Akroyd overlap questioned

LENOX – After three years of waiting, the new Kennedy Park entrance on Aspinwall Road, designed by local landscape architect Robert Akroyd, is finally slated to be built.

Questions remain, however, concerning whether or not there was significant overlap between Mr. Akroyd designing the entrance, and his service on the Kennedy Park Committee.

“It feels good,” he said, when asked by The Beacon about the project finally coming to fruition.

Until very recently, Mr. Akroyd was a member of the Kennedy Park Committee, which he resigned from earlier this month. When asked why he did so, Mr. Akroyd said he wanted to spend more time with his two sons and was also resigning as chairman of the board of trustees of the library for similar reasons.

“I’m pulling back to spend more time with my family, more time with my business,” he said.

He added his resignation had nothing to do with any perceived conflict of interest between his designing of the entrance and his serving on the committee.

Mr. Akroyd maintained that he sold the plans for the Kennedy Park entrance to the town before he was appointed to the committee. He also said that when the project came down off the shelf, he consulted with the state ethics commission about the appropriateness of his staying on the committee while it was being implemented.

“They said I could do this as long as I followed a few procedures,” he said.

The minutes of the Kennedy Park Committee tell a different story than Mr. Akroyd’s account.

On Oct. 15, 2008, the first proposal for installing a small parking lot at the Aspinwall Road entrance was made to the Kennedy Park Commitee by then Selectman Steve Pavlosky. No designs or plans were presented in conjunction with this proposal.

The committee met next on April 15, 2009. They observed a moment of silence for the recent passing of Steve Greenfield, and Mr. Akroyd was appointed to the committee to fill his place.

He then presented a plan to the committee for the parking plot that had been discussed at the last meeting, which his firm had drawn up. Mr. Akroyd agreed to revise the drawings, in response to committee input, and present them again at the next meeting.

“Rob Akroyd presented a plan his firm has drawn to make a small parking lot in front of the water tank on Aspinwall Road,” read the minutes.

This presentation was done after Mr. Akroyd’s appointment.

The minutes also show the first mention of a plaque to honor Sam Greenfield, a key feature of the Kennedy Park entrance, at the April 15 meeting.

“To honor Sam Greenfield for his long time dedication to the Park Coakley proposed putting a brass plaque on a bench. A motion was made and accepted to name the new parking lot for Sam – we could put a plaque on the new kiosk that is proposed for that area,” read the minutes.

The parking lot and the kiosk honoring Sam Greenfield were discussed at the Kennedy Park committee’s April 29 and Nov. 18 meetings as well.

“…the lot will be paved, lines painted, a kiosk in place and landscaping,” read the minutes from Nov. 18.

The minutes appear to show Mr. Akroyd presented and revised his plans for the entrance while serving as a member of the Kennedy Park committee. This appears to contradict his statements to The Beacon that he sold the plans to the town before he was appointed. Mr. Akroyd did not return a call asking that he clarify this discrepancy.

Posted by Bera B. Dunau on September 27, 2012. Filed under Community News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry