Boston Council Committee Backs $1.475 Million in Brown Fund Park and Memorial Grants

BOSTON — February 6, 2023 — Boston City Council committee recommends $1.475 million in Brown Fund grants for parks, memorials, and public art citywide. The Committee on City Services and Innovation Technology, chaired by Councilor Liz Breadon, advanced Docket 0211 on February 6 for a full Council vote expected February 8, with the unusually large appropriation covering two years of distributions after no awards were made in 2021. Treasury trust manager Margaret Dyson and first assistant collector-treasurer Maureen Garceau presented more than a dozen funded projects including a Coconut Grove fire memorial at Statler Park, lighting for the William Lloyd Garrison statue on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, a Frederick Douglass Sculpture Memorial in Roxbury, and a Chinatown worker statue. A newly created dedicated repair and restoration fund — embedded in this year's appropriation for the first time — will allow staff to address maintenance needs under $50,000 without returning to commissioners. Councilor Flaherty, the Council's Brown Fund representative, called the repair fund "ingenious" and said he plans to bring a similar model to the Community Preservation Act program.