Howland Park revamp underway in Swampscott

SWAMPSCOTT – The snowbanks make flowering dogwoods, a fern-covered slope, and sitting outside on a bench difficult to imagine. But the snow also hides years of neglect at a park designed by noted landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted that a group of residents and town workers are determined to restore.”There were issues with a lot of trees that had fallen over, a lot of construction materials and rubble? so it was borne out of the need to do significant maintenance,” Swampscott Town Planner Pete Kane said Thursday. “But (DPW Director) Gino Cresta wanted some community involvement.”Howland Park is located at the north end of Monument Avenue and contains the town’s World War II monument, although the park is named after a resident who died in World War I.The park was designed by Olmsted as part of his planned development of the Mudge Estate, and it was originally part of an old quarry, said Jim Olivetti, chairman of the Howland Park Subcommittee and a member of the Swampscott Open Space and Recreation Committee. One side of that quarry effectively remains a steep cliff that once included a path to a bench at its peak where one could look over grassy median of the avenue and see the ocean at its other end, Olivetti explained.But Kane and Olivetti said the slope had gradually been colonized by invasive species, including weak Norway Maple saplings and rubble from an old wall at the top of the hill.Cresta began cleaning out some of the worst damage during the fall, and moved many of the lilac bushes to more hospitable locations. But shrubbery remains lanky, some trees are diseased, and most people probably don’t even know the land is a public park.So the park subcommittee was formed to help design and rehabilitate the site.Subcommittee member Susan Ballezza donated her skills as the owner of Wellspring Garden Design to devise two planting plans. Both plans emphasize hardy plants providing year-round interest through flowers, fall foliage, berries and colorful bark.”You get different color throughout the season,” Kane said. “The blooming schedules and colors are different all different, there are a lot of berried plants, so there is always something to draw someone in, and you get different color throughout all seasons.”The plantings are also designed to be low-maintenance, Kane said.The subcommittee met Wednesday night and invited the public to comment on the two proposals. Comments left on either of two prospective designs were overwhelmingly positive, with suggestions rather than criticism. For instance, a person requested that benches be moved deeper into the park so that people would be encouraged to enter the park rather than just walk around its perimeter.”The final design isn’t A or B, but we’ll end up with elements of both,” Olivetti said.Kane said the committee will prepare a final plan for the park within the next month and present it to selectmen for approval. But Cresta’s budget includes money to rehabilitate the park, and the plants are on order, Kane said.”With all of this snow on the ground, nobody’s really thinking about spring,” Kane acknowledged. “Hopefully they’ll be thinking of it soon.”