SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Community Preservation Committee is in the process of reviewing 35 applicants for Community Preservation Act funding, the highest number of applications the CPC has ever received.
The CPC approves CPA funding on a yearly basis, with the act’s creation aiding projects that help preserve the character of the community. This year, the committee received 35 applications totaling more than $8 million. According to CPC Chair Robert McCarroll, the committee can award $3 million this year because that is the amount of funding available from revenues.
The CPA in Springfield is overseen by volunteer members who represent the city’s Conservation Commission, Historical Commission, Planning Board, Park Commission, Springfield Housing Authority, Springfield Preservation Trust Inc. and three neighborhood representatives.
Last year, 14 projects were approved for CPA funding by the City Council based on the CPC’s recommendations.
During CPC’s March 4 meeting, the committee observed presentations for improvements to Marshall Roy Park, Myrtle Street Park, Nathan Bill Park, North Riverfront Park, Forest Park, Stearns Square, Buckingham Fountain and Triangle and Doyle Avenue. Each applicant gave a five-minute presentation about their project and its role in improving the community.
Among the projects presented, Marie Koski and Kathy Brown of the East Springfield Neighborhood Council requested $300,000 for an all-ability play area to be “designed, acquired and installed” in Marshall Roy Park.
According to the applicants, the play equipment will be a “great community asset” and will include all-ability ramps with rails, bridges, a Sway Fun Glider, sensory panels and stepping stones. The duo insisted that the equipment would accentuate the park’s already existing fitness equipment and walking path.
“This project will provide a wonderful opportunity for all children to play and enjoy the outdoors and enhance their skills,” Brown said during the meeting. “The new equipment is all ability friendly and will complement the preexisting play structure climbing equipment that will stay.”
Betsy Johnson, the president of the Metro Center Association, presented the Stearns Square Bench CPA project proposal during the March 4 meeting. The 25-foot-long bench, which sat in the center of Stearns Square Park for 137 years, was unexpectedly removed last summer because of a “public safety concern” according to Thomas Ashe, the city’s director of Parks, Buildings, and Recreation Management.
The removal of the bench caused an uproar among the nearby neighborhood council, the Springfield Preservation Trust, as well as some businesses and city councilors.
Pieces of the bench currently sit in storage at Forest Park, according to Johnson, who said the city’s Parks Department agreed in January that the bench must be repaired and returned to the park. The hope is that CPA funding would aid this process along with site stabilization.
During her presentation, Johnson also noted that the bench could receive a historical designation.
“The proposal [is] from the recreational category… but also the historic preservation category,” Johnson said. “We are going to ask [the Historical Commission] to either give Stearns Square the historical designation, or historic designation to the bench itself as a historic structure.”
Another notable project comes from Sean Johnson, the vice president of the McKnight Neighborhood Council, who requested $205,000 in CPA funds for the Buckingham Fountain and Triangle project.
According to Johnson, the funding will help refurbish the fountain-one of three in the McKnight Neighborhood-and improve the landscape and park itself.
Johnson said the project qualifies under outdoor and historic spaces.
“We came last year with this project to get the proposal,” Johnson said. “It was approved, but we didn’t get funding for it. All the information that we have presented is essentially the same that we submitted last year. We’re just looking for the opportunity to get it done this year.”
According to McCarroll, the CPC will hear the rest of the applications, all of which involve housing and historic projects, at its March 18 and April 1 meeting. The CPC will then conduct internal discussions and send its CPA funding recommendations to the City Council by the beginning of summer.
The hope is to have the CPA money awarded by fall.
Readers can learn more about this process by visiting the city’s website.
