On Thursday, a City Council subcommittee will take up a discussion of the city’s Riverwalk—and fans of the walking and bike path along the Connecticut River have a long list of the issues they hope will be on the table.
An ad-hoc citizens’ group—members include some of the city’s finest, and fiercest, community activists, among them Sheila McElwaine, Bob McCarroll, Bill Malloy, Carol Costa, and Springfield Intruder blogger Bill Dusty—has been working hard to promote Riverwalk in recent years. It’s been a battle waged on multiple fronts; in addition to trying to counter a public perception that the riverfront area is unsafe, the group has also pressed to get city government more involved in keeping the area safe, clean, and generally welcoming.
In a release about tomorrow’s meeting of the Council’s Maintenace and Development Committee, the citizens’ group offers a lengthy list of topics that members hope will be discussed. Among them : improved maintenance efforts at Riverfront Park and the surrounding area and enforcement of ordinances requiring property owners to keep their sites clean; addressing the “dysfunctional” elevator at the skybridge near LA Fitness; “renegotiation of Bassett Boat’s lease on the city-owned building it occupies on West Street”; and promotion efforts for Riverwalk. Also on the group’s wish list: connecting Riverwalk with trails in Chicopee and Agawam, and developing “a governmental or non-profit entity to oversee activities on the Riverfront.”
The committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 9, at 4 p.m. in Room 200 of City Hall.
