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Note to Readers: The following remarks were given by Patrick J. McNally, a member of the Ipswich Board of Selectmen, at the dedication ceremony for the Ipswich Riverwalk held on June 16, 2007. The ceremony was held at the entrance to the Riverwalk off South Main Street, in the space now known as Faith's Garden.
Dedication of Ipswich Riverwalk The story of how we come to be standing here today in celebration of this magnificent Riverwalk is a story full of vision, resourcefulness, perseverance, and most of all, partnership. It is also a success story, and every story of success is one worth telling and worth hearing. So, this morning, I'm going to tell it to you. The story of the Riverwalk must begin with the river. The Ipswich River, which originates in the Town of Burlington, MA, some 45 miles from here before emptying into the ocean at Plum Island Sound, played a significant role in the development and history of the Town of Ipswich. Because of its lower and upper falls, the river made Ipswich a prime place for colonial settlement and led to the town's early industrial prominence. Here at the upper falls — which was a rocky stretch of rapids until a dam was first established in 1637 — was the center of industrial development in Ipswich. And over this dam, there existed a number of foot bridges, which for many years served as a crossing for the workers employed here. The first step in the process that led to the construction of the current bridge and the Riverwalk that extends from it was taken in 1988. It was then that a group of Ipswich residents, with the help of consultants Rolf Diamant, Drew Parkin, and Kathryn Hildebrand, conceived of a network of walks along the Ipswich River in central Ipswich. One component of the trail network was the Riverwalk we are dedicating today. These residents, who formed the Open Space subcommittee of the Ipswich Master Plan Commission, are Ed and Dorothy Monnelly, Nora Mitchell, Stephen Miles, Richard Howard, and Larry Eliot. Some of these folks are here this morning, along with Barbara Ostberg, then chair of the Master Plan Commission; would you please come forward and accept, as a token of thanks for your contribution to the Riverwalk, a rendering of the EBSCO mural along with a narrative of key events in Ipswich history? Let's give them a round of applause. Thanks to the vision of these persons, the seed for the Riverwalk was planted and set the stage for what was to follow. As is often the case with a good idea, it can take a long time before it leads to anything. Also, for an idea to move forward, it invariably needs strong advocates. For the Riverwalk, the initial advocate was the Ipswich River Festival Committee. Organized in 1988, the Committee was dedicated to the preservation and restoration of the Ipswich River. The Committee recognized that one way to achieve that goal was to get as many people as possible to appreciate the unique beauty of the river, as well as to understand its contribution to the history, character and development of the Town of Ipswich. What better way to bring people to that appreciation than by showing off the river through festival events? So between 1988 and 1999, the Committee staged ten festivals, all the time trumpeting the idea of a Riverwalk to the citizens of Ipswich. The members of that committee were Janet Craft, Georgia Flood, Susan Boice, Joyce Harrington, Ingrid Miles and Dianna Pacella. Please give them a hand as they come up to receive their gift. Another outspoken advocate of the Riverwalk during this time period was the late Selectman Charlie Wayne. He never missed an opportunity to tout the virtues of making the river more central to downtown Ipswich. During his travels he'd take photos of riverwalks from other communities, and then bring them back to Town to inspire us to build our own. Although Charlie unfortunately did not live to celebrate this day with us, his wife Carol is here with us today, and I ask her to come up here now and be acknowledged. The next stage in the Riverwalk's development began in 1994. It was then that the community, reeling from the impending closures of two downtown landmarks: the Woolworths Store at Market and Union, and the Sylvania plant, decided to take action. After more than 100 concerned citizens and business owners met on a cold night in January of 1994, a process was started that led to the establishment of the Ipswich Partnership, a nonprofit organization whose goal was to the revitalize downtown Ipswich. The first president of the Partnership, Lin Morrison (then President of the 1st National Bank) was instrumental in helping the Partnership achieve that goal. Through the efforts of the Ipswich Planning Department, the Town later that year received a three-year funding commitment from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which not only allowed the Partnership to fund an executive director to guide their efforts, but also provided significant funds to undertake various initiatives to revive the downtown. Those included the renovation of certain key buildings in the downtown and the undertaking of streetscape improvements along Market Street, both of which were accomplished. But another key goal of the Partnership, from the outset, was to design and build a Riverwalk that would bring people into the downtown and thus help to support the local economy. With an initial allocation of $25,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, the Town through its Planner, and the Partnership through its executive director and Riverwalk Committee, cooperatively began the process of selecting a designer for the Riverwalk. The selected designer was the highly regarded Chan & Kreiger, architectural firm of Cambridge, MA, in association with designer Ellen Whittemore of Newburyport. Working under the guidance of the Partnership's Riverwalk Committee, Willie Wong of Chan Kreiger and Ellen Whittemore developed a creative and sound preliminary design plan for the Riverwalk. It soon became apparent, however, that significantly more funds would be needed to actually bring the project to final design. So, the Town and the Partnership allocated an additional $80,000 in CDBG funds toward the project design, and to put the remainder of the design process back out to bid. The successful bidder was the firm of BETA Engineering, in association with the Gates & Leighton landscape designers, which ended Chan Kreiger's and Ellen Whittemore's formal role in the project. Still, they made an important contribution to the project's design, and I'd like now to have Ellen Whittemore come forward and be acknowledged. We also have present Chris Jones from the BETA Group and Don Leighton from Gates and Leighton; Chris and Don, could you also step forward and be recognized. With the design process underway, there were two critical issues to be resolved: (1) control of the land over which the Riverwalk would be built; and (2) how to fund the considerable cost of its construction. It was the great fortune of the Town of Ipswich, and absolutely key to the success of this project, that in 1995 a firm known as EBSCO Publishing purchased the old Sylvania Complex along the south side of the river. From the start they were sympathetic to the construction of a Riverwalk across their property, and it didn't take long for the Town to secure an easement of EBSCO's land for that purpose. Access to the Riverwalk from South Main Street was more complicated. The initial plan was to use the town-owned land that leads to the dam and fish ladder, but it presented a number of difficulties, including potential conflict with an abutting residential use, and a longer and more costly bridge crossing. So the Town approached QLF, who, to their great credit, decided to put the greater community good ahead of their own interests, and granted a permanent easement to the Town of Ipswich over the space upon which we are now standing. I would now like to invite up Tim Collins and Tom Wheeler of EBSCO and Brent Mitchell of QLF, and thank them for their enormous generosity and community spirit, without which this project would not have been possible. As the Town worked to secure the easements for the Riverwalk, the Town Planner began searching for grant funds to pay for the construction of the Riverwalk. In 1996 he hit pay dirt: The Massachusetts Highway Department (MHD) awarded the Town $417,000 in Transportation Enhancement funds to construct the Riverwalk. Buoyed by this news, the design process, under the close supervision of the Riverwalk Committee, continued on. Then came the discovery of a problem that was to delay the project for several years and had it not been for the diligent and concerted efforts of certain persons and organizations, might have stopped the project all together. To better understand the nature of the problem, look across the river to the parking deck behind the Riverwalk. Much of that area, which was once the site of a mill building, is actually over the Ipswich River. When designing the Riverwalk, the engineers discovered that many of the deck's supporting beams were in poor condition, and could not support the proposed Riverwalk without significant repair. The cost of that repair was estimated to be several hundred thousand dollars, nearly the amount of the grant received to build the entire Riverwalk. This discovery stymied progress on the project for a couple of years, as town officials struggled to find a solution. The solution came about through a combination of corporate generosity and creative thinking. EBSCO Publishing, which had previously agreed to cover the portion of the deck repair costs related to the non-easement area, generously offered to cover more than half of the Town's costs, leaving the town's share at $100,000. Unfortunately, there was no obvious way to get that money to EBSCO and still comply with state and local bidding requirements. Then, David Standley of the Riverwalk Committee had an inspired idea: why not appraise the value of the easement, which had been initially donated to the Town by EBSCO, and use that as the means of contributing the town's share of the deck repair? The appraisal was done, its value was determined to be in excess of $100,000, town meeting voted to buy the easement for $100,000, and the deck was repaired. By the time all of this occurred, however, the estimates for building the Riverwalk rose dramatically, leaving the Town $300,000 short of what was needed to build it. How to close this funding gap? The Planning Office identified the Public Works & Economic Development (PWED) program as a potential funding source and submitted a grant application, but competition for these funds is intense. Due in large part to the strong advocacy of Representative Brad Hill, the Town was successful in obtaining the $300,000 in PWED funds. At this time I'd like to acknowledge Brad Hill for his significant role in helping the Riverwalk be built. Finally, in 2003, the project design was completed and the District IV Office of MHD put the project out to bid. To the Town and State's surprise and disappointment, the low bid came in more than 40% over the project budget. After several months of deliberation, MHD decided to proceed with the project anyway. However, this meant that the Town's share of the project increased by the same percentage. How to come up with this money? As a fallback, Town Meeting agreed to allocate another $75,000 for the project. But the Town's preference was to receive additional state funds, and with a helping hand from Ipswich resident and then Transportation Commissioner Dan Grabauskas, the Town received and additional $110,000 in PWED funds. Now fully funded, the Riverwalk finally went under construction in the spring of 2004. The firm selected to construct it was Franchi Equipment, Inc. of Marlborough, MA. The project managers on the job for Franchi were Bill Tyrell and Rod Cummings, and Dana Rameau was the project foreman. Overseeing the work of the contractors on behalf of the State were Scott Richards, Sean Magnus, Ed O'Toole, and Charlie Amato, under the leadership of Patricia Leavenworth , District IV Highway Engineer. Their efforts in constructing the Riverwalk are greatly appreciated; let's give them a round of applause. After all of the challenges the Town faced in the design of the Riverwalk, we wish we could say that the construction went smoothly and quickly. It did not. One major problem that arose during the midst of construction was the collapse of QLF's sea wall following a heavy rain event. Under severe time constraints and with limited available funds, QLF managed to raise the necessary funds to have the wall rebuilt. For that, we again thank Larry Morris and Brent Mitchell of QLF. But we would also like to recognize the contractor on that project, Ken Hamilton and John Maestranzi of Infiniti Development. When it was looking doubtful that QLF would be able to secure a contractor to do the job within the available budget and time frame, Ken and John stepped forward and did the work without incident, on time and within the budget. I believe Ken and John are here; would you step forward and be recognized? One fortuitous event that occurred during the Riverwalk construction came about as a result of an idea by Edwina Millington to honor her good friend, Faith Lamb Bryan, who was the wife of QLF founder Bob Bryan. Edwina and her friend Suzie Weld, along with Faith's daughter Sandy Weatherall, envisioned a garden that would celebrate Faith's life, and they approached the Town to see if it might be incorporated into the space upon which we are now standing. They brought along with them Hilarie Holdsworth of Walker Creek Design, who is responsible for adding a number of new elements to the design of this space, including all of the landscaping and this lovely raised bed here at the center of the garden. We liked Hilarie's design so much that we hired her to install not only this landscaping but the landscaping on the other side of the river as well. Let's now recognize Hilarie Holdsworth, along with the friends and daughters of Faith Lamb Bryan. You have no doubt noticed by now the lovely banners hanging on both sides of the Riverwalk, as well as the outstanding interpretative sign mounted on the footbridge. There are several people who deserve special recognition for making this happen: designer Georgia Flood, who is responsible for the sign layout; Charlie Shurcliff, who authored the text on the interpretative sign; Bill Varrell, for his thoughtful selection of photographs for the interpretative sign; Robin Silverman and Sue Nelson, who offered advice and provided helpful information during the process; and especially Kate Day of the Town Planning Office, who coordinated the entire signage effort and made it all come together. Will each of you step forward and be recognized? Although most of the Riverwalk's cost was funded by state, federal, and local government funding, there were a number of private persons and groups that made sizeable donations to the Riverwalk project. One of the earliest donors was the late Count Carl Pescosolido, who gave the Ipswich Partnership $25,000 for the Riverwalk project. In recognition of his significant contribution, one of the shade structures on the Riverwalk will be named in his memory. I'm not sure if anyone from the Pescosolido family is here, but if so, would you please come forward and be acknowledged? Another sizeable financial contribution to the Riverwalk came from EBSCO Publishing, which in addition to subsidizing the deck repair, paid for the brick walk from Union Street to the parking deck, and commissioned the historic mural so beautifully rendered by Alan Pearsall. Other financial contributors were the Ipswich Rotary (represented today by President Rick Korb), which purchased four of the benches on the Riverwalk (two of the benches were funded in memory of long-time community contributors George Tsoutsouras and James Tedford, Sr.); the Ipswich Partnership, which paid for the landscaping on the EBSCO side; the previously-mentioned Friends of Faith Lamb Bryan, who funded a significant portion of the cost of Faith's Garden; the Ipswich Garden Club (represented today by Laurie McAleer); Ingrid Miles; and George and Chrissi Pappas. Can we have a round of applause for these contributors? From the initial design of the Riverwalk in 1996 to the present, one constant has been the oversight of the Ipswich Partnership's Riverwalk Committee. The committee was actively involved in decision making and problem solving, and never stopped believing in the project, even when prospects for its completion looked bleak. For the first few years of its existence, the Committee was ably staffed by Nan Hagen, executive director of the Partnership. Members of the Riverwalk Committee back in the 1990s included Charlie Wayne, Dave Schulz, Gus Harrington, Terry Wade, Barbara Telatnik, Joyce Harrington, Doug Stewart, Dianna Pacella, and Chris Doktor. More recent members of the Committee have included Bill Nelson, Bob Wicks, Robin Silverman, Merle Pimental, Betty Reynolds, Bill Mitchell, Paul Grenier and Alison Taylor. Special recognition is owed to the first chair of the Riverwalk, Carolyn Britt; to David Standley, Tom Wheeler, and Paul Brailsford, who served on the committee for most if not all of its existence; and to Ingrid Miles, who has been the chair of the Riverwalk Committee for the past six years and who has been a champion of the Riverwalk for nearly twenty years. Would Nan Hagen, members of the Committee, and past Partnership presidents Don Bowen and Stephanie Gaskins please come up and be recognized? I'd now like to acknowledge those officials from the Town who helped to make the Riverwalk project come to fruition. First, thanks are owed to each of the selectmen who served the town for the ten plus years that the Riverwalk was in design and construction. As the one Selectman who served the town for that entire time period, I am proud to say that the Selectmen were unwavering in their support of the project throughout. In addition to myself, I would now like to recognize Gene Hailson, Brad Hill, Jim Engel, Harry Lampropoulos, Elizabeth Kilcoyne, Ingrid Miles, Ed Rauscher, and Jim Foley. Would you please step forward and be acknowledged? Second, I'd like to thank the various town staff and boards that played some role in the project, including former DPW Director Armand Michaud, current director Bob Gravino, Town Manager Bob Markel, Finance Director Rita Negri, Conservation Agent David Pancoast, and the Conservation Commission. Third, I'd like to recognize George Howe, who was the town manager during the Riverwalk's initiation and most of its design and construction. George understood from the outset the value of the Riverwalk project to the Town, and provided strong leadership throughout its development. And finally, I would like to acknowledge the efforts of Planning Director Glenn Gibbs, who was involved in the project from its inception until today. Without his diligence in seeking and obtaining funds to design and build the Riverwalk, and his persistence in moving the project through the state approval process, we might not be standing here this morning dedicating this Riverwalk. Glenn, please come up and be recognized. Let me conclude my remarks by observing once again what a truly remarkable endeavor this Riverwalk project has been. It is a testament to what can happen when people share in a common vision and work together to make that dream a reality. Thanks to the efforts of the persons and organizations we've recognized this morning, along with the strong support of the citizens of Ipswich, we have a created a magical space here on the river for all of us to enjoy. And for that, we should give ourselves a hearty round of applause. |
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Historic Ipswich Riverwalk | Ipswich, Massachusetts | info@ipswichriverwalk.org |