Bill Massaro post #2 of the day – this email below from Bill just now – Bill was one of the individuals who requested that the $150,000 earmark be inserted into the state budget to fund the work on the new state road to the Charles River Gateway overlook. Once the Town of Medfield gives the state the required notice under the Land Disposition Agreement for the former Medfield State Hospital site, the state will then be required to construct a new access road to its Charles River Gateway overlook park on its own state land, so that the town land will no longer be required to provide that access to the public. Although the town may ultimately want to provide some such access, we will not be required to do so. We negotiated that term to require the new road to add more value to the town land.
BTW, Representative Dooley can be seen in one of my photos yesterday from the Ken and Bob retirement party, traveling incognito in shorts, a tee shirt, and a beard.
BTW #2, today is Ken Feeney Day in Medfield!
FYI-
Thanks to Sen. Timilty and Rep. Dooley, to paraphrase Mark Twain I am happy to say:
“The reports of our earmark’s death have been greatly exaggerated!”
In conversation with Shawn Dooley yesterday, I asked if the House had also failed to get the Access earmark into the override budget. He seemed surprised and said that it was definitely in the House bundle; and unless something happened in the Senate at the last minute, it should have been included in the combined package sent back to the Governor. He did say it was a single item in the middle of a large bundle…. He promised to check it out and let me know what happened…
I got an e-mail from Rep. Dooley and an apologetic call from Molly in Sen. Timilty’s office this a.m. confirming that the combined budget with the Access earmark for $150K sponsored by Sen. Timilty did go back to the Governor. (She did caution that there is always the potential of subsequent budget cuts by the Governor in the fall and spring, but for now it’s in!)
As I had stated when we thought the override had failed, Town and DCAMM obligations under the LDA do not change… Having the earmark, however, should help at least to expedite completion of a favorable engineering design …
Getting the Town’s “build it on State land” letter out sooner, rather than waiting for the LDA’s Dec 1 deadline and risking new budget cuts, would seem to be the prudent next step. This would also give us the opportunity to work with current DCAMM engineering who are familiar with the Mediated cleanup/restoration and the unique features of the property.
Bill
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