Perspectives on what Cordaville Park says about Town governance

Above: I’m sharing constructive criticism of the Town’s maintenance of properties including Cordaville park, adding my own take, and asking for residents to weigh in with their thoughts. (photos top and bottom left by Beth Melo, bottom right from John Kendall)

A southside resident, and vocal critic of many of the Town’s financial decisions, reached out to share photos he views as demonstrating an example of the Town’s tendency to be poor stewards of properties. It was an issue he linked to the Neary Building Project and the Town’s financial issues.

I took a look and arrived at a slightly different take, along with a few open questions. I’m sharing pictures and our thoughts — plus asking readers to chime in with their own knowledge and opinions.

John Kendall’s pictures of Cordaville Park highlight weeds, patchy grass, and dirty benches. In his complaint, he acknowledged that in “recent history”, the DPW repaired the walkway, filling in a paving a “large collapse”. But he claimed that only happened because he “hounded” the prior DPW Superintendent.

Kendall also noted that the DPW picks up trash “once in a while” and checks the trash barrel. But he said cleaning up trash in the park generally falls to him and neighbors. And he complained:

This used to be a nice area, but in recent Southborough fashion, it has been neglected. We spent all that money making things nice [at the new park between the library and St. Mark’s Street], but forget things that we already have. It’s insane. . .

I don’t know who is responsible, but someone needs to own up to the neglect. There are weeds everywhere, the planters are full of weeds, although they used to have flowers in them. The benches are disgusting. The need to be cleaned and painted. There are dead limbs hanging from trees. Name it.

The pics don’t show the full conditions of the park. I was curious, so took a drive over on Friday. From the outside, the park looked lush. 

Stepping inside, it was in better shape than I expected based on his complaints. (And if you haven’t been, it’s still worth taking a stroll through.) But I understood his complaint about it being run down. it was clear that not a lot of gardening love is being given to weed and tend to plants.

It reminded me of discourse around the state of the Old Burial Ground. On Memorial Day, Sally Waters pointed out to my family the ivy overgrowing one of the headstones.

Still, for me, the condition of the park raised overlapping but slightly different questions.

I’m wondering about what the initial plan was for upkeep and what residents’ expectations were. (The funding approval in 2008 pre-dated the time I paid attention to Town politics and attended Town Meetings. But for those interested, I was able to find an overview of the history & purpose of the park. Scroll down for those details.)

Did original plans account for the need for the Town to budget man hours for gardening upkeep? If so, were those insufficient? Or were hours cut in future years as other DPW demands grew? Or did organizers assume that community volunteers would maintain the parcel, which has perhaps fallen by the wayside or declined over time?

It’s worth pointing out that every Memorial Day and Veterans Day, the veterans use speeches to thank the Phaneuf family for the work they do to spruce up and beautify the landscaping around the All Wars Memorial on the Town Common. (In advance of Memorial Day the DPW also power washed the Memorial at veterans’ request.) Underlying the thanks is the acknowledgement that the upkeep efforts aren’t part of the Town’s budget.

As our population grows, somehow local volunteerism appears to have declined. I keep wondering if there has been a demographic shift in the amount of time families have to spare. Or has there been a shift in the community’s mindset for what should be covered by taxes (and/or fundraisers) rather than volunteerism.

However we got here, between concerns over taxes and pressing needs for spending on schools and roads, residents might not be thrilled at the idea of investing in DPW budget increases to include more regular upkeep, weeding and landscaping of the park and other public areas.

I’d love to hear from residents that remember what the original plan was for park upkeep, and whether or not they feel that Town promises have been kept. And if you’ve visited over the years, have you found a decline in the upkeep or does it seem fairly status quo?

As for Kendall’s gripe, he opined that the situation voters faced (and will continue to grapple with) over the poor shape Neary School is in was caused by “lack of real maintenance”. He claimed that similar causes were behind the Town’s need to replace the “old Woodward” school.

He also repeated comments he made on this blog that projects like the Neary Building Project and other Town financial decisions are contributing to tax increases leading him to be “priced out of Southborough”. He followed, “If things were taken care of properly, we wouldn’t have these big problems.”

I’m curious to hear from readers in general what their take is. 

For those unfamiliar with the park or its history. . . 

Cordaville Park was completed in 2011 on a wedge of land surrounded by Cordaville Road, River Street, and Southville Road. It is on a parcel donated to the Town by the MBTA in 2002 after the intersection was reconfigured to ease traffic for the Commuter Rail station that had recently been opened.

A committee of residents worked with students from a design school to come up with the early plan for the property. It was partially inspired by the history of the Cordaville area which once housed multiple mills. (You can read more about that here.)

In 2008, Town Meeting voters approved a $112K grant from the Southborough Community Preservation Committee to build the park. The final project was based on a plan by a landscape architecture firm.

According to Susan Fitzgerald’s coverage in 2009, design elements included “industrial materials” to evoke the history, a bell from the old Cordaville mill, and “Irregular undulating paths throughout the space represent the flow of the nearby Sudbury River.” The project was a community effort, including the donation of trees by the Southborough Gardeners.

Flashing forward to 2022, deteriorated conditions of the park was one of a laundry list of complaints that resident Patricia Fiore had collected from the public and submitted to the Select Board (and this blog) about then-DPW Superintendent Karen Galligan whose contract was up for renewal.

Below are pics from Google Maps from when the triangle park was fairly new, followed by changes over the years as the Trees and bushes have matured.

Heritage Park Comparison

On a side note, since Kendall raised the comparison to recent investment in building Heritage Park downtown, I went by there today, too. The lawn at the new park by St. Mark’s Street downtown is greener mainly due to being covered by clover (a choice I heartly approve of). Unfortunately, the circular plazas were covered in deposits by what I assume was a flock of recent Canadian visitors. (Maybe they were leaving symbols of political protest? I’d suggest signs for them to keep off the bricks, but I don’t think fowl that pass through respect our rules.)