Thanks to Paul Macone for his May 11 column, “Gerow Park still unfinished,” and his efforts to get to the bottom of why completion of the park is delayed. As a member of the Community Preservation Committee (CPC), which partially funded the park’s construction, I have closely followed the process through which the Town acquired the property from the Gerow family and planned the construction of the park, and I share Mr. Macone’s evident disappointment in the stalled work.
I appreciate the opportunity to clarify one point. Mr. Macone notes with concern that Town Meeting recently approved appropriating an additional $550,000 of Community Preservation funds for the “Gerow/Warner’s Pond project.” The Gerow Park project and the Warner’s Pond project (which is focused on addressing the eutrophication of the pond) are completely separate and are overseen by different town divisions. The $550,000 approved at the 2023 Annual Town Meeting is earmarked solely for Warner’s Pond and can’t be re-directed by the Town to completion of Gerow Park, and there are no dependencies of one project on the other.
Like all CPC appropriations, the funds for these two projects are governed by separate grant agreements that contain covenants restricting the use of funds for those purposes specified in the respective projects’ grant application and as approved by Town Meeting.
Burton Flint
Chair, Community Preservation Committee
