston
established
in
November
of
nineteen.
A
Oh
nine
noise
playground,
which
is
located
at
and
around
86
Boardman
Street,
is
one
of
the
largest
playgrounds
in
East
Boston.
It
sits
at
about
8.2
acres.
The
part
includes
the
Little
League
field,
baseball
field,
softball
field
top
lot
and
basketball
court.
The
Baker
Polito
administration
will
be
funding
a
total
of
six
million
three
hundred
eighty-five
thousand
seven
hundred
eighty-five
dollars
in
grant
funding
for
parks
and
recreation
improvements
in
22,
Massachusetts
communities,
the
park,
the
park,
land
acquisitions
for
renovations
for
communities,
Parc
or
Park
grant
program
is
funded
through
the
state
capital
budget.
A
B
Just
want
to
say
thank
you
for
coming
here
today
and
that
it
is
a
big
deal
for
us
in
East
Boston
that
noise
Park
is
over
is
actually
redone
and
that
we
have
the
real
investment
from
the
state
behind
this
and,
of
course,
the
city
of
Boston
I
think
for
a
lot
of
folks.
This
is
long
time
coming.
We
had
hoped
that
this
year
would
be
the
actual
year
where
we're
putting
this
shop
dirt
and
that
parks
are,
of
course,
a
huge
deal
to
a
lot
of
the
generations
in
East
Boston
Ian's.
B
There
are
I'm
sure
my
will
have
some
people
testifying
about
some
suggestions,
in
addition
that
they
might
with
that
they
would
like
to
see
at
the
park.
I
will
say:
I
do
appreciate
the
balancing
of
the
many
interests
and
I'm
sure
came
to
you
with
softball,
with
baseball
and,
of
course,
with
soccer.
So
I
appreciate
that
and
I
see
that
you
balance
those
interests.
Thank.
A
You
councillor
Edwards
and
finally,
a
quick
housekeeping
note.
It
note
this
hearing
is
being
televised
in
streams
online.
If
any
individuals
here
would
like
to
testify,
there
are
sign-up
sheets
to
the
back
left
of
the
chamber
to
my
left,
please
sign
in
and
we
will
stay
and
and
as
long
as
everyone
wishes
to
speak,
we
will
stay
and
make
sure
that
they
are
heard.
Gentlemen.
Welcome
give
any
opening
remarks.
I'll.
C
The
reason
that
I
think
the
Commonwealth
deemed
this
Park
worthy
of
investment
is
because
it
was
buoyed
by
a
large
capital
line
item
from
the
city.
So
without
the
city's
leadership
of
over
three
million
dollars
of
investment,
it
may
not
have
been
enticing
for
the
Commonwealth
to
invest
in
the
park
as
well.
We
are
very,
very
grateful
to
governor
Baker
and
secretary
beet
and,
of
course,
the
executive
office
of
energy
Environmental
Affairs
that
are
our
partners
in
stewardship
of
open
spaces.
C
Noise
is
a
very,
very
worthy
park
to
make
such
an
extraordinary
investment
in
and
we're
we're
also
eagerly
anticipating
construction,
as
is
the
paper
hood.
The
the
project
will
be
bid
in
March,
construction
will
begin
in
May
and
we
will
have
a
ribbon-cutting
before
the
2019
Little
League
season,
so
we're
very
excited
to
receive
these
funds.
We
recovers
the
council
to
allow
us
to
receive
these
funds
where,
to
start
we're
excited
to
get
started
on
the
project.
With
that,
I'll
give
the
details
of
the
grant
to
our
Senior
Planner
Thank
You,
commissioner.
D
D
D
You
know
another
basketball
court
to
the
this
area,
a
splash
pad
we're
also
going
to
have
an
unsolved
exercise
area,
we're
going
to
be
approximately
33
trees
to
a
neighborhood
that
does
not
have
a
lot
of
tree
canopy
and
we'll
also
be
putting
in
rain
gardens
to
help
reduce
the
impact
of
flooding
the
neighborhood
and
also
will
be
putting
in
interpretive
signage.
That
will
indicate
you
know
talk
about
the
history
of
the
area.
History.
This
place
was
once
a
tide
land.
D
A
Thank
you.
Well,
there
are
three
things
that
I
love
sports
parks
and
lowering
our
greenhouse
gas
emissions,
so
you
were
able
to
touch
upon
all
three
I
have
a
couple
of
brief
questions.
Of
course,
I
think
you
took
the
first
when
the
timeline
is
as
follows:
put
out
to
bid
next
month
and
then
the
construction
will
begin
in
May
that
quickly
gonna
be
able
to
turn
around
that
quickly.
Yeah.
A
C
There
was
a
sense
from
some
of
the
softball
users
that
a
lot
of
the
open
space
in
East
Boston
was
already
being
used
for
soccer,
so
it
was.
It
was
unimaginable
to
us
to
have
an
open
space
and
not
accommodate
so
our
crowd,
the
field,
but
we
wanted
to
be
respectful
of
the
other
existing
uses
softball
in
Little
League,
and
so
what
we
came
up
with
was
the
scheme
that
you
see
in
front
of
her
in
front
of
you,
where
we
have
a
flexible
component
to
the
park.
C
So
there
is
one
synthetic
field
in
the
park
and
the
design
and
that'll
give
us
the
flexibility
of
having
soccer
in
the
offseason
and
also
having
protected
through
permitting
softball
accommodated,
but
with
the
community
center.
So
nearby
I
think
the
idea
of
having
a
flexible
space
also
opens
up
the
opportunities
for
lacrosse.
C
It
opens
up
the
opportunities
for
flag
football,
other
sports,
that
people
may
be
interested
in
and
we
won't
have
to
worry
about
turf
damage
in
the
offseason
one
of
the
things
that
I'm
most
excited
about
and
I
think
we
offset
this
with
the
rain
gardens
that
we
have
on-site.
We're
actually
adding
for
rain
gardens
to
accommodate
all
our
stormwater
is
the
fact
that
the
baseball
field
in
Little
League
field
will
be
irrigated.
So
what
that
means
is
the
current
conditions
that
our
children
are
forced
to
play
in
at
noise.
Right
now
are
very,
very
tough.
C
I
mean
the
infields
are
borderline
concrete
at
certain
points
with
the
irrigation
there,
they're
gonna
get
a
level
of
consistency
in
the
quality
of
the
turf
and
I
think
you
know
the
exposure
to
potential
injuries,
the
idea
that
the
grass
is
going
to
get
burned
out
after
such
a
huge
capital
investment,
those
will
all
be
limited
by
the
presence
of
irrigation.
So
it's
it's
a
it's
a
fairly
comprehensive
project
in
a
park
that
has
not
received
one
at
a
very
very
long
time.
That's
fantastic.
A
And
so
you're
gonna
have
some
of
the
collecting
of
the
stormwater
you're
going
to
have
some
LED
lights,
overhead
lights
for
the
games,
and
what
about
one
thing
that
Commissioner
Cooke
you
and
I've
been
working
on
nearly
seven
years
now
is
water
filling
stations
to
help
decrease
our
number
of
single-use
plastic
bottles?
Will
there
be
a
water
filling
station.
D
A
C
Right
so
we
can
actually
accommodated
here
counselor
and
what
we'll
do
is
we'll
create
a
partnership
with
the
Boston
Centers
for
youth
and
families
Center,
that's
close
by
because,
as
you
know,
we
don't
like
putting
them
in
unless
we
actually
have
additional
staff
nearby
to
sort
of
monitor
their
conditions,
so
we'll
reach
out
to
the
BC
YF
Center
and
make
sure
that
we
get
what
installed
fantastic.
Wonderful,
thank.
B
C
B
Actually
lead
to
more
sports
and
more
opportunities
and
also
being
a
little
bit
more
creative
with
how
we're
gonna
use
all
of
our
spaces.
You
know
some
sports
become
more
and
more
creative,
so
I
really
appreciate
that
I
know
we're
gonna
hear
very
soon
from
somebody
who
would
like
to
testify
about
a
usage
that
I
fully
support
and
hope
that
we
can
also
find
some
some
room
for
racquetball
as
well.
A
Thank
you,
I.
Don't
have
any
other
questions
I,
gentlemen.
I
invite
you
to
stay.
If
you
could
I
know,
we
have
a
little
bit
of
public
testimony
just
to
hear
some
feedback.
Okay,
great,
so
you
are,
you
can
join
the
audience
and
Cora
will
bring
us
the
list.
Great.
Thank
you.
Thank
you
is
mr..
Both
one
of
the
people-
who's
gonna,
testify.
Okay,
great,
so
I
have
written
testimony
that
I
was
gonna
read
into
the
record,
but
if
you'd
like
to
just
join
us,
if
you
want
to
sit
at
that
table,
thank
you.
E
E
Basically,
what
I
wanted
to
present
was
that
outdoor
handball,
racquetball
and
paddle
ball
and
I
brought.
This
is
what
a
current
paddle
looks
like
bracket
and
hand.
Forehand
balls
that
are
being
used
now
is
growing
throughout
the
country,
and
most
states
have
hundreds
if
not
thousands
of
courts.
Florida
has
about
6,000
New
York
has
over
about
2,000.
They
have
these
complexes
within
the
inner-city
Orchard
Beach,
for
example,
right
in
the
center
of
the
Bronx
as
a
24
court
facility.
E
What
it
does
is
it's
it's
giving
kids
and
adults
an
outlet
basically
to
spend
their
time
on.
Quite
a
few
kids
that
have
gone
down.
Certain
roads
have
become
really
addicted,
to
handball,
racquetball
paddle
ball
and
it's
it's
gotten
them
more
in
a
health-conscious
mode,
so
Massachusetts
is
really
lacking
and
if,
in
any
way
we
yeah
I
mean
literally,
all
you
need
is
a
cement
wall.
I've
got
a
drawing
here.
E
If
we
were
to
take
a
space
of
about
a
hundred
foot
square,
you
could
add
six
courts
professional
grade
courts
within
a
hundred
foot
square,
which
is
probably
smaller
than
this
room.
It's
really
just
concrete
and
a
concrete
wall
about
16
feet,
high
I've
been
involved
in
design
and
construction
and
other
locations,
and
really
just
and
putting
this
forth
that
you
know
whether
it
can
possibly
be
added
here
or
in
any
other
parks
or
playgrounds
in
the
future
in
Boston
is
really
why
I'm
here
I
be
willing
to
offer
my
help
services
I
my
background.
E
B
I
just
wanted
to
say
thank
you
for
that
presentation,
and
also
just
noting
that
there's
a
wonderful
program,
I,
don't
know
if
you've
heard
of
squash
busters
right
as
a
perfect
example
of
how
the
within
the
family
of
handball,
racquetball,
there's
already
proven
record
of
getting
kids
involved,
getting
them
on
fast
tracks
or
tracks
to
college.
So
it's
just
something:
I
really
would
love
to
see.
B
C
A
C
A
A
Okay,
hearing,
none
I
will
be
reporting
out
a
favorable
vote
from
the
committee
on
Wednesday
at
our
council
meeting
urging
quick
action
and
will
certainly
encourage
my
colleagues
to
support
this
in
the
affirmative.
Wonderful
work,
gentlemen,
congratulations,
counselor,
Edwards
and
former
counselor
la
mattina,
who
I
know
felt
very
strongly
about
making
sure
that
this
project
is
seen
to
fruition.
That's
been
left
in
very
great
hands,
with
your
great
leadership
and
I,
look
forward
to
coming
over
visiting
my
friends
in
East,
Boston,
next
April
and
seeing
this
beautiful
park
so
hearing
no
other
testimony.