With public funding uncertain, the private group preparing to take over management of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway is paring back its budget as well as its ambitious plans for the Big Dig park that snakes through downtown Boston.
Officials with the Greenway Conservancy now say their annual budget will be roughly $5 million, about 42 percent less than the $8.6 million they were forecasting last summer. The staff size is also being scaled back, from 30 employees to between 18 and 20. Steve Anderson, director of park operations, said he will oversee a staff of seven plus outside contractors. Earlier plans called for as many as 21 employees.
“We’ll be doing more with less,” said Nancy Brennan, executive director of the Greenway Conservancy, at a meeting of the group today.
Peter Meade, chairman of the Greenway Conservancy board, said he hoped to have a signed lease from the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority next month. The authority owns the Greenway and had been directed by legislation to turn the park over to the conservancy last month. The negotiations have dragged on amid concerns about the Greenway Conservancy’s financial status as well as uncertainties about the future of the authority. Gov. Deval Patrick has proposed shutting down the Turnpike Authority and turning its responsibilities and debts over to other agencies.
Photo by Frank Curran
The Greenway Conservancy has received $15 million in pledges from private donors and another $5 million from the Turnpike Authority. Lawmakers last year agreed to provide another $2 million plus half of the Greenway Conservancy’s budget — up to a maximum of $5.5 million — through 2012, but the funds were contingent on surpluses and interest earnings in state accounts. The $2 million disappeared in the economic downturn and the matching funds have dwindled dramatically.
The Greenway Conservancy replaced the $2 million in state aid with a $2 million grant from the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency, a quasi-public agency that normally provides loans for economic development and job creation. Massachusetts Development approved the grant on November 13, continginent on transfer of the Greenway to the Conservancy.
An internal memo generated by MassDevelopment says the $2 million grant was consistent with its mission because the money would be used to improve “the value of properties adjacent or proximate to the Greenway, thereby providing increased tax revenue to the city of Boston.” The memo also said the grant will “help to prevent blight and economic distress in the form of the deterioration of the Greenway as it presently exists to substandard open space with an uncertain future.”
In its fall issue, CommonWealth magazine reported that the annual tab for upkeep of the Greenway was expected to be $3.2 million, which would make it one of the most expensive parks in the nation to maintain. The current forecast of maintenance costs was not available today, but it will probably be substantially less. Even so, spending on the Greenway is likely to far exceed what the state and the city of Boston spend on any of their parks.
