A New Location: Walden St. Basketball Courts Being Eyed for New Fire Station

The town basketball courts on Walden Street could be a viable location for a new fire station. At Tuesday night’s town council meeting, Town Manager Tony Marino said the site of the courts is large enough to accommodate a proposed fire station, but that there could be some issues with parking.

The town is expected to include the basketball court site along with three other sites in a public survey gauging public opinion on a new fire station location.

Those other sites include the old middle school, the Little League A field site, and the Wadsworth building site – which failed to win the support of voters for an override vote last fall. “We did measure it out using the existing plans we have; it looks like it will fit with some site work,” said Marino of the basketball court site.  Marino said that parking is limited, but there could be the opportunity to create some more parking along Walden.

“More to follow, but I am getting some pricing from (the project consultant) to analyze that site a little bit and just to see – we know what the building will cost for the most part – but what will the site work cost,” said Marino. Precinct 2 Councilor John Munson said he has heard some concerns from residents about the popularity of the basketball courts.

Council President Jim Letterie said that if the site is selected, the town is looking at a plan to potentially relocate the two basketball courts. “That gets a lot of use from the Cummings School, and recreational use in general,” said Letterie. “We want to be very cognizant of pickup in the afternoon, because that street gets very busy, and there are 20 spaces there that we are cognizant of and we would want to try to look at relocating.”

Letterie said the site is feasible enough for the town to try to secure money to have its consultant create more detailed plans for the lot. Precinct 1 Councilor Pat Costigan said the previous plans from the consultant show that the basketball court property should be able to hold a new firehouse without limiting parking.

Costigan also said that the town, in its negotiations with the MWRA and Massport, should be asking them to chip in with money for the development of the Ingleside Park area to help mitigate the potential loss of the basketball courts.

“The Ingleside park locale, that was donated to the town for recreation, so let’s not forget that,” said Costigan. “If we are displacing two basketball courts for the town, I think that beats displacing businesses and eminent domain, as I mentioned at previous meetings. I think we should really consider this seriously.”