I am writing to thank Richard Sylvester for voicing his support for important state assets such as Massasoit State Park in his recent letter to the Taunton Daily Gazette, “Massasoit State Park deserves funding.”
When I spoke with Mr. Sylvester earlier this week, we exchanged the concerns we share for our state parks. As Senate chairman of the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture, I helped guide the appropriations in this year’s environmental bond bill from start to finish.
Massasoit State Park is one such park that will benefit from the $2.2 billion environmental bond bill that recently passed unanimously in both the House and Senate. The bill includes more than $111 million in bond authorization for underserved parks in urban and suburban neighborhoods; $255.5 million for Department of Conservation and Recreation investments in reservations, forests, parks, harbor islands, skating rinks and swimming pools, among other projects; and about $100 million looking at DCR parkways, boulevards, multi-use trails, internal state park roads and recreational trails, pedestrian bridges and related areas.