Cumberland makes Mercy Woods land purchase
Town completes transaction for 229 acres of open space land formerly owned by Sisters of Mercy
CUMBERLAND – On Wednesday, the town and the Sisters of Mercy Northeast completed their bid to preserve 229 acres of woods and open space off Wrentham Road for future generations of Rhode Islanders.
Town Planner Jonathan Stevens who has been working toward that goal with the Sisters of Mercy for several years now, said the $1.5 million land preservation deal was completed with a closing at Town Hall Wednesday morning with the town’s and Sisters of Mercy representatives present.
“The town actually owns the property,” Stevens said of the completion of a real estate transaction that gained Town Council approval last year and required the use of state Department of Environmental Management open space acquisition funding, assistance from the Pawtucket Water Supply Board, and Champlin Foundation grant funding obtained by the Cumberland Land Trust which also contributed funding to the purchase along with the town.
A dedication of the acquired land will be held on Monday morning at the 17.5-acre section of Mercy Woods property that will ultimately host several local athletic fields, according to Stevens. Gov. Gina Raimondo, Lt. Gov. Daniel J. McKee, a former mayor of Cumberland, DEM Director Janet Coit, Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Northeast Community President-elect Maureen Mitchell, and representatives of the other participating organizations are expected to attend the outdoor ceremony.
“I’m excited about it,” Stevens said after the transaction was completed. “It’s been two and a half years and required a lot of hard work and terrific partnerships. I can’t say enough about our partners and the Sisters of Mercy,” Stevens said. Attorney Scott Partington represented the Sisters of Mercy in the transaction and Asst. Solicitor Chris Alger the town.
The Sisters, he said, had a mission to preserve their land for wildlife and public access and carried out that mission with the town’s help.
“There is an extensive trail system throughout the property that the Cumberland Land Trust will now manage,” he said.
The Sisters of Mercy land also is uphill of the Pawtucket Water Supply Board’s reservoir in Cumberland, and overall represents the second largest purchase of open space land in the town’s history, after the acquisition of the larger of the three parcels set aside as its Cumberland Monastery property off Diamond Hill Road years ago.
The Sister of Mercy acquired their land in 1913 and have maintained it as place of prayer, education and service to those in need, according to Stevens. The overall property is home to the New Dawn Center convent for the sisters, a dormitory known as Mercy Lodge, and the Sisters of Mercy Northeast Administrative Offices in a 40,000-square-foot building which all have been divided from the original 242.5 acres parcel and are not included in the town’s 229-acre purchase.
The town does have an option to acquire those properties if they are no longer needed by the Sisters of Mercy at some point in the future. The Mount St. Rita Health Center, also located off Wrentham Road was divided from the property previously and operates independent of the town’s property.
While the final draft of the acquisition was reached last year, Ste- vens said plans to acquire the land had been under consideration in various forms for several years after the Sister of Mercy began considering consolidation of their holdings in the United States. The Sisters of Mercy Northeast may eventually move to a new headquarters elsewhere, and that set the stage for completing an acquisition with the group while it was still based in Cumberland.
An initial purchase of the open space with a U.S. Forestry Service grant fell through, according to Stevens, and then the town and Sisters looked to a plan allowing development of a small portion of the overall property to assist with the costs of preserving the remaining land.
The Sisters of Mercy had a review completed on how much of their land would have to be developed for that option, and in the end it was determined that the size of the project exceeded what the Sisters and the town were comfortable with under a preservation plan, he noted.
Then in 2016, the state put out an open space preservation bond that was approved by the voters and that opened the door to a full purchase of Sisters of Mercy’s open fields and forests and wetlands with the help of other preservation contributors, he said.
The town stepped up and applied for $400,000 of the state’s available funding, and contributed another $405,000 of its own open space contribution, Stevens said.
The Pawtucket Water Supply Board contributed $300,000 and the Cumberland Land Trust $100,000 to the acquisition. The Cumberland Land Trust also applied for the $295,000 grant from the Champlin Foundation and the Nature Conservancy that was received about a month ago and completed the acquisition
Mayor William Murray supported the acquisition of the Mercy Woods land as he came on board in the mayor’s office and saw the project gain support from the Town Council and the town’s funding partners along the way, according to Stevens. By Wednesday only the signing of the closing papers remained to finish the project.
“We are grateful to everyone that participated in making this possible,” Stevens said. “Future generations of Rhode Islanders will have something special here,” he added while noting the many natural assets of the land.
“It is the town’s now and we own it. It is going to take me a little while to get used to that idea,” Stevens said.
Mayor Murray also had strong praise for the Sisters of Mercy and their intentions for setting aside their land so it may continue to sustain its wildlife and offer natural and recreational opportunities to future generations.
“They are thrilled with this because we were able to preserve that land in the way that they wanted it to be preserved,” Murray said.
“Their whole goal of owning that land was to keep it as conservation land and when they had to sell it, the town was able to step up and do what they wanted to be done,” he said.
The town will not only benefit from the protection of a great natural resource in the community and the securing of land that is part of Northern Rhode Island’s water resources, but also the agreement allowing it to develop 17.5 acres as town recreational fields, he said.
“Immediately, we are going to be able to develop 2.5 acres of fields, and then the rest of the 17.5 acres in the future,” he said. The fields will be open space recre- ation acres geared toward soccer or lacrosse, he said. Murray said he can also envision the town’s touch football league playing up on the field property which will not have any backstops for other sports.
“This is the best thing to happen to the town in the three and a half years I have been mayor,” Murray said. “The final chapter of this acquisition has been sewn up,” Murray said.
Although the land will be kept as conservation land, Murray said the Cumberland Land Trust will be managing the extensive walking trail system through the property and maintaining the trails as they do other open space acquisitions in the community.
“They have a very good track record for that,” Murray said of the local organization.
Murray said he is looking forward to Monday when Gov. Raimondo, Lt. Gov. McKee, and Coit will be joining Sister Marie Kieslich and Sr. Mitchell, himself and the preservation organizations to commemorate the land’s acquisition.
“This is a big day for us and big day for my administrative team, including my chief of staff George Stansfield and our planning director, Jonathan Stevens,” Murray said.
Murray also commended Sister Marie, who is retiring in a month, and also worked hard to bring everything together to the desired conclusion.
“She worked hard with us on this and she trusted me and I trusted her,” he said. “It was something the Sisters wanted to see happen with their land and we were able to pull it all together,” Murray said.