NEWBURYPORT — Ripping off park benches from their bases with crowbars and installing brand new replacements, Department of Public Services staff along with City Improvement Society (CIS) volunteers were hard at work in Market Square Tuesday beginning a project set to stretch into next spring.
“We’re replacing many of the park benches that have been here for 50-plus years,” CIS leader Josh Bradshaw said.
CIS is a nonprofit organization founded for the purpose of preserving and improving the public spaces of Newburyport.
“The only way we can do it is if the people that have been generous to us in the past continue to do so, and the banks and businesses that have made donations, if they can keep being kind to us, then we can keep doing this thing,” Bradshaw said.
Three or four workers hauled each 350-plus-pound bench onto a truck bed parked next to the Brass Lyon gift shop and returned with its replacement. At one point, the endeavor left clear before-and-after images as new benches were installed back to back with old counterparts, highlighting how old and decaying the wood of the original benches had become.
Parks Manager Mike Hennessey said Bradshaw came to them a year ago about redoing the roughly 15 benches, with the timing being ideal as heavy winter snow left his department too busy to do their usual work on the benches.
“The result is that instead of doing one or two benches per season, we’re doing five all at once, and we’re going do another five before winter rolls in, and they’ll probably be finishing the project probably by next spring,” Hennessey said. “And every bench will be redone.”
The parks commission paid for the lumber, with materials costing around $5,000. Woodworking was donated by Adam True from Tree Custom Building who dedicated “probably five solid work days” with his crew to do all the woodwork, Bradshaw said.
“That was really a big part of it,” he said.
As far as the wood staining work, he said that was done by C&S Painting.
“And that was done at an extremely reasonable rate to help us get it done,” Bradshaw said.
He said they also worked with DPS Director Kim Turner and past donors.
“It was a full team effort,” Bradshaw said.
In total he said the project was about “probably over $10,000 worth of work.”
With so many different groups pitching in, he said it makes him optimistic for future efforts.
“People have to appreciate what we have and know that it doesn’t just happen on its own,” Bradshaw said. “It needs TLC.”
Benches removed from Market Square were each marked with a plaque either honoring or memorializing someone. But according to Hennessey, plaques will not automatically be mounted onto new benches. Instead, those who paid for the plaques will need to alert the city.
“If they reach out to me at the parks department we can put the plaque back on,” Hennessy said.
He said that one reason he is having plaque owners reach out rather than simply putting them back on is that many have been on a bench for 20 to 30 years and those who paid for them may have left the area.
“And then I just want to establish that the benches aren’t in perpetuity, but people are welcome to reclaim their plaque or to buy another bench according to the policy,” Hennessey said.
Complicating matters for longtime plaque owners is the city’s new bench policy — adopted in 2023 and administered by Hennessey and the Parks Commission — which puts a 10-year time limit of sorts on bench plaques.
New applicants, under the policy, must pay a $50 processing fee, plus a $5,000 installation fee for a period of up to 10 years. From the date of installation, maintenance of the bench and plaque is limited to 10 years. Upon expiration of the 10-year period, applicants have the option to renew the leased bench at the current price.
The plaque will be removed after the 10-year period unless renewed, according to the city.
Existing plaques from before the 2023 policy will be grandfathered in until Jan. 1, 2028, through the city’s new bench policy, Hennessey said.
“Every effort will be made to contact their sponsors for renewal under the terms of this policy,” the city’s website reads.
The policy in full can be found here: https://www.cityofnewburyport.com/department-of-public-services/webforms/memorial-bench-policy-application
Matt Petry covers Amesbury and Salisbury for The Daily News of Newburyport. Email him at: mpetry@northofboston.com.