The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 18

18 THE BOSTON GLOBE TUESDAY. .11 TLY 15, 1986 hboriiioods JDg SOUTH END Hub developer offers school $60,000 deal Mackey would lease lot it owns for parking committee hearing on the proposal at 4:30 p.m. Friday. The proposal to rent School Department property to a private developer is believed to be the first of its kind, according to school officials. The proposal has been endorsed by the South End Historical Society amd the Ellis Neighborhood Association, the latter which said the vacant lot Is now a source of criminal activity "including drug trafficking." But Casper (South End-South Boston) expressed doubts about the proposal and said the School Department should first establish a policy on leasing Its unused property before approving specific requests.

"When did we get in the business of leasing school property?" said Casper. "If we're going to do that, we should put it out to bid." Casper said that on Friday he plans to request a public hearing be held within two weeks at the Mackey to determine if the community supports the proposal. Kenneth Wade of the United South End Settlement, a community and social service organization, said he would also like a public hearing on the proposal. "I think the use of public land should be guided by some clear policy that a public department guides its operation by," he said. But Roger Tackeff, chairman of the board for Renaissance, said his company has already held meetings with neighborhood groups as well as city and school officials.

In addition, Tackeff said the proposal was drawn up at the request of the neighborhood association and the historical society. "We have gone through the process of elaborate public hearings," Tackeff said. "Mr. Casper doesn't need to hold public hearings. This has gone on for so long and the Mackey frankly needs the improvements.

This Is something we want to resolve as soon as possible. Everybody wants this. We don't know anyone who doesn't want this. This Is a public-private partnership where everyone benefits, mostly the kids at the Mackey school," Tackeff said. Globe staff photosGeorge Rlzer results of inadequate maintenance.

By Peggy Hernandez Globe Staff A Boston-based developer has proposed contributing $60,600 to the Charles E. Mackey Middle School In the South End in exchange for a 25-year lease for a vacant lot owned by the school which would be converted for parking. But at least one School Committee member and one community group leader expressed doubt about the proposal. Under the proposal, the $60,600 would go toward purchasing textbooks, painting and landscaping the school, and refurbishing bathrooms, the gym, auditorium and science lab. The developer, Renaissance Properties on Berkeley Street, also proposes to spend $25,000 on Improving the vacant lot and would lease the lot from the Mackey at a minimum annual rate of $2,500.

The lot Is located between the Mackey on Warren Avenue and Clarendon Street Baptist Church, a Victorian Gothic building built in 1868 at the corner of Clarendon and Montgomery streets. The building was gutted by a fire in 1983 and Renaissance Properties plans to redevelop the seven-story building into 60 condominums and call it Two Clarendon Square. The proposal was studied by Deputy Superintendent Joseph M. McDonough who was told by a Shawmut Bank appraiser that Renaissance's offer was fair. McDonough told Superintendent Laval S.

Wilson In memo, "It Is my belief that this proposal has the potential to be a promising beginning to the School Department's desire, in the face of very limited renovation and repair monies, to explore the potential value of private partySchool Department lease arrangements." Wilson, who supports the parking lot proposal, forwarded Renaissance's request to School Committee John A. Nucct last Wednesday and asked for a telephone vote on the matter by this Friday. Yesterday, Nucci sent the matter to colleague Joseph W. Casper who plans to hold a sub- JAMAICA PLAIN "HWWWraM ,1 i White Stadium shows the t- tf )Rt jsfes tT 11 1 Many benches in the stands FRANKLIN PARK 1 hmmmx HriwipwiiPiwiiiiiL'niiiMi iimni. fljl 1 v.

i Illimr' -T' JS MWIW wnli.l. i JiiiiidHiilWHil i. jm jj I Vf v'" 1 li i awtaiwftft Hi 1 1 lil. nil ygK-wijK'iii A V5 i 4 11 'il Disagreements delay new housing project City may step in to decide who will build A closeup of one of the broken benches. Young athletes still await stadium's rehab City's promised $2m renovation of Hub students' sports facility delayed since 1984 Sift WJSHJ-SfoiWjiS are broken.

The bleachers are weather-beaten and splintered. The gridiron is circled by a cinder track, once highly regarded but now considered outmoded in an era of tracks made from hard rubber. Only flecks of paint remain on some walls. Under the bleachers, the trainers' rooms, showers and lockers are In shabby condition. According to Frank McCor-mack, a School Department employee for more than 30 years who now oversees athletic equipment for the stadium, "Ceilings leak, there Is no heat in the winter, and there Is no coed facility.

"It was a spectacular place 20 years ago. I think it can be again. Lisa Ray George, a track and field coach who works for the city's Parks and Recreation Department, said the track needs to about signs of drug abuse and are given a hotline number they can call for help. Jury is selected in manslaughter case CAMBRIDGE A Jury was selected yesterday In the manslaughter trial of a Lowell man wllh a record of 10 drunken-driving convictions who Is accused of klllA.ig a New Bedford couple by crashing Into their car while driv -Vw 1 By Pamela Jane Cox Contributing Reporter In 1984 the City of Boston said It would pump between $2 million and $3 million Into renovating Franklin Park's White Stadium. The stadium Is still waiting for Its facelift.

Fashioned after some of the nation's best football stadiums, the cement structure Is a ten-minute walk from Roxbury's Eglcston Square. The stadium, constructed for $1.1 million in 1949. is the sole athletic facility for 17 Boston public schools. Youngsters train and compete there In football, soccer, and track and field events. The stadium's 16 turnstiles, through which hundreds of spectators once filed, are coated with rust and can hardly be turned.

A' 0 process was getting the City of Boston eligibility from the state for funding." According to Frank Costello, a spokesman for the mayor, the state Department of Education refused to approve reimbursing the city for any repairs to White Stadium because the facility Is not adjacent to a school site. He said the city filed a special act to amend laws to permit the reimbursement. Last week, the Legislature's Joint Education Committee approved a bill that would allow the state to reimburse the city for Improvements at White Stadium, but the earliest It can receive consideration from the full Legislature, according to ofictals, Is next fall after another 9chool year has begun. opment of a building at 45 Milk St. Bruce M.

Gllnskl. of Lynnflcld. a former employee of Boston's Real Property Department, received a two-year prison sentence. He pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States and 16 counts of mall fraud. Joseph J.

Bcrlandl, of Chestnut Hill, a lawyer, developer and former Boston Redevelopment Authority official, received a suspended one-year sentence, two years probation and was ordered to perform 1,000 hours of community service. He pleaded guilty to mall frafid and tax violation charges. bers want brick, others prefer wood. Still others say they don't believe public parking is needed on the site. In the past few years, teachers at the Curley School have used the empty lot for parking.

Some council members say they don't object to the teachers continuing that practice, but only the Urban Edge plan provides for public parking. However council member Henry Allen said the snag results largely from concerns about density. "More housing units are contained In the Bricklayer's proposal, which means more cars In the area." he said. But Thomas Mclntyre, Bricklayers and Laborers group president, and also a member of the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council, said: "It's because the council Is new and has no experience. That's why they can't seem to make up their mind." Mclntyre said that since cither proposal will cost the city less than If the land Is used for private development, there Is no conflict of Interest In his being both a developer and a council member.

"Both proposals are good for the neighborhood." he said. "Either one Is fine with me." "The underlying problem," Mclntyre said, "Is the city Is trying to maintain the Integrity of the council. The council Is worried about what the community wants and, In the meantime, nothing Is getting done." Allen said the council may decide at Its meeting next Tuesday not to exercise Its right to make a recommendation and let the city make the decision. But Allen said the city and the developers appear willing to refine the proposals to help the council and community make a decision. "I think we all want the same thing affordable housing." he said.

"It's Just UJUng a little lon er than any of us expected." By John Maddock Contributing Reporter The Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council, one of seven created by Mayor Flynn's administration to monitor development and city services in Boston neighborhoods, Is having trouble reaching a decision on a housing project. The council and the administration all want to see affordable housing built on a foot parcel of land on Centre Street across from the Curley School. But after more than- a month of discussion, the council has not reached a decision on which of two low-income housing proposals to recommend. One proposal is from Urban Edge Housing a nonprofit organization based In Jamaica Plain, which wants to build two prefabricated, three-story structures on the site. Each building would have four housing units.

The other proposal Is from the Bricklayers and Laborers Nonprofit Housing organization of South Boston, which wants to build about 17 brick row houses similar to those erected by the same group near Andrew Square In South Boston. The city received several building proposals In April and presented two finalists to the neighborhood council In late May. Since then, the council and other community groups In Jamaica Plain have met six times trying to decide which proposal to recommend. Michael Relsklnd, a council' member, said ground might already have been broken on the lot If the city had asked the council and the community for specific guidelines before choosing the two proposals. "The proposals are too vague," Relsklnd said.

"One has too many housing units and the other has too few. We should have been consulted by the city first." Another dlsagrecmcntnvolvcs materials some council mem be replaced. "The track Is made of cinder, which is dusty and powdery. A lot of the high school kids hold their track meets on the more modern type of track, which is made of a hard rubber surface, and it is inhibiting to the performance of our kids because they train on an entirely different surface, and that makes it difficult for our runners," she said. The deterioration of the stadium, which Mayor Flynn has said was once the "premier school athletic facility in the state," has resulted in part from vandalism and in part from aging.

"The mayor Is most anxious to move forward and as quickly as possible In this rehabilitation," said Robert Consalvo. director of the city's Office of Personnel Management. "The first step in the ing drunk. Kenneth Davidson, 32. Is to be tried In Lowell, but Superior Court Judge Robert Barton moved Jury selection to Cambridge because of Intense publicity surrounding the case in Lowell.

Two evllul) officials receive sentences Two former Boston public officials were sentenced yesterday on mall fraud charges with a scheme Involving the devel C3EK7 rjUGHAUO) MEWS BQ0GF5 A ii I ill rug TV scries to national A-locally produced scries of pubDcIscrvlce announcements targClipg parental denial of drug abusaatliong teen agcrs will begin alrlrHjini television stations within the next two wecksVfklore than 100 politicians, law Tifprcement officials, corporate tHonors and drug treatment workers! gathered at the Wcstln Hot.enn!kwton last night for the premier shewing of the announcements. The spots teach parents.