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Vol. 3, No. 5
Friday, August 22, 2002
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Welcome to the Dolan Pond News, an email publication of Friends of Dolan Pond, a local organization that promotes the protection and preservation of the Dolan Pond Conservation Area in West Newton, MA. Visit our website at www.dolanpond.org.
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ATTENTION
DOLAN POND VISITORS
The long-awaited Dolan Pond Conservation Area Rehabilitation Project will begin at the end of this week (Thursday, August 22).
The project consists of the installation of stabilized stone pathways and a handicapped accessible boardwalk between Auburndale Avenue and Webster Park. In addition, we will have an observation deck overlooking Dolan Pond between the Cumberlands. New stairways will be created at the ends of Stratford Road and Cumberland South.
The contractor will complete the work on the Cumberland end of the property first so that pathway can be opened as soon as possible. The Auburndale Avenue to Webster Park pathway will remained closed until completion. The site contractor, Liberty Siteworks, will erect fencing to close off the pathways for safety reasons. We anticipate reopening later in the fall (probably at the end of October).
Please respect the fences and call any problems to the attention of the City's Planning Department at 617-796-1120.
Thanks for your help and your patience - we think this project will be worth the wait!!!
- Newton Conservation Commission
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At last the Dolan Pond Improvement project has begun. It has been a long time coming. Funded by a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), improvements were originally recommended in the 1995-2000 West Newton CDBG cycle but were never done. The West Newton Advisory Committee again recommended funding for the 2001-2005 cycle in two phases (2002 and 2005). When another allocated project could not be done in 2002, the 2005 improvements were moved into 2002 to make a single project.
Margo Young, did a study and an initial design for improvements at Dolan Pond as part of a graduate program at Radcliffe in landscape design. These were presented at a number of public hearings before the West Newton Advisory Committee (CDBG) and the Newton Conservation Commission. Public feedback resulted in a number of modifications to the plan and the city put together a revised engineering plan which was put out to bid. There were a number of bids on the project and the contract was finally awarded to Liberty Siteworks.
Work was originally supposed to be started this past spring. As with any big project, a number of paperwork glitches ensued. There was a delay due to insurance and the various pieces of paperwork worked their way across many desks in the city. At last, with all papers properly signed, work has finally commenced.
Now is actually probably a better time for the work to be done. If you had walked through Dolan Pond lately, you would notice that both Quinn and Dolan Pond have dried up. This is the nature of vernal pools and one of the factors that leads to the area's biodiversity. We had a relatively wet spring and the path work would have been a bit more difficult with the high water levels then. With the hot summer lately, the ground is fairly dry and the work may be able to proceed easier. In addition, doing the work now will interfere less with nesting birds and wildlife.
The work was begun this week and already the park looks quite different. The entrances have been closed off for the moment with caution tape while work is ongoing for safety reasons. The plan is for the Dolan Pond overlook and path to be completed first thus allowing the Cumberland Path to reopen. The Auburndale and Webster Park pathways will be closed for a couple of months perhaps. This section is where the bulk of the work is being done with stabilized soil from Webster Park to Banana Pond and then the boardwalk from there to Quinn Pond and its new overlook..
Already, the area is visibly different. The bog bridges and the surface of the Banana Pond Bridge have been removed. The central area is much more open. This will be an interesting process as it evolves. When completed we will have a terrific new conservation resource for the city which will be handicapped accessible. Please bear with the temporary lack of access to the area. Try exploring some of Newton's other conservation treasures. We look forward to seeing the emergence of a terrific new Dolan Pond Conservation Area!
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Friends of Dolan Pond is a loose organization that has a website, www.dolanpond.org and an email address, "info@dolapond.org". If you are interested in the organization, please contact Ted Kuklinski at 617-969-6222, write to Friends of Dolan Pond, 24 Henshaw Terrace, West Newton, MA 02465, or send email to info@dolanpond.org. If you wish to be removed from this list, simply reply to this email with the word remove in the subject or body of the reply.
This newsletter is primarily published and distributed by email. If you wish to receive the newsletter or request to discontinue receiving the newsletter by email, please contact us as above. It is also posted in paper form on clipboards at the major entrances to the area. If you have any information, material, photos, poems, writings, etc. concerning Dolan Pond that you would like to share, please send them along. Please forward the email version along to anyone you know who might be interested in receiving it or ask them to send us an email to join our subscription list. Hope to see you at Dolan Pond soon!
Contents | Dolan Pond News | Home
Contents | Dolan Pond News | Home
Hope to see you at Dolan Pond soon!