A $1.4 million renovation of the state-owned Toohig Park on Gallivan Boulevard up from Neponset Circle is set to begin this summer, officials said during a public meeting last Tuesday (April 14).
Representatives from the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) who convened the meeting laid out an expedited timeline that was well received by the 23 people in attendance.
“This will be going into bidding and construction and that is really exciting because it’s a long time coming,” said Danielle Mellett of DCR.
“We anticipate going out to bid in May and awarding a contract in June and having a July construction start,” she added, noting, “This is one of the oldest playgrounds in the DCR yet to be renovated.”
The first public meeting on the project took place in 2024. State Rep. Dan Hunt said last week that having the final design meeting at this time was a necessary step.
“I want to thank the agency for making this a priority,” he said, “as funding has come online to move this ahead in an expedited fashion.”
Architect Tim Nickerson, of Ray Dunetz Landscape Architects, said the design includes replacing the play structures and fencing around the playground and creating brand new areas for ages 2-5 and 5-12 on a modern padded surface. The entry on Gallivan will be enhanced as well, with new benches, some tree trimming, and improved signage.
In addition, a new basketball court will be built from the ground up with a new surface, new rims, and new backboards. There will be drainage work done between the court and the field and walking paths along the perimeter will be repaved.
There’s more. An adult fitness area with padded surface will be added next to the playground, and they’ll install new water bubblers for drinking, bottle filling, and dog bowls. New bike racks will be installed and tree trimming will take place along the perimeter fence line.
While the heavily used softball field won’t be included for improvements in the project, the dugouts will be significantly upgraded. There will be new seating on the first base side, new shade structures over the benches on both sides, and a concrete pad for equipment storage.
Abutter Paul Quinn said he was very happy with the design and the project while noting that the park is a “focal part of the community. Toohig is a great point of contact for our neighbors to get to know each other.” The fixes, he said, are “long overdue and I thank the DCR people who have kept it up so well over the years…It’s a great park in the inner city and still brings a lot of people together.”
Screenshots courtesy of Ray Dunetz Landscape Architects
He did impress upon the DCR reps the need to include improvements to the field, as it is heavily used for girls softball. Hunt said the same, noting that there have been smaller projects at Toohig over the last eight years.
“We are doing it in piecemeal fashion, but this project will take it a long way,” he said. “I want to echo that whatever we can do to work on the field simultaneously would be great.”
A side project being promoted by the DCR’s Monika Roy is the inclusion of metal art panels containing prints from children’s books. She said they’d like to make them very local and are looking for any Dorchester-based children’s authors who might share works of appropriate outdoor scenes to be put on the panels. They would be displayed in the playground area, she said.
The DCR is taking comments on the final design through April 28 at mass.gov/dcr/public-comment.
