=
Land taken by eminent domain by the state is now being eyed as a possible home for a community center.

By Bill Forry
Momentum is gathering this month behind an effort to build a new community center on the now blighted banks of the Neponset River. The Reporter has learned that a core group of community and political leaders are in informal talks with the Mark Wahlberg Foundation to explore ways to fund a new mutli-purpose facility that would focus mainly on youth in the surrounding areas, where delinquency and drug abuse have been on the rise.

Several sources confirm that the Wahlberg Foundation has taken an active interest in helping to raise the funds necessary to locate a new community center somewhere on what is now state-owned land near the corner of Hilltop Street and Granite Avenue. Currently, the site is home to the remnants of abandoned industrial businesses whose properties have gradually been transferred into state hands through eminent domain over the last five years.

City Councillor Maureen Feeney, one of the people leading the discussion around a new community center, says that a number of civic leaders have urged that the site be explored for such a use.

"There have been several meetings in the community and people have said over and over again that we need something for these kids," Feeney says. "We need an opportunity and based on what I've seen so far, creating a center that has a water-related use on this site and is something that's acceptable for the state is very exciting."

State Rep. Marty Walsh is also pushing for the Neponset site to be further explored.

"It's certainly worth investigating," says Walsh. "We have a lot of issues around drugs and right now many kids in this part of the neighborhood don't have a guide. We need to give teenagers in particular a place to go."

The location that Walsh and others have in mind has been the source of frequent controversy over the last decade, as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has steadily reclaimed the Neponset waterfront from industrial businesses that shut the neighborhood off from the river over the last century. Since 1997, a tow company, junkyard and heavy equipment company have all been relocated from the banks of the Neponset through eminent domain legislation. Much of the state's efforts were led by Speaker of the House Thomas M. Finneran, who has made the restoration of the Neponset River and adjacent public space the prime focus of his legislative influence locally.

In 2000, Finneran shepherded $7.5 million in state funds through the Legislature to purchase the J. Sax property, a former junkyard, at the corner of Hilltop Street and Granite Avenue, and convert it into passive open space along the river. Together with land already acquired by the state from Schlager's Tow Company and T Equipment, the three properties combine to form a sprawling corridor along the river and adjacent bike path, completed in 2001.

However, the transition has not come without its share of problems. In the fall of 2000, the vacant Sax warehouse burned to the ground in what the Boston Fire Department determined was a case of arson. Another suspicious fire damaged the vacant offices of the Schlager Tow Company last week in an incident that remains under investigation.

According to State Rep. Marty Walsh, the fires are just part of the problems that have been observed at the vacant buildings.

"Forget the fires, we've got kids in there doing drugs," Walsh told the Reporter this week.

According to Walsh and others, neighbors have observed teens trespassing on the Schlager's property, which is now the responsibility of the state's Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). A spokesman for the state agency told the Reporter last week that the abandoned buildings will eventually be demolished, but said for now, fencing will be put in place to better secure the site. Speaker Tom Finneran, who was out of town this week and not available for comment, told the Reporter last week that he wants to see the demolition happen soon.

What will replace the industrial buildings has remained a somewhat murky issue since Finneran and the Legislature first appropriated the monies to take the land. At a pair of community meetings last fall, officials from the now defunct Metropolitan District Commission solicited thoughts from nearby residents about possible uses for the waterfront land. MDC officials said at the time that the agency, now replaced in large part by the DCR, had "no definitive plan" for the properties, but were aware of an interest in a possible community center.

Phil Carver, president of the Pope's Hill Civic Association, is one of several people who has pushed the concept of a "multi-generational community center" to be built.

Rep. Walsh agrees with the idea in theory and thinks that there is time to insert a community center into the state's planning process.

"There's plenty of room down there to have a park and a community center," Walsh says.

Councillor Feeney thinks that the location on the Neponset River lends itself to the development of unique, water-related uses for kids and elders from nearby Keystone Apartments.

"The river is a tremendous resource and with a water related component to create a use for the river, I think, it might be really doable," says Feeney. "And it would make it unique. We don't need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to programming."

The key element, Feeney and Walsh agree, is the potential for some serious fundraising assistance from the Wahlberg family. A major proponent of the community center idea is actor Robert Wahlberg, who lives in the neighborhood and has enlisted the support of his younger brother, Mark, the A-list Hollywood actor, who has already earned a reputation as a major benefactor to youth causes in the neighborhood. Wahlberg is a member of the board of directors at the Colonel Daniel Marr Boys and Girls Club and has been a generous supporter of the club's mission, citing it as a major influence on him as a young man.

Bob Scannell, executive director of the Marr Club, is one of the people expected to consult with the emerging group if a new community center does come to fruition. Scannell says that if enough people step up to support such a project at the Neponset site, the idea will likely be a success.

"The community has to get behind it, big time," says Scannell, who led the expansion of the Marr Club in 2000 as it built a $4 million teen center named for slain Suffolk County prosecutor Paul McLaughlin. "For years there's been a huge need in Neponset and we've heard many times from people who wanted to build something like this. But first there has to be an extremely serious effort to get this done."

Feeney says that the time for such a serious effort may have finally arrived.

"For the first time, I think, maybe the stars are coming into alignment," Feeney said. "It's sad to say, the world has changed tremendously and even ten years ago we weren't seeing what we're seeing right now with what some of our kids are involved in. I think that will be a driving force for us step up to the plate and do something and do it quickly. And having the Wahlbergs at the table talking to us, it gives us credibility and gives us a reality we never had before."