Hammond Pond Project Begins
November 2003
Martha Horn, the city's Environmental Planner,
reports that Newton has received approval from the state to proceed
with design and construction of improvements to Hammond
Pond. A request for bids will go out shortly to select an engineer
to design the project and a survey will be completed by the city
engineer to support this work. Over the winter and spring, the design
process will go forward, with construction occurring from mid-summer
into the fall.
While
the engineering design is done, Stephanie Bacon, President of the
Friends of Hammond Pond, will lead a group to develop a quality
assurance plan. This will begin with baseline assessments of water
quality that will enable measurements that document improvements
resulting from the project.
A broad coalition of community groups have come together to partner
with the city and other governmental agencies to make this project
happen. The Friends of Hammond Pond raised $6500 and have played
a catalytic role in raising awareness, convening interested parties,
preparing funding applications and many other key steps in the process.
The Chestnut Hill Village Alliance, Newton Conservators, Charles
River Neighborhood Foundation contributed a total of $2500. The
Charles River Watershed Association is providing in-kind donation
of time and expertise.
In addition, individuals stepped in at key moments to move this
project along. Rep. Ruth Balser presided over a series of meetings
with the groups named above and various state agencies to identify
funding opportunities, expertise and other resources. This process
created momentum leading to development of a successful funding
proposal to the state. Similarly, the owners and managers of the
Mall, C&R Management and S.R. Weiner & Company, provided
key support for the project and will allow areas of the parking
lot to be used for staging during construction. They have also asked
the city to permit permanent reduction of three spaces in their
parking lot to enable placement of filtration devices. Other individuals
have contributed political, engineering, grant writing support to
the project.
Site preparation and other work will be done by the city's Department
of Public Works and the city will contribute $15,000 in cash to
the project. In addition to this cash contribution, the in-kind
services provided by the city will amount to about $80,000. The
MDC has granted permission to cross and use their land adjacent
to the Pond during construction.
The grant from the state's lakes and ponds program is $149,000,
making the total value of the project in excess of $250,000. Even
with this amount, two key components of the system required to clean
or prevent contaminants from entering the Pond are not funded in
this first phase. An additional $175,000 is estimated as the cost
of installing a Vortechnics filtering system and a sedimentation
forebay. Discussions are continuing to identify donors who might
underwrite the cost of these phase two improvements.
Ruth Balser, Lisle Baker and Martha Horn have been recognized by
the Conservators for their work on this important project.
Doug Dickson, with input from Martha Aherin
Horn
Editor's note:
The above report neglected to mention the important contributions made by the Chestnut Hill Garden Club to the success of this project. This article from The Garden Club of America Bulletin gives more information about the project and describes the role of the Chestnut Hill Garden Club. |