By Bill Forry

An $88.5 million modernization project slated to begin next year is expected to result in dramatic changes to four Dorchester Red Line stations. However, some neighborhood activists are growing increasingly frustrated by what they say has been a slow-down in the MBTA's planning process and a mounting reluctance by T planners to incorporate the community's ideas for the revamped stations.

Savin Hill's station has a crimbling platform supported by planks.

Ashmont, Shawmut, Fields Corner and Savin Hill stations will each get a much-needed facelift through the project, which was funded by state legislators after several years of intense pressure from Dorchester activists. The Dorchester Red Line stops are widely viewed as among the most decrepit in the MBTA system, a far cry from other Red Line stops in South Boston, downtown and Cambridge.

The process of planning the reconstruction of each station has been underway for a year-and-a-half now, with advisory committees set up at each of the four stops to solicit neighborhood feedback on design sketches, public art proposals and local needs.

However, some members of the four committees say that they have not met formally with MBTA planners now since February, a lapse in communication that has the residents concerned about how well the T's final plans for the new stations will jive with the wants of the community. Further, some are concerned that the money made available to pay for the overhaul- now estimated to be approximately $88.5 million- will not be enough to make the kinds of changes many feel are long overdue in Dorchester.

The MBTA's spokesperson, Lydia Rivera, said this week that the agency is gearing up for a series of meetings next month that will likely ease some of the concerns among the volunteer committee members. Rivera acknowledges that much of the design work has been going on "in-house" during the summer- and says that the T is now preparing to share its work with the community.

Right now, Rivera says, the MBTA plans to issue requests for proposals by next July to begin actual construction by late 2003. Bus service along Dorchester Avenue will be used during much of the construction period, as all four stations will be reconstructed simultaneously.

"We do respect the recommendations of the groups and we can make some adjustments. We want them to be happy," Rivera said. "This is definitely open for discussion."

A group of concerned Red Line advocates conducted their own tour of all four stations Monday evening and then met privately to discuss their common issues at C.F. Donovan's in Savin Hill. The consensus, several of them say, is that the Red Line project needs to be jump-started quickly, with more emphasis put on a productive dialogue between neighbors and MBTA officials.

"It's nice to hear that every station has had the same problems dealing with the T," says Chris Stanley, co-chair of the Ashmont advisory group. "We've all had problems reaching the T and we really haven't seen anything since February.

"We really want (the MBTA) to re-establish the process and tell us what they want our role to be and continue to communicate with us. We all felt there hasn't been a lot of response from the work we did almost a year-and-a-half ago now," Stanley told the Reporter.

Each individual committee has specific concerns and ideas about their station, Stanley says, but the common denominator, he says, is an overall feeling that MBTA brass have not been responsive to the Dorchester committees.

The lack of give-and-take between designers and community residents working on the Shawmut advisory group has left committee member Doreen Treacy with the "sense that our ideas are not taken seriously."

"There's a sense that the T feels that they have done their due diligence," says Treacy.

Treacy was one of a group of residents who met at Ashmont Station on Monday evening and rode the rails to Savin Hill, stopping along the way to survey the state of each station.

"There was incredible solidarity among the group. We were there to see and witness each other and see what the glaring issues are. It was not competitive.

"When we stopped and spent thirty minutes walking through each station and watching how the traffic flows each of us said, 'This is worse than I thought.' We appreciated the utter decay of all these stations."

Matthew Strauss, co-chair of the Savin Hill committee, worries that the absence of community input into that station's design will end up disappointing the thousands of commuters who use the stop each day.

Although T planners have agreed to incorporate an escalator at the new station at the urging of the advisory committee, Strauss says that the design of the station leaves much to be desired.

"The last design frustrated us because we wanted something that draws people to the neighborhood," Strauss says. "The neighborhood is really coming around and we want the station to be something to be proud of, not the same old cement block effect."

Strauss says that Dorchester residents deserve the kind of architecture and amenities that greet T customers in other parts of Greater Boston- and fears that the designs that have been presented thus far fall short of that threshold.

"Why can't we get something that people can see and say proudly, 'That's Savin Hill station?' It seems like the littlest things we want are like pulling teeth."

Adding to the anxiety surrounding the design process is an awareness that $88.5 million in funding is a tight budget with which to rebuild four heavily-used urban stations- and keep commuters rolling- at the same time.

"In some ways we feel like a deli patron who's waited patiently in line for half-an-hour only to reach the counter and be told all that's left is liverwurst," says Treacy. "These stations are not going to be on par with others that have been done on the Red Line."

Treacy says that the Shawmut committee has even offered to hire a landscape consultant at their own expense to come up with ideas for the tunnel cap that slices through the residential area around Shawmut. They have gone so far as to apply for private grant money to fund such an effort.

"We've been told that the landscape design is at 60 percent (completion), but we have never been allowed to speak to the landscape architect," Treacy claims, a fact disputed by the T.

Treacy says the ideas of nearby residents for beautifying the tunnel cap have gone on deaf ears at the MBTA thus far. And while the T's current plans for restoring the Shawmut headhouse get high marks from Treacy, she says that the T's posture towards working with the community on issues outside the station merit only a "D-plus."

"Pointing to the fiscal crisis is the easy way out," Treacy says. "I don't think there's enough creativity."

At Ashmont, Chris Stanley says that the first design model shown to his committee last year looked 'beautiful', but would have brought the cost of the project about $3 million over budget.

"From what we understand, we're only using half of the $88 million for actual construction. The other half is for the T to pay for continuing to run the Red Line while construction is going on. So it's actually like getting 50 cents for a dollar," says Stanley.

Despite that concern voiced by several advisory committee members, the T's Lydia Rivera says: "We're confident that the money will be sufficient to do the modernization."

State Rep. Martin Walsh says he also is concerned about too much of the money going towards costs other than construction. However, Walsh is less alarmed by the planning delays than many advisory members. Walsh notes that legislators huddled with MBTA planners and some advisory members in July at a State House meeting. At that point, a decision was made to "bundle" all four stations into one construction contract, which will likely be put out to bid in the spring or summer of 2003.

"I'd like to see it move quicker, too," Walsh said this week. "I'm hoping we'll have it resolved and get all the groups meeting again in October. I'm confident this is what's going to happen."

However, many frustrated advisors worry that MBTA plans will already have progressed too far without their input.

"It seems like the MBTA has pulled away from having a discussion," says Stanley. "They feel like they've completed their due diligence. That's not what anyone in our group signed on for.

"People are getting anxious. We don't know what's going to come out of the process. We're really pressing to have a meeting within the next month to have the T show us what they are planning so we can give them good comments now before it's too late."

The MBTA's Rivera suggests that is exactly what they can expect.

"We realize we have to work aggressively now to reach that goal so next year at this time construction will be underway," Rivera says.