Politics & Government

Sullivan: Braintree Close to Achieving Petersen Pool After Decades of Effort

Tugboat Capt. Julius Petersen left money for a pool to Braintree. The fund grew over the decades to $2 million.

A few minutes after cutting the ribbon on the Petersen Splash Pad at Watson Park Sunday, Mayor Joseph Sullivan gestured to the completed water play area and spoke of the new turf fields at Braintree High School

Both projects were components of a plan laid out by Sullivan in December 2010 that also included an ice rink and pool at BHS, funded in part by money left to the town by tugboat Capt. August Julius Petersen.

“We’ve accomplished 70 percent of what we’ve laid out,” Sullivan said.

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But the athletic complex, originally intended as a pool for Watson Park but blocked by neighborhood opposition, has proven a more difficult undertaking, even as town officials zero in on a building plan.

Earlier this year, members of the evaluation committee deemed two plans pitched by bidders looking to design, construct and operate the pool and ice rink unsatisfactory. Both bids scored low marks in areas such as building plans and financing detail, according to members of the evaluation committee that sent the proposals on to Sullivan this spring.

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The bids were submitted by Braintree residents Carl Zingarelli, a longtime Babe Ruth volunteer, and Robert W. Norton, an attorney with an office in Quincy. Norton is in negotiations now with the mayor’s office.

Sullivan said he could not go into detail about the bids or the negotiations with Norton because of legal implications, but said that Norton has a “track record” of building rinks.

Norton, a personal injury lawyer with the firm Giarrusso Norton Cooley & McGlone, PC, is also listed with the National Hockey League Players’ Association as a certified player agent. He has not responded to requests for comment.

After the evaluations came back as unsatisfactory, Sullivan said he chose not to go back out to bid, arguing that the entire 50-year history of the Petersen process could be called “unsatisfactory,” but that the town is closer now than ever to realizing the captain’s request.

“We viewed this as the best chance to get this done,” Sullivan said. “Our goal is to get this done, but in a way that protects the town’s interests.”

The town had originally hoped to break ground last fall and have the athletic complex operating by the end of 2013. It offered bidders $1.5 million from a fund set up in Petersen’s name after he died in 1963. He put aside $65,000 over the years the fund grew to more than $2 million.

Under a 30- to 50-year contract, the town would retain ownership of the land at BHS, between the football field and Granite Street, and would be able to take over or re-bid the property if the operator failed to comply with the terms, according to details the mayor’s office previously released. The plan is for an indoor pool and ice rink that will have public skate times and availability for local teams.

Zingarelli, in an interview earlier this summer, said that he offered revenue-generating ideas for the complex, such as getting auto dealers to sponsor the rink and leasing space to a function hall, driving school and/or health club, and was willing to work on the project even if he did not earn the contract.

Those kinds of add-ons “get us beyond our mission,” Sullivan said.

In his State of the Town address in February, Sullivan promised that the Petersen Pool would be built starting this year.

“I’m still intending to achieve it,” Sullivan said Sunday. “That said, we’re not going to rush into it.”


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