PARKS AT COES SEE MORE FUNDING
2020 BRINGS FUNDING & STRATEGIC VISION TO PARKLANDS AT COES RESERVOIR
Coes Reservoir (aka Coes Pond) has four city parks (5 total parklands) surrounding its shores. Over the past six years, there has been recurring attention, discussion, and strategy about how to best improve those parks, engage park users with those parks, and most importantly, how to CONNECT those parks.
Connecting the parklands at Coes Reservoir has been such a pivotal part of the conversation and planning, because individually each park space offers unique features (and amenities, resources, vistas, etc.) but together they create a bold, attractive identity for a neighborhood overshadowed by the breadth of its natural resources as seen out of a window between neighborhoods. The connection between the green spaces is also key to creating more circulation and intention between the five spaces themselves.
These collective parkland have come a long way over the past decade:
In 2015, the East-West Trail was charted and installed through Coes Pond Beach, Coes Knife Property, Columbus Park, and Knights of Columbus Park
2015-2016, the bridge over the spillway at Coes Knife was replaced and the walkway to Columbus Park graded and stone dusted
2015-2017, Coes Pond Beach gets new sand and was improved, renamed John J. Binienda Memorial Beach
2017, multi-generational universally accessible playground installed at Coes Knife Property (later renamed Coes Park)
By all accounts, the parkland at Coes Reservoir may well be experiencing the biggest ‘growth’ of any public space in Worcester (growth in public use, public engagement, public funding).
The next chapter? Connectivity and ADA accessibility.
The City announced an overarching strategy, including the concept of elevated boardwalks and improvements at Columbus Park to Coes Reservoir’s south-eastern shoreline at a public meeting in the spring of 2019. The total dollar amount on the investment was ‘just under $7 million’ and included renovations to the spillway, improvements to Binienda Beach, and the creation of 18-20 additional off-street parking spots at Coes Park. At the time, the city was seeking $1 million in federal funding through the National Park Service’s Land and Water Grant program, subsequently committing to invest $1 million of municipal funding and another $200,00 for planning.
A news article in late August mentioned that the City has received that $1 million Land and Water Grant, although that has yet to have been formally announced.
Now that the rubber has hit the road, elected officials are just beginning to parse what these investments could physically mean for the spaces, including Columbus Park’s historic and shutdown ‘Hillside Beach’. The proposed plan funded by the Land and Water Grant would turn the area into wetlands skirted by an elevated boardwalk. The politicians on the City Council Veterans’ Memorials, Parks and Recreation Committee were divided on the beach’s future with a few voicing adamant opposition to its elimination.
It’s important to note that Hillside Beach has been formally closed to swimming since 2009 and there have been multiple deaths at the site due to the underwater topography and current.
Refocusing our attention on the Reservoir’s western shore, the recreational area popped back into the public discourse with the announcement of more grant money. The City of Worcester has been awarded a PARC (Parkland Acquisitions and Renovations for Communities) Grant to fund $400,000 worth of improvements to parkland around Coes Reservoir. Local news stories indicated that the award was for ‘Worcester Coes Pond Beach’, but it’s important to note that the 90+ year old, 1.5 acre park was renamed the John J. Binienda Memorial Beach in 2017 after the late state legislator who served twenty-eight years at the Statehouse representing the 17th Worcester District.
According to the standard, boilerplate language taken directly from the press release, the grant will purportedly fund, “the construction of ADA accessible walkways, building an accessible parking area, implementation of an accessible canoe/kayak launch, upgrades to the stormwater management system, utility and environmental upgrades, park edge improvements, and site amenities.”
Binienda Beach in October 2020, featuring new mural installed by Eamon Gillen funded by the East-West Trail’s 2017 DCR Recreational Trails Grant
Over the past year, there have also been discussions and proposals targeting the stretch of Mill Street in between Coes Park and Binienda Beach. But for now, that section of largely uneven sidewalk will remain the East-West Trail, fostering connection between the parklands at Coes Reservoir and the multitude of green and urban spaces beyond.
Written by Brittany Legasey and pictures by Brittany Legasey