by Frank Schroth

At the most recent meeting of the Board of Selectmen there was vigorous discussion of the hybrid plan to add additional parking to East Milton Square by redeveloping the park that currently sits over the Expressway with a parking lot. It does not look like that will happen.

The town had retained the service of Howard Stein Hudson to assess the parking and recommend possible solutions. (You can find previous articles on this issue here). After several months of study, the recommendation was to look at replacing the Manning park with parking. This would also require revising the traffic patterns in the square. Traffic entering the square heading east on Adams would be routed around in a circle type fashion. Traffic would flow to right onto Bryant, then left of Boulevard, and left on Granite. Residents, including former Fire Chief Affanato, opposed this as it would be an onerous route for large vehicles and potentially dangerous (view Mr. Affanato’s letter on this topic here).

After discussion the selectmen voted 2-1 to move forward with a trial of the  revised traffic flow. However, moving forward with the park will require that it be that the legislature vote to allow it by a majority of 2/3. Representatives Galvin and Scaccia have indicated that will not support a change in the status of the park and therefore it is unlikely to win the majority of a vote. The park is named in honor of Milton resident Joseph Manning who served in the House for many years.

On a separate matter, the Selectmen also named additional people to the committee that is being formed to review town government. Former Town Administrator John Cronin and former Warrant Committee Chair Kathleen Conlon have been appointed. Leroy Walker of the School Committee and Ewan Innes, Chair of the Warrant Committee have also been named. A member of the Board of Selectmen, yet to be named will join them. Previously, the Selectmen had appointed Robert Gatnik to one of the resident slots.