LYNN — There was a great deal of pride, sunshine, and dirt on the waterfront Tuesday morning, as the Lynn Harbor Park project officially broke ground.
The project came about from a “first-of-its-kind” environmental public-private partnership model and is the centerpiece of the city’s 2019 Waterfront Open Space Master Plan.
Robert Delhome, founder and CEO of Charter Contracting Company, welcomed the crowd to the groundbreaking ceremony and thanked everyone in the partnership who helped make the day possible.
“Today, we will place the final tree of our first planting season as we transform over 30 acres of underutilized, former industrial land into a vibrant public space that will not only beautify the city, but also serve as a catalyst for economic revitalization,” Delhome said.
Delhome said the project started in 2016, when former Mayor Thomas McGee was in office.
“A unique trait of this project is the environmental public-private partnership. Together, we took a landfill that was threatening to collapse into the harbor, creating the loss of this land and contaminants entering this spectacular waterfront and waterway,” Delhome said. “We’ve been able to fund complete remediation of the property within our control that now protects the coastline and creates a new signature public park that will serve the community for generations.”
Mayor Jared Nicholson referenced Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” throughout his speech, due to the poem’s focus on transformation.
Nicholson said that what was previously a landfill that cut people off from the waterfront and was a “threat to the natural world” is now an “invitation” to the city’s entire community.
“It was waste and it’s being transformed into something beautiful. Back to nature in a lot of ways,” Nicholson said.
The park will feature more than 500 trees, 16,000 shrubs, miles of walking trails, basketball courts, an outdoor amphitheater, a butterfly garden, and more.
“As Pythagoras says in the last book of ‘Metamorphoses,’ ‘Just as every wave is driven forward by another, so the times flee at the same time they follow and every moment’s occasion is a renewal,’” Nicholson said.
Stephanie Cooper, undersecretary for environment for the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA), spoke on behalf of the EEA and the Healey-Driscoll administration.
“Seeing it kind of take shape around us is a really rare and special thing and something that we should treasure and aspire to, and that’s why we’re all here to celebrate,” Cooper said.
She said that one of the core values of the Healey-Driscoll administration is “outdoors for all,” which means having somewhere “beautiful” to go to enjoy the outdoors no matter where you live in Massachusetts.
“It means paying special attention to people and places that historically haven’t had their share of those natural dividends,” Cooper said. “Harbor Park is really a poster child for ‘outdoors for all,’ and we’re so proud to be part of it.”
