Evangelidis includes funding for mountain restoration in bond bill

By Owen Boss

REVERE — The passage of a state environmental bond bill Friday helped state Rep. Lewis Evangelidis take a major step toward securing $7.5 million for four projects aimed at restoring and reconstructing areas of the Wachusett Mountain State Reservation. Although he sees the proposed project as essential for the future of the mountain and surrounding communities, Mr. Evangelidis said his interest in the outdoors played a role in his decision to acquire funding to restore the mountain’s beauty. “I have always been an outdoors person and I love national parks and I’m really proud to have Wachusett Mountain in my district,” said Mr. Evangelidis. “It really is a crown jewel of central Massachusetts and one of the great parks in the state.” Mr. Evangelidis recently toured the mountain with Richard Sullivan, commissioner of the Department of Conservation and Recreation, and said the meeting was very encouraging. “For me this is my priority project,” said Mr. Evangelidis. “During that visit he told me that he agrees with me that this is an important project that he would like to prioritize.” The proposed project would be broken up into four parts, beginning with acquiring $3 million to repair six miles of road which Mr. Evangelidis said have been impeding access to the mountain. “The access road itself has some really bad spots,” said Mr. Evangelidis. “Above everything else it really is a safety issue; it really is in disrepair and someone could be hurt. If you go up there and look around you can see almost sinkholes.” According to preliminary studies, Mr. Evangelidis found the second phase of the project, the revitalization of the mountain’s summit, would cost approximately $2.5 million, and is something he said is vital to attracting visitors of the park. “The summit is just a disaster area,” said Mr. Evangelidis. “You get to the top of the mountain and you cannot believe your eyes because instead of being this pristine, beautiful, quiet place to enjoy nature it is just a parking lot overgrown with antennas. We want to return the summit’s beauty and make it into a real destination point.” Mr. Evangelidis added that he was looking to remove the upper parking lot and construct a viewing platform on the summit. The third phase of the project is the reconstruction of the former superintendant’s house which Mr. Evangelidis said has become an eyesore on the property. “It will cost us a little over a million dollars for the restoration of the superintendant’s house, which we would like to ultimately see turned into an environmental education center,” said Mr. Evangelidis. “And when I showed the house to the commissioner he was quite surprised and agreed that it had to be addressed.” The final phase of the project deals with the restoration of the Bicentennial Trail, something Mr. Evangelidis said would provide visiting school groups with a short hike to the site of the future educational center. “Many school groups come here in school buses throughout the year, and there is oftentimes very little for them to do,” said Mr. Evangelidis. “And what we would like to do is create a trail that would connect the visitors center to the education center and it would probably be close to a mile.” oboss@thegardnernews.com

Appeared on Page 3 on 7/26/2008 (Vol. 206 No. 176)