Neponset River Greenway Council Meeting

Wednesday, November 4, 2015 from 7:00-9:00 pm
St. Brendans Church,  589 Gallivan Blvd., Dorchester, MA
 

Join us for our monthly meeting as we discuss progress of construction of the Neponset Trail and other issues along the Neponset River Greenway with staff from the Mass. Department of Conservation and Recreation, which manages it, and concerned citizens from all of the neighborhoods along the Greenway. Our meetings are held on the first Wednesday of the month at rotating locations in communities of the Lower Neponset.  The agenda is at
http://www.masspaths.net/neponset/council/agenda20151104.pdf

Future Greenway Council meetings

December 2, 2015     Foley Senior Residences, Mattapan
January 6, 2016 Milton Yacht Club, Milton
February 3, 2016        District E-18 Police Station, Hyde Park
March 2, 2016 St.        Brendan's Church, Dorchester

Dorchester Reporter Article on October 29, 2015 
Department of Conservation and Recreation officials took the Dorchester Reporter on a tour of the long-awaited 1.3 mile stretch from Mattapan Square to Central Ave. in Milton, and this article by Jennifer Smith appeared in the Reporter.

Two-Week Construction Look-ahead notice sent out on October 30
Today, the DCR mailed out a summary of the work on the trail between Blue Hill Ave. and Central Ave. from November 2-13, 2015:

• Installation of infiltration trench on Milton side of river to be continued
• Installation and backfilling of Canopy Walk footings to be continued
• Installation of concrete abutments at River Bridge site
• Installation of boardwalk foundation at Mattapan Station

The full report is available here, but if you're interested in following events more closely,
send a subscription request to dcr.updates@state.ma.us, noting “Neponset River Greenway-Blue Hill Avenue to Central Avenue” in the subject line.

Hyde Park:
Trail Opening, Thursday, October 15, 2015

DCR Commissioner Carol Sanchez led a host of dignitaries, including Representative Angelo Scaccia, Senators Brian Joyce and Mike Rush, Boston Park Commissioner Chris Cooke, George Perry of the Hyde Park Historical Society Chair, members of the Martini family, and Greenway Council Chair Jessica Mink in opening the newest section of the Neponset Trail south from the Martini Shell to the Neponset River Parkway.  The DCR press release is here. Below at the ribbon cutting are Candice Cook, our former BNAN program manager, Martha McDonough and Jessica Mink from the Greenway Council, and Maggi Brown from DCR.

Pope John Paul II Park:
Annual Pumpkin Float
Our annual Pumpkin Float, sponsored by the DCR, The Trustees, and the Neponset River Greenway Council drew over 500 hundred people to Davenport Creek on Tuesday, October 20.  We launched over 270 pumpkins; some floats had more than one small pumpkin on them. Thanks to all of our volunteers, especially to Maria Lyons for obtaining the beautiful Council banner, shown with Council member Lee Toma in the image below, and Ellie Spring for working with Lambert's Rainbow Fruit to help encourage people to buy pumpkins that wouldn't flip over, as well as to all of the volunteers who helped make this work.  More pictures are online here.

DCR Parkways Study Project

Council members Jessica Mink and Lee Toma attended the first of several public meetings of the DCR Parkways Study Project on Tuesday, October 27. The goal is "to provide DCR with an updated condition assessment and improvement analysis of DCR Parkways located in the Boston Metropolitan Region in order to bring them up to current standards and provide safe and comfortable multimodal accommodations for all users." We hope to get the resulting standards applied to all of the parkways along the Neponset, especially the Neponset Valley Parkway, which currently has no bicycle and little pedestrian accommodation and Morrissey Blvd., along which the Neponset Trail will run from the drawbridge to UMass/Boston.