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Politics & Government

New Details Emerge in Hammond Pond Plan

Hammond Pond could receive improvements to its parking lot and walking trails, as well as a floating boardwalk across part of the park and measures to preserve the pond's ecosystem.

Hammond Pond could soon sport an improved walking trail, along with a floating boardwalk visitors could use to view pond life up-close, according to Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) officials who presented new versions of a plan to improve the pond at a public hearing Monday night.

Last night's meeting follows a series of similar public gatherings about the pond, . 

While major improvements to the pond are still at least nine months away, officials revealed more information about the developing plan for those improvements, which have been funded by a $22,500 grant from the family of Michael Rudyak as a memorial for its late patriarch. (DCR is providing matching funds.)

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The biggest feature of the proposed park improvements would be the creation of a hiking loop, made by linking the existing path to a new, floating boardwalk that would allow pond visitors to walk across the pond on a walkway about 40 feet from the shoreline. The existing path would be improved with a compacted sand walking surface laid over gravel. Those improvements, while environmentally sound, will also allow rainwater to drain into the ground, and will allow wheelchair and stroller access to the path.

"We're trying to create one high-quality loop," said DCR director of recreational facilities planning Dan Driscoll.

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The project would also include measures to abate environmental problems that have plagued the pond in recent years. Rainwater runoff filled with foreign chemicals (mainly coming from Route 9 and parking lots at the Chestnut Hill Shopping Center) has created conditions that encourage lily pads and other plant life to grow at a much larger rate than normal (a process called eutrophication.) Over time, that plant life collects sediment, shrinking the pond.

"That pond is eutrophying, in large part because of human activity," Driscoll said. We want to stop the things we're causing."

Driscoll said the department would rake the lily pads once to control their growth. Future runoff would be controlled by a berm and by repairing "rain gardens" that once helped absorb the rainwater into the ecosystem.

Kathy Bradford, a landscape architect working with the DCR, addressed a statement that the problems would lead to the pond disappearing within 50 years.

"I heard someone say 50 years," she said. "It's going to be longer than that - and it's going to be longer still, because all of you are here" and interested in conservation, she said.

Michael Rudyak's son, Ernest Rudyak, closed the meeting with reassurances that the DCR and his family wanted to work together to improve the pond, not change it, and that they were willing to adjust their plan if necessary.

"Our goal is to increase access to the pond. I spent many days fishing there with my dad," he said. "Any suggestions, we're willing to entertain. We want to make a gift to the city, and to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."

The department is still finalizing its plans, and is accepting public comments prior to beginning the permitting process. Comments can be submitted via email to dcrupdates@state.ma.us or by phone at 617-626-4974. Comments can also be mailed to:

Department of Conservation and Recreation
Office of Public Outreach
251 Causeway St., Suite 600
Boston, MA 02114

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