According to Carlene Campbell, this project has been in the works for about two years. Arn Franzen, the Director of Parks and Open Space for the City of Somerville explained that this project wants to succeed in turning this abandoned property into an asset to the community. Franzen also stated that this project with hopefully begin construction late this fall, with a target opening in the late spring or early summer of 2010.

Among the project spearheads of the project was the man who is controlling the design itself, as well as presenting great options for the utilities that will fill the park. Andrew Leonard of Leonard Design Associates in Arlington is running the landscape development aspect of this project.

According to Leonard the bulk of this park will be the off-leash dog area. In the Schematic Plan that the heads of this meeting had laid out, the community space will be located to the far eastern corner of the long strip shaped park, and will be filled with tables, garbage disposals, and the like. Also, a big mission is to make this area as green as possible with extensive tree-plantings and other botany enrichment.

Some of the greener options this team is looking at are very new and improved to the other community dog parks around Somerville like the newest at Nunziato Field. Of course, nothing is certain yet because of the constant battle to make the budget, but some of the gadgets being looked at are solar powered LED light posts and Big Belly solar powered garbage disposal units.

The off-leash area of the park will be composed of stone-dust, much like the grounds of Nunziato Field. This arose some concern amongst not only the dog owners in attendance, but the citizens of Cobble Hill as well. One of the major complaints of Nunziato Field is just how dusty it gets after not too long of a time. Franzen and Campbell explained how because it is a long and thin layout, instead of the big open space that is Nunziato Field, this dust would be much easier to keep in check.

For one, there will be sprinkler systems to contain it along the sides of the park, as well as a different drainage system then that of Nunziato Field. They also illustrated that the DPW will be frequenting this park to keep it replenished of plastic bags, the garbage disposals empty, landscaping and keeping the grounds in good shape.

Another move that the city is taking to prevent another major concern, the traffic on New Washington St., as well as Washington St., is to make the entire city permitted parking starting on August 1st. That is, only residents of Somerville will be able to attend this park. This didn't seem to sell certain Cobble Hill residents that were in attendance, who were not only worried about the traffic itself, but also the noise and the like that would come with a new park. 'Cut-through' was also brought up, but Somerville's finest, as well as the heads of this project assured the Cobble Hill residents that they would be taking multiple measures to prevent these problems.

One of Somerville's finest explained his concern about the crosswalks around the area, and that there would be no way that an increased pedestrian-on-foot population attempting to cross certain roads like Washington St. would be impossible. This also raises the safety concern that seemed apparent in multiple people at this meeting. Discussions of high-speed UPS trucks and even bigger trucks going even faster hung around the room for a while. Once again though, Mr. Franzen, Ms. Campbell and Mr. Leonard assured the attendees that these concerns would all be addressed to the city, and solved one way or another before the park opens.

For anymore information on this topic contact city hall at 311, or visit www.somdog.org to keep up with this project as well as others.