OBE SATURDAY, JULY 1 0 5 2 0 0 4
Funding
for open
space is
in works
Officials at impasse on parklands pact
By Anthony Flint
GLOBE STAFF
House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran is crafting legislation to fund operations of the Rose Kennedy Greenway, while city and state officials are hoping to finalize an agreement this weekend to create a nonprofit organization to run the prized strip
of parklands created by the Big Dig.
Lawmakers, representatives of the Romney administration, and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority are at an impasse over how much public money is needed to jump-start the organization. known as the Greenway conservancy, and where it should cone from. The Romney administration has suggested the funding of a $50 million endowment, hut the Turnpike Authority has proposed kicking in only $5 million, according to one person close to the negotiations.
A ceremony has been tentatively
scheduled for Monday to celebrate the establishment of Me conservancy to run the Greenway, the 27-acre strip of surface land over the Big Dig. Governor Mitt Romney, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and Matthew J. Amorello, chairman of the Massachusetts
Turnpike Authority, arc expected to attend.
A Finneran spokesman confirmed that the speaker was pushing legislation on the
Greet way and was eager to have all funding and governance issues resolved by the
time the nation's eyes are on Boston for the Democratic National Convention. But the spokesman, Charles Rasmussen, would not disclose details.
Susan Elsbree, spokesman for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, con-finned that representatives from the city, state, the state Legislature, and the Turnpike Authority were sufficiently close to an agreement on the structure of the conservancy that a celebration of the new organization had been scheduled.
"We're contemplating an event on
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Officials at impasse
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Monday on the Rose Kennedy Greenway conservancy," she said
yesterday. Negotiators working out the structure of the conservancy — its powers and responsibilities, and how many board members the city, state, and Turnpike
Authority get to appoint — are "locked in a room," she said.
The attempts to close in on an agreement or memorandum of understanding establishing the Greenway conservancy follows a series of meetings convened by Judge Edmund Reggie, Kennedy's father-in-law, whom the senator designated
to broker
Attorney James Aloisi from Goulston & Storrs has been representing the Turnpike Authority at the meetings, while Jeffrey Mullan of Foley Hoag LLP has represented the Romney administration. Mark Maloney, director of the BRA, and Merita A. Hopkins, corporation counsel for Menino, are representing the city.
Representatives from Finneran's office and that of Senate President Robert E. Travaglini have also been present at these meetings, although Finneran is pushing legislation on the conservancy as part of a separate effort.
After a long struggle for control over the prized land, the political players arc now sorting out the political ramifications of coming to
agreement. Kennedy and Menino are eager to show convention visitors that the surface of the Big Dig, which cost $14.6 billion to open up, has a clear future. For Romney,
an agreement on the conservancy means he is acknowledging the legitimacy of the Turnpike Authority, which he has called a "rogue agency" and wants to eliminate. For Finneran, coming up with state funding would be a welcome bit of good news following the unfavorable publicity of the investigation into election redistricting.
"The Greenway is the exclamation point of this project, and it's so important to get this accomplished now," said Joseph Sullivan, former House chairman of the Transportation Committee and now head of the lottery, who has remained in touch with House and Senate leaders on the Greenway. "Every day that passes without action is truly a day lost."
"We arc aware the various parties are meeting," said David Smith, spokesman for Kennedy "We are hopeful there will be an
announcement soon."
'Ile Legislature named the surface of the Big Dig after Kennedy's mother in anticipation of a strip of
parkland arid buildings including
museums and botanical gardens, all on the corridor where the ele-
vated Central Artery once stood.
Kennedy plans to be at a dedication of the Greenway July 26, the first day of the Democratic National Convention. That event will take place on a parcel alongside
Hanover Street between Haymarket and the North End, which will become a landscaped park with gardens and a reflective pool.
Anthony Riot can be reached al flint@globe.com.
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