Community Interest: Alderman Lisle Baker, Newton, Massachusetts

Community Interest

Here are several activities of interest to the Newton Community:

Crossing Guard returns to Lorna Road and Waverley Avenue

As a result of work by Ald. Baker and others with Mayor Cohen and the Chief of Police, the school crossing guard at Waverley and Lorna Road has been restored. Parents of children attending the Ward School had been concerned about the loss of the Guard last year. A crossing guard returned to the post on Monday, November 17, 2003.

The Ward Garden Project

The Ward Garden Project is a curriculum-based program connecting our children to the earth and our community. The children arrive in September to a garden in full bloom. In class they learn about what's growing in their grade bed and why. They will replant their bed in the spring for the following year's students. Parents and community volunteers are needed to help in the classroom and the garden with grade specific harvest activities, fall clean-up, Seed Planting Day and summer watering. As the Project focuses on community, we are putting together a community network group to connect with our senior, private school and empty nest neighbors in the Ward district. 75% of our neighborhood is not affiliated with Ward School and most of these families would like to feel connected. Our goal is to connect and network through adult and family focused events, such as: a harvest supper & hoe down, perennial swap, neighborhood garden tour and other garden related events. Anyone interested in getting connected should contact wardgardenproject@comcast.net

Houghton Garden reopening

Lisle participated in the reopening of historic Houghton Garden within the Webster Conservation Area on Suffolk Road in Newton. Lisle helped lead efforts within the Board of Aldermen to support rehabilitating the Houghton Garden. He also worked with Rep. Balser and other state officials, as well as Newton Mayor David Cohen, the Newton Conservation Commission and its staff, and concerned citizens, including members of the Chestnut Hill Garden Club, to enable the Garden to be rehabilitated.

See full text of press release on Houghton Garden ceremony (opens a new browser window).

Houghton Garden opening

Standing far left to right: Nancy Avery, member of the Chestnut Hill Garden Club, Martha Ahern Horn, Senior Environmental Planner for the City of Newton, and Helen Heyn, Associate Member of the Newton Conservation Commission, State Representative Ruth Balser, and Lisle Baker.