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Date: 7/5/2022
SPRINGFIELD – During a brief June 27 City Council Hearings Meeting, the council accepted a $1 million grant that will add significant restorations to Greenleaf Park.
Greenleaf is an 18.8-acre park located near the Sixteen Acres School Playground. Mayor Domenic Sarno and Director of Parks, Buildings and Recreation Patrick Sullivan announced their request for grant funding to improve Greenleaf in Jan. 2021. The $1 million grant is matched by $1 million in city funding.
In his presentation to the council, Sullivan explained that the city secured a grant from the Massachusetts Land and Water Conservation Fund in a “competitive grant round.” With the grant funding, Sullivan envisions the Greenleaf Park space transforming through the construction of different recreation elements.
“It will be inclusive of recreation elements, including accessible playground, splash pad and trails,” said Sullivan.
Sullivan also detailed how the restoration will highlight green infrastructure design elements, such as tree planting, pollinator gardens and nature-based storm water treatment solutions.
“It will highlight green infrastructure design elements to mitigate heat island effects and increase our climate resiliency,” said Sullivan.
For Sullivan, providing restorations to Greenleaf Park remained a long-term goal of his. He explained that the park project did not fit the conditions of most state and federal grants, but the city was able to secure a grant fitting of the recreation project.
“Greenleaf has long been waiting for this type of renovation. It doesn’t always fit the criteria for state and federal grants. This one came along, and it was a perfect match for Greenleaf,” said Sullivan.
Ward 7 City Councilor Timothy Allen inquired about how extensive the restoration project would be. Sullivan shared the renovations will focus more on the back end of the space after constructing new basketball courts four years ago near the entrance.
“We will be concentrating more behind the building and to the right of the building in the wetland area. We did the basketball courts over four years ago, so they are in decent shape,” said Sullivan.
The restoration effort will also include a multi-use soccer field and two softball fields. Due to rising construction costs, Sullivan said the project may be divided into two phases.
“We will go into design. It might need to go into two phases…but this will definitely get a successful phase one underway and we’ll have more information in four months when we get schematic design completed,” said Sullivan.
The City Council accepted the grant in a unanimous vote.
The City Council will meet again on July 18.