Marblehead park board trying to sort out conflict of interest in war memorial project

MARBLEHEAD – After visiting Memorial Park in Monday?s pouring rain, landscape architect Matt Ulrich is scheduled to present preliminary park improvement plans to the Recreation and Parks Commission Wednesday evening.In the meantime, however, Commission Chairman Chip Osborne is seeking legal answers to questions about his relationship to Ulrich. Ulrich is the son of a cousin of Osborne?s, commonly called a “first cousin once removed,” but an anonymous Abbot Hall visitor?s questions about Osborne?s participation in the process triggered a Tuesday morning telephone call to Recreation and Parks Superintendent Brendan Egan.At a commission meeting Tuesday evening, Osborne said he does not vote unless a tie-breaker is needed, and it did not occur to him to recuse himself when the other commissioners voted to have Ulrich create a landscape plan for the park that contains the town?s monuments to its war dead.He said the project only came up because the National Grand Bank installed a parking lot next to the park and some changes were needed. “We?re just trying to do something fast and get services for reduced rates,” he said.Osborne also said that he disclosed his relationship before the commissioners voted to invite Ulrich to discuss the possible project. Ulrich agreed to do the plans for $2,000, which he said was far less than his usual fee.Osborne said Superintendent Egan was told during the telephone conversation that the National Grand Bank?s architect offered to do the design.?The bank plan was not part of what we envisioned,” commission member Derek Norcross said, “and this (decision) was not a secret.”Osborne said he has contacted the town counsel to find out how to proceed. “We may have to revisit the vote (on Matt),” he said. “If it means I have to step out of the project to make it happen, I?ll step out.”