By Richard Conn/Daily News Staff
Daily News Tribune
GHS
Posted Jul 13, 2008 @ 10:59 PM
WALTHAM —

If the day comes when land at the Walter E. Fernald Center is declared surplus by the state, the precious acreage will be anything but cheap.

Land at the 196-acre campus could be valued at roughly a $1 million an acre, city officials say.

That's why the Community Preservation Committee in May recommended that $3 million in cash from the city's Community Preservation Act fund and another $14 million through a bond issue be used to help purchase the Fernald property if the land is ever put on the auction block by the state.

The committee, at it's July 29 meeting, is expected to sign a formal resolution to support using the $17 million for the city's future efforts to acquire Fernald land.

Earlier this year, Mayor Jeannette McCarthy and several city councilors applied to the Community Preservation Committee for $6 million in CPA cash to help buy Fernald land. But committee members worried that allocating such a large cash amount would dry up the CPA fund for any other projects that are eligible for CPA money.

William Durkee, the city's CPA fund manager, said Friday the combined $17 million would be a "good-faith deposit" for the city to lay down if the state makes the Fernald land available.

"It's a demonstration of support, that we want to acknowledge the mayor's application and the city's councilor's application," Durkee said of the resolution that will be signed by the committee.

McCarthy said Friday the city is in a holding pattern with Fernald until a legal battle is resolved regarding the future of the Fernald Center. The state announced plans to close Fernald in 2003. However, a group of guardians known as the Fernald League have fought to keep it open. They say closing the facility would be harmful to its residents, some of who have been there for more than 50 years.

In August 2007, U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro ruled that longtime residents of Fernald who wish to stay there, must be given that opportunity to do so by the state.

The state has appealed Tauro's order.

"The judge is supposed to make some kind of ruling this summer," McCarthy said.

Any bond issue for Fernald would have to be authorized by the mayor. While McCarthy said she's not opposed to bonding in general, she said issuing a bond through the CPA could serve to extend the CPA program past the five-year window that was set in place when voters approved its creation in November 2005. McCarthy said she would hold a public hearing before a bond issue so the public would have a say in the matter.

Richard Conn can be contacted at 781-398-8004 or rconn@cnc.com
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