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Vol. 8, No. 4
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Contents | Wellington News | Home
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Vol. 9, No. 4
Due to the uncertainty of the weather on Sunday, the Wellington Parkfest has been officially postponed to the raindate of Sunday, October 15th, 1-4 PM. The forecasts at this time seem to indicate a Sunday afternoon with steady rain and possible thundershowers with .5 to .75 inches precipitation and a high around 60 - not ideal conditions for fun at the park. Given the food purchases required and notification to the mayor, aldermen, and Parks Department officials who were to attend, it seemed better to postpone and get the notice out today. Next week is the Columbus Day weekend when many folks are away. Parkfest was held in mid-October last year successfully. If it rains on Oct. 15, we will postpone to the following Sunday, Oct 22.
This is our 8th Annual event celebrating community around Wellington Park in West Newton. The Parkfest is a great opportunity for neighbors in the Wellington Park area to get to know each other. All are welcome to this free event.
This year we have something special to celebrate - the completion of new basketball and tennis courts. By the looks of things, they are getting a lot of use lately. We plan to have a ribbon cutting ceremony with Parks & Recreation representatives, our aldermen, and Mayor Cohen during the Parkfest - likely around 3 pm. This has been a long time coming and the new courts look great.
We will also have the latest plans and details on the remaining work on benches, signage, paths, fountain, bulletin board, climbing structure, and shade tree - all part of the Wellington Park Improvement Project funded by the city's Capital Improvement Program (CIP), a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for handicapped accessibility, a Community Preservation Act (CPA) grant, and our own Wellington Park Fund.
Posters have been put around the neighborhood. If anyone wishes to help, they could cross off the October 1 date and replace it with 15 with a permanent marker. Also, after the Parkfest, it would be helpful if folks could take down the flyers that they see on their routes. It will save the organizers some work when they go around afterwards to remove flyers. We still have some flyers to hand deliver (which would have been done today) along Waltham and Cherry Streets. Most other houses within the River, Cherry, Derby, and Waltham Street areas should have had a flyer dropped off. Thanks!
We could still use some volunteers for helping with kids games, facepainting, music, sports, balloons, magic, bubbles, pumpkin decorating, chalk drawing, and other activities or any other talents you may have. If you have a talent in any of these areas please come and share it. So far, Adam Shyevitch, our resident bike expert, was planning to come with his stand for free bike tuneups and Laura Lewis may tell some stories (even a tale about how Wellington Park came to be back in the 1930's). We will have some tables and chairs but it would appreciated if folks could bring along some chairs and perhaps a card table if you are doing an activity like face painting. Given that we are celebrating the new basketball and tennis courts, we expect to perhaps have some sports related games such as a foul shooting contest or a game of hitting tennis balls into a basket. Any organizers out there?
We will have hot dogs (all beef and veggie ones too) as usual and have gotten our official permits from the Parks and Recreation Department, Newton Health Department, and the Newton Fire Department (for our grill). Thanks to Tom Cahill at Parks and Rec for expediting the process. We will have soda, water, and other drinks available and ice cream bars as well to celebrate. Thanks to Lorraine Miller! If you like, you can bring along some prepackaged snack such as chips to share (we will have bowls and tongs).
If you would like to help please reply to this email or contact Ted Kuklinski, 617-969-6222. For those who don’t know, Wellington Park is near the corner of Kilburn Road and Henshaw Street (one block northeast of Cherry and River Streets). The Parkfest is a totally free event. However if you feel that you would like to contribute to the Parkfest or to our fund for park improvements you can make a tax deductible contribution to the Wellington Park Fund which is maintained by our non-profit sponsor – Newton Community Service Centers. There will be a donation box at the Parkfest or you could send a check to “The Wellington Park Fund c/o NCSC, 492 Waltham Street, West Newton, MA 02465. Checks may be made payable to NCSC / Wellington Park Fund.
The Patriots have a bye week on Sunday, Oct 15 and the Red Sox are not in the hunt this year, so if you can, please come out and say hello. It's just a big neighborhood block party designed to help folks not to be strangers. Meet your neighbors and make some new friends at the Wellington Parkfest!
There have been many questions about the missing vehicle gate at Wellington Park. One of the park gates was damaged recently and is expected to be repaired soon. The gate required some welding work for which Parks and Rec is not equipped. The gate has been sent out for repair and will be reinstalled as soon as possible.
The Parks and Recreation Department has taken special care in getting ready for our Parkfest with extra barrels, grass cutting, etc. Thanks to Commissioner Fran Towle, Carol Stapleton, and Dave Mandatori for their efforts!
Congratulations to Ann Dorfman and Lena Fried whose gardening efforts at Wellington Park were recently recognized by Newton Pride with their annual Beautification Awards (http://www.newtonpride.org/beautification.html). The Wellington Award was in the Community category. The 2006 Beautification Awards Ceremony were held on Monday, September 18 at the Newton Cultural Center in Newtonville. Mayor David Cohen and Newton Pride president Ruth Barnett made the presentations.
The tennis courts have seen a lot of use by all ages. There have even been some efforts at organizing some play there by Phil Towne. If you are interested in playing with some other locals, please contact Phil at wellingtonparktennis(AT)gmail.com. It is requested that park users please take care especially on the new tennis court surface and that chalk drawing be not done on the tennis court. Likewise there was evidence of purposeful black bike skid marks there recently. Let's try to respect other uses of the courts and be non damaging in our use of them.
Phil Towne's gray tiger cat, Timmy, is lost. He is not an outdoor cat and may have gotten loose. He might be hunkered down in someone's garage or shrubbery and his meow is more like a squeak. Any information leading to his rescue would be appreciated. Please contact Phil at 42 Henshaw Street (#2) or by phone 617-548-6683 if you have any information. Signs are around the neighborhood with a picture of the cat in question.
Another great local event happening nearby on the same morning as the Parkfest. On Sunday, October 15th is the 5th Annual Shillelagh Shuffle 3 Mile Run and Walk which benefits the Newton Parks and Recreation Special Athletes Program. It starts and ends at nearby Paddy's Pub (95 Elm Street in West Newton). Check out the website www.paddysroadrace.com for all the details. There are 14 and under, 15-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 40-59, 60-69, 70+, Walkers (non-competition), Special Olympian, and Wheelchair divisions. The course is a 3 mile run basically down Webster, up Lexington, and back on River.
You may have noticed some work going on lately in the West Parish Burying Ground at River and Cherry Streets. This is mainly grave restoration work as part of Phase II CPA project in Historic Preservation underway there. More details on the project can be found at http://www.ci.newton.ma.us/Planning/CPAC/Reco/documents/CPC%20Rec%20Burying%20Grounds%20II.pdf. The primary intent of Phase II is to address what the project Master Plan has identified as the ‘immediate needs’ of the burying grounds, including: the rebuilding and repair of certain tombs and vaults; gravestone conservation; lawn rehabilitation and re-grading; and replacement of deteriorated fencing.
Wellington Park News is an email publication of Citizens for Wellington Park. If you would like to receive it by email just send a request to wellingtonpark@aol.com. The Wellington Park News email edition is the fastest and easiest way for to keep in touch with you. If you wish to subscribe, just send an email or call (617) 969-6222 and leave a message. Or if you wish to be removed from the list, let us know the same way. Email addresses change often, so, if you used to get this newsletter and now don't (since you may be reading it on a clipboard), send us your new email address. And of course, check out our web site www.wellingtonpark.org. We send out emails via the address dolanpond(AT)aol.com (Friends of Dolan Pond) since that address has a so called “bulk mail permit” from AOL. Please send along any notices that you might have. Maybe you'd like to write a little article or opinion piece for our newsletter. Perhaps you might have a recollection of the "old days" in the neighborhood that you'd like to share. Hope to see you at the park soon!
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