LYNN — There was a great deal of pride, sunshine, and dirt on the waterfront Tuesday morning, as the Lynn Harbor Park project officially broke ground. The project came about from a “first-of-its-kind” environmental public-private partnership model and is the centerpiece of the city’s 2019 Waterfront Open Space Master Plan. Robert Delhome, founder and CEO of Charter Contracting Company, welcomed the crowd to the groundbreaking ceremony and thanked everyone in the partnership who helped make the day possible.
“Today, we will place the final tree of our first planting season as we transform over 30 acres of underutilized, former industrial land into a vibrant public space that will not only beautify the city, but also serve as a catalyst for economic revitalization,” Delhome said. Delhome said the project started in 2016, when former Mayor Thomas McGee was in office. “A unique trait of this project is the environmental public-private partnership.
Together, we took a landfill that was threatening to collapse into the harbor, creating the loss of this land and contaminants entering this spectacular waterfront and waterway,” Delhome said. “We’ve been able to fund complete remediation of the property within our control that now protects the coastline and creates a new signature public park that will serve the community for generations.” Mayor Jared Nicholson referenced Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” throughout his speech, due to the poem’s focus on transformati.