City awards $20,000 grant to Friends of Christopher Columbus Park

Jeremy C. Fox for Boston.com

Christopher Columbus Park.

By Jeremy C. Fox, Town Correspondent

The City of Boston has awarded a parkland improvement grant to the Friends of Christopher Columbus Park, the organization announced Tuesday.

The $20,000 Beautify Boston grant will allow the all-volunteer friends group to begin a process of redesigning, expanding, and irrigating the Crossroads Circle area in the southeast corner of the park, near the Boston Marriott Long Wharf hotel, the group said in a statement.

“FOCCP is thrilled to receive this grant, which reflects a vote of confidence that the city has in our all-volunteer organization,” Joanne Hayes-Rines, president of the group, said in the statement. “We’ve wanted to beautify the arid circle for years and transform it into a tranquil ‘mini-park’ within one of the city’s most beautiful open spaces, Christopher Columbus Park.”

The work will fulfill the intent of a 2001 city-led renovation that lacked funding to complete work envisioned for this corner of the park, the group said. It said the area has also seen increased use since the opening of a nearby ferry terminal to the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.

The total cost of the project is expected to be about $80,000.

The Blossom Fund of the Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America also recently awarded the friends group a $10,000 grant for Crossroads Circle improvements. The friends group plans to contribute a large sum to the project, Hayes-Rines said in the statement, and to make up the balance through donations from local residents and businesses.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino created the Beautify Boston Grant Program last year to distribute grants of $5,000 to $25,000 to non-profit organizations for highly visible beautification and infrastructure projects that enhance usability and make lasting improvements in the surrounding neighborhoods.

“Our partners, including those in the North End, help to keep our city livable and beautiful, and we want to help them in these efforts,” Menino said in the statement.

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