Malden pulls the plug on Roosevelt Park Improvement Project

Delays caused by opponents to project, agreement to remove urban fill drove construction, soil remediation costs out of city’s reach

By Noah-Simon Contreras

All systems have been “go” for close to a year now on the long-awaited and much-anticipated Roosevelt Park Improvement Project. However, an unexpected stop sign arrived when initial bids for the $6 million-plus project were opened recently.

In a memorandum to the Malden City Council this week, Malden Mayor Gary Christenson informed the members the city will not be moving forward with the proposed renovation project. Mayor Christenson pointed to “significant delays and increased costs” of the project, which would have established a state-of-the-art, synthetic surface playing and practice field at Roosevelt Park, replacing what has essentially been an underutilized eyesore in the community for the past several years. “Market volatility and unpredictability experienced in the local construction industry post COVID due to unprecedented cost escalation, inflation, the prevailing labor market, and supply chain disruption along with persistent, yet unsuccessful, public challenges to stop this project at the local, state and federal level, have all contributed to significant delays and increased costs for this project,” Mayor Christenson stated in his update to the Council.

The Mayor also cited the challenges that were now associated with the project that involved soil remediation, prescribing the removal of three feet of urban fill from the entire park before drainage materials and synthetic surface field cover were installed. “The logistics of removing large volumes of urban fill in a tightly constrained area like Roosevelt contributed to the higher than expected bids,” Mayor Christenson stated.

Already at a price tag of about $6.1 million, the Mayor revealed that of the two bids received for the full project at Roosevelt Park, the lowest came in approximately $1.6 million higher than the funds appropriation now set aside for the project. “Disappointingly, the low bid was $1.6M above the funds available. Given the current state of the City’s finances, it would be ill-advised to seek another appropriation for this project and I have therefore concluded that it would not be in the City’s best interests to move forward with the proposed renovations at this time,” Mayor Christenson informed the Councillors.

The Mayor told the Councillors that he had never wavered in he and his staff’s belief that the Roosevelt Park Improvement Project was always the best plan for revitalizing the site, which is the most underutilized recreational space in the Malden community. “Roosevelt Park is a key recreational asset that has served the City since 1904. I continue to believe that an improved park with a synthetic turf surface and the other elements incorporated into the plan as a result of public engagement and feedback was the appropriate direction to take and the best solution to better support all users of the park including the public, the Salemwood School and the Malden Public Schools in general, local youth sports programs and adult leagues,” Mayor Christenson stated in his memo to the Council.

“However, I also acknowledge that we’ve exhausted all avenues and funding sources at this point, and the community needs to move on to whatever steps must come next to deal with the most pressing issues at this site,” he added.

The Mayor stressed to the Councillors that a great opportunity to provide a vibrant, valuable addition to the community and for the city’s youth is now lost, with the shutdown of the Roosevelt Park project. “While some in the community may declare victory over this decision, let me be clear that this leaves us with no solution, starting from scratch, and that is nothing for anyone to celebrate today.

“Lost are the opportunities to improve the outdoor space that Salemwood students use to play, to provide a reliable space for Malden Public School sports teams and youth sports groups to practice and play, especially sports like soccer and lacrosse that have grown tremendously over the past two decades and serve much of our minority communities,” Mayor Christenson added.

The new field space would also have included two regulation softball fields for both high school and adult play.

“Despite this setback, we remain committed to providing access to high quality facilities for all our students and young athletes,” he stated.