Gov. plans new park

Patrick uses Earth Day to plug Neponset River Esplanade plan

BOSTON. On a picturesque Earth Day, Gov. Deval Patrick rang in the 2008 park season with a renewed call to invest in open spaces and a charge to state residents to clean up and utilize the state’s 450,000 acres of parks and beaches.

After strolling from the Statehouse to Boston’s Hatch Shell under a warm sun and cloudless sky, Patrick highlighted a $5.18 million proposal to establish a Neponset River Esplanade in Dorchester as an example of his administration’s commitment to the environment. Patrick said the new park would be the first urban park developed in seven years.

The proposal, part of the governor’s planned $1.4 million environmental bond bill, would fund a rehabilitation of the Martini Shell along the Truman Parkway, extend a bike trail from Mattapan Square to the Martini Shell and add a canoe and kayak launch nearby. The administration estimates the work would be complete by the spring of 2010, the 100-year anniversary of the Charles River Esplanade.

“This project will consist of both woodland and meadow landscape,” he said. “With the approval in the coming months of the energy and environment bond bill, there is more to come.”