Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council

Woonasquatucket River Greenway Project

Overview	The Bike Path is Here! See the map below or click here for a printable PDF of the map.
History & Goals
Accomplishments & Future Plans
Merino Park
Brownfields
67 Melissa Street - Lincoln Lace & Braid
Master Plan
Virtual Tour
Partners & Funders
Get Involved
Resources

Click for a printable PDF version of this map

Overview


	River Rangers work with local youth to provide summer programs in Donigian and Merino Parks.

The Woonasquatucket River Greenway Project is a catalyst for renewal along the Woonasquatucket River in Providence. The green linear park will revitalize a major hidden natural resource on the West Side of the City and become a destination for neighborhood residents and people throughout Providence and Rhode Island. A bicycle/pedestrian path will link recreational areas, green spaces, destination sites, and the neighborhoods of Manton, Hartford, and Valley, as well as Olneyville and Smith Hill (Enterprise Community neighborhoods) to Waterplace Park in downtown Providence.

The Greenway and restored parks will provide needed urban recreation areas, address local transportation needs, and promote restoration of abandoned industrial sites and impaired riverbank habitats. The Greenway will also provide economic reinvestment opportunities in the river corridor.

History & Goals

The Woonasquatucket River Greenway Project was started by The Providence Plan in 1994. At the time, there were only 2.1 acres of park space per 1,000 residents, and of the three parks along the river, one was undeveloped (Dyerville Park) and one was closed (Merino Park). The Greenway Project was initiated based on the underlying theory that green spaces and active recreation opportunities are essential elements of any healthy community. Parks with active recreation programs contribute to the stabilization of neighborhoods and have been shown to prevent/reduce crime.

The project’s main goals are to increase the recreational and green space available to local residents, promote economic development and reduce crime, promote river conservation and environmental action, and increase awareness of local history and river ecology.

Accomplishments & Future Plans


	Two Trail Mix riders from Providence pose with Senator Chafee at the Statehouse where Trail Mix 2000 culminated with entertainment and refreshments.

The Woonasquatucket River Greenway Project is recognized as a model community revitalization effort that will continue Providence’s rediscovery of its rivers and natural resources, channeling development into some of the more disadvantaged areas of the city.

• Three parks (Donigian, Merino, and Dyerville (now Buttonhole Golf Course)) along the Greenway have been renovated and reopened, and the new Riverside Mills Park is in the process of being built.

• The Rhode Island Department of Transportation has completed the design of phase II of the bicycle path, which will begin at Riverside Mills Park in Olneyville and end at Lymans Avenue in Johnston. Construction is expected to begin in the fall of 2005.

• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has selected the Woonasquatucket River Greenway Project and the State of Rhode Island as a Brownfields Showcase Community.

• The Woonasquatucket River was designated in 1998 as an American Heritage River, one of only 14 in the country. The Greenway Project was instrumental in organizing a coalition of watershed communities to work for this designation. This coalition is what became the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council.

• The Woonasquatucket River Watershed has been designated a pilot watershed project by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.

The Greenway will include 5.7 miles of paths and green spaces stretching from the Johnston-Providence line to Waterplace Park in downtown Providence. The Greenway will promote economic reinvestment in the neighborhoods and on the Brownfields while developing recreational and environmental education opportunities along the river. Community plans include continued programming in Donigian and Merino Parks, as well as at Button Hole Golf Course. These three anchor parks provide a destination for residents who enjoy the Greenway.

Merino Park

In a few hours this bit of bare ground became a playground!

Setting up some of the playground equipment

Hard at work painting one of the basketball poles

Carrying one of the newly built benches to a spot near the playground

Councilman Igliozzi (& sons), Lisa Aurecchia, Mayor Cicilline, and Staples' president of North American delivery, Joe Doody cutting the ribbon for the new playground!

All pictures are by Steve Spiegel from Staples. Lots more of his photographs of tbe "Build Day" at Merino Park have been posted here.

The finished playground

Merino Park has been the site of my Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council projects over the years. In May of 2008 it became the site of one of the largest one-day projects in our history! Fortunately, we had some great partners to work with, including the national non-profit KaBOOM!, Staples, the Providence Parks Department, The Providence Housing Authority and numerous community volunteers who together helped transform Merino Park in just one day! On that one day, Wednesday May 21, there were 359 volunteers in the park and here is some of what we accomplished:

Built a new 5000 square foot playground
Built 20 new benches for the park
Painted and installed ten new exercise signs
Adding a new trail to the park from Flower St., off Hartford Ave., which will make it much easier for neighborhood residents to walk to the park.
Spread 265 cubic yards of mulch
Installed 840 liner feet of new fencing along the highway
Painted and installed five new trash cans
Painted four new games painted on pathway
Repainted the lines and backstops on the basketball court
Painted and installed two new Merino Parks Signs
Built a new community bulletin board and bike path/greenway map
Pulled 54 tires out of the river
Collected 40 cubic yards of garbage (that's a full dumpster)

The Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council would like to extend our thanks to:

Staples who provided tons of volunteers and $53,000 to make this possible
Councilman Igliozzi who expeditiously came up with his donation to make it possible for us to move forward with the original application for this project
The KaBOOM! team who were the master coordinators
The Providence Housing Authority Staff and children
Special thanks to the Providence Housing Hartford Park Maintenance staff that went the distance for us installing signs, trail clearing, cleaning -- you name it
The Providence Parks Department and Providence Department of Public Works
And last but not least, thanks to the many others groups and volunteers that came to help out, including Bank of America, the US Attorneys Office, the Institute for Peace and Non Violence, Perry Middle School, Providence Head Start, and local community members!

Thanks as well to the folks who made in-kind donations for this amazing event:

Cozy Caterer's
Dunkin Donuts
Home Depot
NY Systems
Price Rite
Terrell Osborne "Music One" DJ
Trinity Repertory Theater
Wes's Rib House

Here are some links to media coverage of the event:

Brownfields

There are a variety of "brownfields" within the Greenway Project area. The US EPA definition of a brownfield is "an abandoned, idled, or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination." For more information on brownfields and on the Brownfield Showcase Community designation click here.

67 Melissa Street - Lincoln Lace & Braid

One of the brownfields in the Greenway Project Area is the Lincoln Lace & Braid mill site, in the Hartford neighborhood of Providence, just up river from Merino Park. The mill buildings burned down in 1994 and the flat area where the buildings were located is being cleaned up by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM). West of the mill site is a parcel of land that was used as a landfill from approximately 1960 to 1975. The official name for this part of the site is "67 Melissa Street." The Trust for Public Land purchased 67 Melissa Street in 1998 to be developed as part of the Woonasquatucket River Greenway.

More details, including regular project updates, are available at the Trust for Public Lands web site.

Master Plan

A copy of the Greenway Master Plan is available here (PDF Format - about PDF format). This is a 53 page document (1.4 MB) so it will take a few minutes to download over a dial-up connection.

Virtual Tour

Click here to go to a virtual tour of the proposed Woonasquatucket River Greenway in Providence.

Partners & Funders

The Woonasquatucket River Greenway Project collaborates with a broad range of partners in local and state government agencies, the private sector, the academic community, and the nonprofit sector.

The Greenway Project is funded by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund, Merck Family Fund, Prince Charitable Trust, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Transportation, The Rhode Island Foundation, Citizens Bank of Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, and the National Park Service.

Get Involved


	American Heritage River Mural above Routes 6 & 10 in Providence.

You can make a difference! Here are some ways you can: you can help create a cleaner environment, and improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods along the Woonasquatucket River

Write a letter
Make a donation
Volunteer: As we try to build stewardship of the parks and greenspaces along the Woonasquatucket we find that community volunteers are key to our success. Past volunteers have enjoyed helping us plant flowers, paint murals, and staff the annual Greenway Festival. They've also helped us during community and park clean-ups and by donating various services to our program. If you are interested in volunteering or want to know more about our programs please email Lisa Aurecchia, or call her at (401) 861-9046.

Resources

We provide slide shows about the Woonasquatucket River and the Greenway Project to interested parties. The slide show is adaptable based on your group's needs. In the past we have presented at schools, community centers, senior centers, and other community locations.

We have brochures and display boards that can be set up at your organization or event to showcase to inform the public about the Greenway Project and about the Brownfields along the Woonasquatucket River.

We offer river tours to small groups who are interested in going out and seeing the Woonasquatucket first hand and learning more about the Greenway Project in the field. These tours depend on the availability of funding for transportation and the availability of our staff to lead these tours.

For more information on any of the above resourcese please email Lisa Aurecchia, or call her at (401) 861-9046.