WESTBROOK – Westbrook Commons remains underutilized, neglected

WESTBROOK – Blue Note Park is easy to miss.

The hardscape Main Street park, created in the middle of the Westbrook Commons during urban renewal in the 1970s, was once hoped to be a public gathering space, with seating areas and even a working fountain.

There’s not much to see when looking at the park now. Most of the Westbrook Commons windows hold “For Lease” signs and, other than a few large planters and cracked concrete, the main focus is the Blue Note sculpture.

With an eye toward increasing usage of the park, the city tweaked a land use ordinance in March to allow the businesses in Westbrook Commons to expand their business out onto the stone hardscape. So far, no business has taken advantage of the opportunity.

“We really did this with the Westbrook Commons in mind,” said Molly Just, city planner, about recently adopted provisions for private use of a public right of way. “We thought about what the city could do to help promote activity and spur interest by businesses in the Commons area.”

Right now, only four of the eight spaces in Westbrook Commons are rented.

The land around Westbrook Common is owned by the city, while the buildings are owned by different entities. AWD Management, at an address of 850 Main St., owns one building, now occupied by Cooper & Bull. On the opposite side of the walkway, 1 Westbrook Common is owned by Para LLC.

Tom Douglas, a partner at the Cooper & Bull law firm, said as of now the area is mostly used as a hangout for kids and for skateboarders.

“I think it could be great,” Douglas said as he looked over the park from Cooper & Bull’s front window. “I think it’s better than it used to be. It’d be nice if they cleaned it up more.”

Douglas said the law office has been in the space for more than three years, but was moving to the Dana Warp Mill in the next few weeks.

Westbrook’s Department of Public Services is in charge of maintaining the area, but Tom Eldridge, public services director, said the upkeep wasn’t a top priority for the department and there were no plans in place to get the fountain working again.

“There are too many maintenance issues to run the fountain without investing a lot of money. I know there’s been efforts by the planning office and downtown committees to do something with the area. There was talk at one point of removing it, but that’s expensive to do. At this point, it’s in limbo,” Eldridge said.

According to Eldridge, the fountain last worked in 2000, and the pumping system is out of date.

Mike Sanphy, a city councilor in Westbrook and president of the Westbrook Historical Society, said he hopes the fountain will work again in time for the 200th anniversary of the city next year.

“It’s sad to see it that way. It’s a far cry from what urban renewal envisioned for that area,” said Sanphy.

The Blue Note sculpture has become a beacon for graffiti artists and others who write their partner’s initials inside a heart or scrawl a song lyric.

“We take care of the graffiti and remove trash and garbage left in the fountain. It’s not a huge priority, but we try to get down there quickly if there’s profanity,” said Arty Ledoux, deputy director of public services. “There’s gallons of blue paint on that thing.”

In 1973, the urban renewal project eliminated a number of buildings and streets in the downtown area, including Central, Fitch and Carpenter streets, to create the pedestrian mall. It was designed by Edward C. Jordan Co., in Portland. The pedestrian mall and statue cost $197,498, and the cost was covered under the federal portion of the project. But records on the sculpture are few, and no one at the Westbrook Historical Society, City Hall or Walker Memorial Library knew who designed it. Ellie Conant Saunders, who has a personal collection of historical documents, also had little information on it.

It is generally acknowledged that the sculpture was created as an homage to Rudy Vallee, a Westbrook native son, crooner and worldwide pop star starting in the 1920s.

There are also two plaques erected in the park, one marking the site of the Underground Railroad, which ran through Westbrook from 1861 to 1865, and another commemorating the efforts of the urban renewal committee, which disbanded at the end of the citywide project in 1977.

More than 30 years later, in 2009, a downtown streetscape plan looked at the possibility of removing the broken fountain, but due to the expense, it remained in place.

“The fountain part is currently broken but can be made to work, however temporarily,” said Just. “This was a great idea to bring life to an urban park. A water fountain in New England is going to fight an uphill battle and needs to be located in an area with high visibility so that its maintenance will be made a priority. There have been several attempts to remake this particular park concept, Blue Note Park, over the years. We even were awarded grant funding to do so, but were not allowed to make use of the funding at that time. This was during the economic downturn. Since then, staff has been working on ‘low-hanging fruit’ to encourage investment and use of and in the Westbrook Commons area.”

Westbrook is gearing up for downtown improvements right across the street from the Westbrook Commons starting next year. The Department of Transportation is removing the Bridge Street bridge and adding a new vehicular bridge near the Edwards Block spur. Columns from the old vehicular bridge will remain in place to create a new multi-use pedestrian walkway across the Presumpscot River.

While the bridges are under construction, the city is planning to change some of the downtown to make it more appealing for pedestrians. Some of these changes include widening sidewalks, adding greenery and shortening cross walks.

“Bill Baker [assistant city administrator for business and community relations] has made significant strides in the downtown. This [Blue Note Park] could be his next project,” said Sanphy.

Both Baker and City Administrator Jerre Bryant were on vacation this week and unavailable for comment.

Pedestrians pass the Blue Note sculpture, off Main Street in Westbrook. Photos by Rich Obrey Blue Note Park’s sculpture, once a working fountain, stands forlornly in the area by Westbrook Commons, where half the buildings are unoccupied. Photo by Rich Obrey A plaque in Blue Note Park commemorates the efforts of the Westbrook Urban Renewal Project.