Franklin Park struggles with snow piles

Following a record-setting winter, Franklin Park is reeling from the mess left behind by snow piles created by City snow crews.

Franklin Park served as one of the city’s many snow farms, receiving excess snow from other parts of the city. Now that that surplus snow is melting, Franklin Park Coalition (FPC) President Christine Poff told the Gazette, the mess is “a huge issue.”

The city “used several locations in the park as snow farms and they are filthy, filled with trash and black with soot. It’s really horrible,” she said. “We were so sympathetic that the city needed to put that snow somewhere, but it’s too much. This is parkland, not available space, and [the snow] limited park access this winter and will continue to [do so] this spring.”

The city Department of Public Works (DPW) “moved it around some to create access in the golf course parking lot, but the snow should never have been put in a public park. It’s hard to encourage people to get out and celebrate the end of winter,” she said.

Boston Parks and Recreation Department spokesperson Ryan Woods told the Gazette that his department is working with DPW “to clean up these areas as soon as possible.”

According to Woods, DPW removed over 400 truck-loads of snow last week; has sent a sweeper by daily; and has sent hand crews to clean up frozen areas where they can. Woods also said that DPW also plans to continue to remove trash and fix damaged infrastructure as the snow melts.

Woods said the City used two parking lots—the inner parking lot of the William Devine Golf Club House and the Valley Gates lot on Circuit Drive—as temporary snow farms, but Poff said that the park’s problem areas also include the “parking along the Playstead behind the zoo, the Refectory Hill parking lot, White stadium basketball courts and a few other smaller sites.”

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