In the dumps

City officials argue a plan to bring street waste into Green Hill is the only way to save the long abused park. But opponents say they've been dumped on long enough.

by Kristen Lombardi

Gary Dusoe, co-chair of the Coalition for Green Hill Park, stands before residents in jeans, suspenders, and a shirt bearing the word "Trendsetter," which is exactly what he and his colleagues have become. Unusual in the city's recent history, citizens like Dusoe have embraced activism by forming a grassroots organization, a "public watchdog to assure Green Hill Park remain forever open space." Coalition members are spreading the word on a city plan to use street waste to cap an existing landfill at Green Hill. Now flanked by co-chair Brian McCarthy, Dusoe talks to a dozen members of Park Spirit, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving Worcester parks.

Since the coalition formed this spring, members have fiercely opposed a city proposal to dump street-sweepings and catch-basin materials at the 25-year-old Green Hill dumpsite over three to 12 years. To draw attention to their protest, the coalition's 60 members have embarrassed city officials by showing up at meetings with photographs of concrete and rusty playground equipment illegally discarded in the landfill off Skyline Drive. Members arrived unexpectedly at a June meeting between city and state officials over the controversial landfill proposal, which had delayed a grant approval for park improvements. Recently, the coalition stepped into the political arena to forward its agenda -- to fight any plan that didn't call for the immediate capping of the landfill with toxin-free materials.

Now in front of Park Spirit directors, Dusoe runs through objections to the city plan -- it would raise the landfill's height, then expand it into woodlands, he says. More important, Dusoe says, it would bring trucks carrying street waste into the park that officials call Worcester's "jewel."

"The city doesn't want to say it's dumping waste in a park," Dusoe tells the crowd. "But make no mistake about it -- officials don't want these materials [either]. They need a place to dump them, and they're willing to dump in a park."

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Despite what strikes coalition members as an absurd political fight -- namely, trying to stop officials from dumping in a park -- they're gearing up for what could be the city's most contentious political battle this year.

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Officials have steadfastly defended the plan, put forth by Department of Public Works Commissioner Robert Moylan, because it represents a "low-cost solution for the disposal of street-sweepings and catch-basin materials," Moylan writes to City Manager Thomas Hoover. The city would use money it saved to create recreational facilities at the dumpsite, and officials add that the plan calls for the street-sweepings to be used to cap the old landfill forever.

"The capping plan . . . becomes a financing vehicle to enhance the park and add to its value and should not be viewed as a liability or detriment to the park," Moylan maintains in a June 27 letter.

But cost arguments aren't convincing. A woman with knitted brow and keen eyes mentions that her daughter, who plays soccer on fields atop the dumpsite, has fallen on shards of glass known to leach from underground.

"I don't think we should wait to cap the landfill," she says.

Another woman recalls a similar city proposal from 1989, which prompted Green Hill neighbors to speak out. The woman, Edith Morgan, Park Spirit vice-president and coalition member, says neighbors voiced enough outrage to stop the plan but, after they won, residents stopped being active. This time, Morgan says with clenched fists, neighbors have organized and launched a protest. This time, they will force officials to explain the plan's merits.

After years of citizen disinterest, the administration's now facing the kind of opposition that could conceivably thwart its plan. Despite what strikes coalition members as an absurd political fight -- namely, trying to stop officials from dumping in a park -- they're gearing up for what could be the city's most contentious political battle this year. And, because of sophisticated tactics the group's prepared to use, the coalition may win.

On to part 2 Kristen Lombardi can be reached at klombardi[a]phx.com.