Harvard park upgrades to begin with 'overdue' upkeep

After months of discussion, the Harvard parks board will prioritize about 10 projects for fiscal 2020 that will help restore the city’s inadequately maintained parks, parks Superintendent Ryan Knop said.

In July, the board began discussing prioritizing more than $3.8 million in capital improvement projects for the city’s parks to be accomplished over the next 20 years. This prioritization further was narrowed down during Monday’s board meeting.

Knop said the biggest goal during the first year of improvements is getting the parks back to 100 percent.

“This includes mowing everything, trimming all the trees, sprucing things up and getting back the maintenance and control we’ve lost over the last few years due to budget restrictions,” Knop said.

Since fiscal 2014, the most that has gone toward ground maintenance for the parks has been $13,181.30, documents show.

Other projects include repairing tennis courts that have deteriorated in the past 10 years. In all, these projects should cost about $120,000, which will be paid with tax dollars originally reserved to pay off bond debt from the Harvard Diggins Library and the Harvard swimming pool construction.​ This will amount to about $150,000 a year for the parks department.

Knop said the improvements will allow the department to start saving money for larger capital improvement projects. He said tree trimming and removal already has begun in some parks through revenue from the capital improvement fund, which will be reimbursed once the new revenue comes in.