Beverly City Hall, Lynch Park, Fire Station, Parks Projects Updated

BEVERLY, MA — Beverly Mayor Mike Cahill responded to repeated City Council requests for more regular updates and transparency on capital projects and the city's long-term capital spending plan with a series of progress reports on projects ranging from the City Hall renovation, to proposed improvements at the Central Fire Station, to what could be considered an ominous reality of what will need to happen to preserve Lynch Park amid rising sea levels.

The updates were requested amid a disconnect between the Council and the mayor's office on a proposed Beverly Public Library renovation that ballooned from $3.5 million to $18 million during a prolonged stretch in which Council members said they had little insight into the process.

Cahill said he now intends to present the Council with updates in person quarterly with written updates monthly.

Among the updates shared on Monday night were plans for a somewhat scaled-down City Hall renovation that will include reusing many of the current spaces but will still cost an estimated $25 million.

"It turned out the designs that would really take this and make it a really different building were not realistic financially," Cahill said.

Cahill said recent redesigns include retaining City Council chambers, expanding the footprint from 25,000 square feet to about $36,000 when incorporating the former police station, adding an HVAC system for the first two floors and improving it for the third floor, including "many more bathrooms" that would be gender neutral, and would move both health and inspectional services back to the main building.

He said the timeline includes presenting the design to the Council for final approval in the summer of 2025 with an 18-month estimated construction time to follow.

Cahill said the $6.2 million Youth Center project, funded through $5.2 million in ARPA funds and federal and state grants will go out to bid in July and is expected to be done in September 2025.

He also touched on a June 6 ribbon cutting for the expansion of the Moraine Farm Community Center, improvements to the Simon Street Pocket Parks, Holcroft Park, Birch Plains Pickleball courts and the tennis courts at Cahill and Kimball-Haskell parks, among others.

Cahill said a longer-term plan will have to be devised for what could be a very different Lynch Park down the line because of climate change.

"There were several scenarios that were presented to the public a couple of Saturdays ago and they are all pretty jarring in terms of how we may look at our everyday use of the park in the future and how we may anticipate and allow for the ocean to occupy parts of the park," he said, "in order that we may continue to enjoy most of it."

He said the Dunham Road roundabout project is targeting final design in 2025 with construction between 2025 and 2026. He said another part of that project may ultimately have to be a highway overpass instead of the possibility of an interchange.

Pressed on needed renovations to the Central Street Fire Station, he said plans will be brought forth early next month for a new roof, window work, doors, HVAC, and that will likely include the need for more city funding.

Not addressed was the library project — which Mayor Cahill and City Councilors continued to debate with dueling letters to Patch following the failure of the project to gain Council support — as well as any update on the Hall-Whitaker or Kernwood Bridge projects, which are both being overseen by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)