TRANSPORTATION INPUT SOUGHT BY CITY
Author: Mary Hurley, Globe Correspondent.

FENWAY -- For the first time, the city transportation department is organizing a communty group to continue reviewing transportation issues after a study has been completed. Usually, the department works with neighbors as part of doing a study.

The West Fenway/Kenmore Neighborhood Transportation Association, to be formalized in January, will include representatives of civic groups, businesses, and institutions.

"It's a great opportunity for businesses and residents and city officials from multiple departments to get together in one room to deal with transportation issues," said Andrea d'Amato, city transportation commissioner, in a telephone interview last week. "We're really excited about it because it will be a conduit to the transportation department. Formalizing an exchange of information really helps us to keep a plan alive and to make it a living document."

Issues of concern to the Fenway area, with its residential neighborhood, large institutions, and small businesses, "provide us a wonderful opportunity to test this concept out," D'Amato said. "It gives us a very diverse body."

One goal suggested for the group, at a transportation issues meeting last week, is to establish priorities for implementing recommendations of the West Fenway Longwood Transportation Study, completed this fall. The study, which identified parking, traffic, and pedestrian problems, recommended short- and long-term solutions, including exploring the redesign of Kenmore Square and Huntington Avenue. Other goals would be to monitor and coordinate traffic mitigation by developers and institutions and to "continually address" pedestrian safety and parking. Community activists said there is a need to oversee the implementation and voiced support for the group, but also said the group needs to be inclusive and have a grass-roots focus.

"We've tried to cast the net to include anybody who has an interest," d'Amato said. "It's an open process. We're going to work hard to make sure the meetings are worthwhile."
 

Group asks removal of '50s water tower

WEST ROXBURY -- The Bellevue Hill Improvement Association, residents who live near the Bellevue Hill Reservation, a recreation area, called a meeting last week to ask state officials about the possibility of removing what they consider an eyesore, a green metal water tower constructed in the 1950s.

The Metropolitan District Commission leases the land to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, responsible for maintaining the green tower and a stone tower on the property.

MWRA officials told the group the water tower is part of the backup water system for Boston and cannot be torn down. They also told the group that in the process of renovating the metal tower, which includes interior and exterior sandblasting, lead paint chips had been found in the surrounding soil.

"I don't think there is a reason for alarm," said John Rich, a physician and executive director of the city's public health commission, in a telephone interview last week. "The only risk is if the lead is ingested."

Lead paint poisoning tends to occur in homes, where children ingest paint. That remains a problem, Dr. Rich noted, with a majority of Boston cases clustered in areas of Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan. State law requires children under 6 to be screened yearly by a doctor. If there were a long-standing problem with lead on Bellevue Hill and children were eating the soil, it would likely have shown up in the yearly exam, he said.

People with questions about lead paint poisoning in general, and on Bellevue Hill in particular, can call the Boston lead paint program, 534-5965. Also, said Ginny Gass, president of the improvement association who walks her dog daily on the hill, "My suggestion right now, if residents are concerned about the issue, is that they contact the MWRA or their local officials."

Gass said a future community meeting would be held if residents are interested. Results of further soil testing are to be released next spring.

Last week, District City Councilor Maura Hennigan asked the council to refer the matter to its public health committee, to ask the public health commission to investigate the issue, and get information out to people who use the area.