First city park could get a new life

By George P. Hassett

The meandering green space that stretches along Highland Ave. from School Street to Walnut Street could be getting a $495,000 facelift.

City officials have applied for a state grant to renovate Central Hill Park for the first time since 1990. If approved, the grant will come from the Executive Office of Environment and Energy Affairs. The “urban self help grants” are designed to improve parks in the city, said Arn Franzen, the director of parks and open space for the city. On Monday night city leaders such as Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone and Ward 3 Alderman Thomas F. Taylor met with neighborhood residents to discuss the park’s future. City officials will learn if the grant is approved by late Fall, he said.

The park twists its way around City Hall, Somerville High School and the library’s central branch. Central Hill became the first city-owned park in 1895.

“It was the area in the city people went to for relief and to relax,” Franzen said.

In addition, the park is literally filled with history. It features eight memorials to city residents and military veterans. The Unitarian, Korean War, Vietnam, Civil War, George Dilboy, American Legion and Spanish American war memorials all dot the park’s green grass.

In the early 1990’s, a playground was added to the park on the Walnut Street side, Curtatone said at Monday’s community meeting. However, the playground was built with a wooden play structure leaving many children nursing splinters and cuts, Franzen said.

If the city can get the full $495,000 grant it is requesting, Franzen said they will set three goals for the park: replacing the play structure with one that has only “soft falls for kids,” devise a plan to draw more attention to the memorials, and pull the disparate green spaces together with a single unifying design.

If the city does not receive any grant money, Franzen said the playground structure will still be replaced, funded by the city. A close look at the play structure reveals breaks and cracks, while elsewhere in the park the base of the Civil War memorial is crumbling, the chess tables are covered in graffiti and the water fountain does not work.

Abby Luthin brings her daughter to the park nearly every day and sees room for improvement on her strolls.

“The memorials are definitely underappreciated,” she said. “I walk around the park every day and I missed two of them until today. There is nothing linking the memorials together for pedestrians.”

She said a non-concrete walkway connecting the monuments could help.

Kristi Chase suggested a new walkway lead its roamer on a leisurely amble instead of a linear path. She also suggested the sloping backside of the park behind City Hall be utilized more.

“The slope is wonderful and could be used for performances. It’s almost never used now,” she said.

Curtatone said he wants to restore some of the connectivity between open spaces that was sacrificed for parking area. He said he wanted to restore a continuous feeling to the park.

“Do we really need more parking spaces?” he said.

He said Central Hill Park is one of 12 playgrounds the city plans to either build or renovate in the next two years.

Neighbors will be able to make more suggestions for future renovations to the park in the Fall, Franzen said.