Dorchester Projects Prospects Murky
Dorchester Project's Prospects Murky
By Peter Gelzinis, Boston Herald, Friday, April 10, 2009
Few ideas make as much sense as the plan to expand Dorchester’s Codman Square Health Center and the charter high school it spawned, Codman Academy.
When Bill Walczak, the center’s director, and Meg Campbell, the school’s director, first imagined converting a weary adjacent parcel the health center owns into a 32,800-square-foot addition, their plan was to tap into the usual array of deep private pockets to meet a rather modest goal of $15 million.
But the economy tanked, and the pockets emptied.
Enter President Obama - with a pot of federal stimulus money designed to revitalize the nation’s health centers.
Terrific!
Now all Walczak and Campbell have to do is dive into a national scrum of health center folks, all competing - and clawing - for their piece of stimulus pie.
“What Bill and Meg have proposed has the overwhelming support of the (Dorchester) community,” said the district congressman, U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano. “And it has my total support as well.
“As far as I’m concerned, what Bill Walczak has done in Codman has earned all of our support. It’s just an extraordinary story,” Capuano added.
But if enthusiastic political support were enough to snag a crucial dollop of stimulus dough, the trio of abandoned houses that now sits behind the health center and on the corner of Norfolk Street would be demolished.
All the plans and specs are finished. Right now, the Codman project meets the definition of “shovel ready.” Indeed, Walczak said if the stimulus request comes through, work on the foundation could begin by October.
But . . . and there’s always a but.
“The (stimulus application) process is not as clean as we’d like,” Capuano said, in his best attempt at understatement.
Translation: Capuano, Rep. Stephen Lynch, and Sens. John Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy are ready to unleash a lobbying blitz. Problem is, no one’s quite sure who to lobby, or how many Obama folks need to be button-holed.
“There’s a lot of (stimulus) money out there,” Capuano said, “and 10 times as many worthy projects competing for it.”
But in the entire country, there is only one inner-city health center, where students from the neighborhood, who attend class six days a week, have the chance to study alongside medical professionals.
And for the past eight years, this unique story has played out in close quarters at Codman Square.
It needs to grow.
Few ideas make as much sense as the plan to expand Dorchester’s Codman Square Health Center and the charter high school it spawned, Codman Academy.
When Bill Walczak, the center’s director, and Meg Campbell, the school’s director, first imagined converting a weary adjacent parcel the health center owns into a 32,800-square-foot addition, their plan was to tap into the usual array of deep private pockets to meet a rather modest goal of $15 million.
But the economy tanked, and the pockets emptied.
Enter President Obama - with a pot of federal stimulus money designed to revitalize the nation’s health centers.
Terrific!
Now all Walczak and Campbell have to do is dive into a national scrum of health center folks, all competing - and clawing - for their piece of stimulus pie.
“What Bill and Meg have proposed has the overwhelming support of the (Dorchester) community,” said the district congressman, U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano. “And it has my total support as well.
“As far as I’m concerned, what Bill Walczak has done in Codman has earned all of our support. It’s just an extraordinary story,” Capuano added.
But if enthusiastic political support were enough to snag a crucial dollop of stimulus dough, the trio of abandoned houses that now sits behind the health center and on the corner of Norfolk Street would be demolished.
All the plans and specs are finished. Right now, the Codman project meets the definition of “shovel ready.” Indeed, Walczak said if the stimulus request comes through, work on the foundation could begin by October.
But . . . and there’s always a but.
“The (stimulus application) process is not as clean as we’d like,” Capuano said, in his best attempt at understatement.
Translation: Capuano, Rep. Stephen Lynch, and Sens. John Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy are ready to unleash a lobbying blitz. Problem is, no one’s quite sure who to lobby, or how many Obama folks need to be button-holed.
“There’s a lot of (stimulus) money out there,” Capuano said, “and 10 times as many worthy projects competing for it.”
But in the entire country, there is only one inner-city health center, where students from the neighborhood, who attend class six days a week, have the chance to study alongside medical professionals.
And for the past eight years, this unique story has played out in close quarters at Codman Square.
It needs to grow.
