LYNN — Outdoor construction contractors typically take a winter break, but city Community Development project coordinators are busy drafting plans and preparing federal and state funding applications.
Finishing up a multi-year, multi-million Lynn Common makeover and starting plans for work on Barry Park top the city Community Development department’s priority list, said Community Development Department Director James Marsh.
“We’re doing a ton of planning with Mayor Thomas M. McGee really shaping the focus on the city’s needs,” said Marsh.
Barry is the last major city park on Community Development’s upgrade and improvement list with landscaping, lighting and playing field work needed.
Marsh said plans call for applying in April or May for a $400,000 state grant to pay for the Barry work and match that amount with federal money allocated annually to Community Development.
He said work planned for Barry would roughly match improvements undertaken in the last several years at Keaney, Kiley, Flax Pond and Neptune Boulevard parks.
Play structure installations were done in Warren Street, Bennett Street and Williams Avenue playgrounds and child-safe surfaces will be installed in the spring in the playgrounds.
“This is all paid for through City Council-approved and mayoral-approved city bond money,” Marsh said.
Gowdy Park is slated for springtime work aimed at eliminating ballfield flooding and aeration equipment installed last summer in Goldfish Pond is designed to eliminate persistent algae problems in the East Lynn pond.
Lynn Common is one of Community Development’s large-scale projects rivaling its national award-winning High Rock Park improvement project and work on Fraser Field and Manning Bowl.
Launched in 2012, the Common upgrades totaled $5 million, including tree thinning, landscaping, walkway improvements, installing period-style lighting and bandstand improvements.
Plagued by flooding, potholes and deteriorating structures, the Common was long overdue, for a makeover.
“It was falling apart,” Marsh said.
He credited city Public Works employees with making short-term fixes to the Common fountain and wrought-iron fence. But the time has come, Marsh said, for permanent repairs to these structures.
“The last piece of the Common puzzle is the fountain and antique fencing,” Marsh said. “We’d like to get Lynn Tech kids involved in coming up with a long-term solution.”
Community Development is surveying local traffic signals to determine maintenance. The city applied for a grant from casino mitigation money to pay for the $100,000 survey.
“This will tell us about issues ranging from signal timing problems to signals that need to be torn out and replaced,” Marsh said.
