The way to more open space?
Cumberland Town Council to consider $1.5 million purchase of 229-acre property from Sisters of Mercy
CUMBERLAND – In what would be the second largest purchase of open space land by the town, the Town Council this week will consider a proposed $1.5 million acquisition of 229 acres of land owned by the Sisters of Mercy off Wrentham Road and near Diamond Hill Reservoir.
Mayor William Murray said last week that the purchase— using a combination of $405,000 in local funding and contributions from the Pawtucket Water Supply Board, R.I. Department of Environmental Management, a Cumberland Land Trust pledge and a Champlin Foundation grant sought by the Land Trust—would conclude a three-year-long effort to preserve the natural and water resources of the area while also securing the town a smaller portion of the land for town recreational needs.
The town hasn’t taken on so large a land preservation acquisition since its acquisition of 270 acres of the former Our Lady of the Valley Monastery in 1968, a town preservation effort that was expanded to total of 533 acres with a second purchase in the early 1970s, according to Murray.
The Sisters of Mercy “Mercy Woods” proposal prepared by Murray’s administration and the Order is the result of negotiations between the town, the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Northeast Community headquartered at the property and the partner organizations aimed at setting aside much of the land as a protected conservation area, according to Murray.
“The Sisters wanted to preserve a lot of the land for water resource and
opened up to development,” Murray said.
The final negotiations on the purchase price were completed on Wednesday and the shares of the funding needed assigned to the participating parties, according to Murray.
The town already has the needed $405,000 for its share in the town’s open space funding accounts, Murray noted.
The Pawtucket Water Supply Board, which operates the water reservoirs located downhill from the Sisters of Mercy land, would provide $300,000 toward the purchase and the Cumberland Land Trust a pledge of $100,000, Murray said. The DEM would contribute $400,000 from state open space preservation funding and the Land Trust will also be applying for the $295,000 grant from the Champlin Foundation as the final contribution to the purchase.
The town’s use of the local open space funding and the overall purchase agreement are to be considered by the Town Council at its meeting Wednesday evening in Town Hall.
Murray and Jonathan Stevens, the town’s Director of Planning, said that there is a need for early action on the proposal given a pending grant application deadline for the end of the month.
The Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, of which the Sisters of Mercy Northeast is a part, is also in the process of considering consolidation its six member regional communities into an eventual international-institute-governed organization. That change could also become a potential limiting factor in the available time for consideration of the local preservation plan.
Murray believes that the acquisition will win town support given the proposal’s provision for 17.5 acres of the land being acquired by the town to be dedicated for town recreational use, in particular, the development of playing and practice fields.
“The playing fields will be for our youth sports in the town,” Murray noted. No buildings will be constructed on the property as part of the acquisition agreement but a section of an acre-and-a-half of the parcel will be available for immediate field use upon the town’s acquisition of the property. The remaining recreational uses on the 17.5 acres would then be worked out under a plan to be developed following the acquisition, he said.
The town would have the Cumberland Land Trust— an organization experienced in managing other open space parcels in the community— take on the responsibility of supervising the conservation and passive recreation areas of the land, according to Murray. There are nature trails already located on the property and those could be connected with others running through the town under the land’s management plan, according to Murray and Stevens. There are also numerous areas supporting wildlife and wetland ecosystems, all part of the property worthy of protection, according to Stevens.
“It preserves the land for future generations and it is also consistent with the Sisters’ love of the land and desire to protect the wildlife there,” Stevens said of the acquisition proposal.
When contacted about the preservation proposal, Alice Poltorick, Director of Communications for the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas – Northeast Community, said the “care and preservation of land is a critical priority of all of the Sisters of Mercy.”
The Sisters of Mercy living in the Providence area have “long desired to have the land in Cumberland placed in conservation,” she said, and the Sisters of Mercy Northeast Community have been working with the Town of Cumberland and other partners to conserve and protect the land for many years.
There are several Sisters of Mercy buildings on the property including the Order’s administrative building off Highland View Road, the Mercymount Convent (New Dawn Center) Mercy Lodge and a single-family home, Mercycrest Convent that are not included in the acquisition and would continue to be used by the Order until their future disposition is determined.
The Sisters of Mercy Northeast have already transferred the 98-bed Mount St. Rita Health Center assisted living facility and its 19-acre parcel to a third party operating the facility. The Mercymount Country Day School, where some Order members teach, is located on an abutting parcel of land and is not part of the conservation project.
The preservation plan notes that the Sisters of Mercy Northeast had initially worked with the town to obtain a US Forestry Service grant in early 2016 to preserve the property as a community forest while also selling off a 20-acre section of the land for residential development.
That proposal did not move forward but the Sisters of Mercy renewed talks with the town and in December, 2016, obtained an appraisal of its land with development options that set a value of $1.8 million. The town’s consulting appraiser adjusted for increased development costs in September of 2017 and offered an amended appraisal of $1.5 million as the agreed upon purchase price, according to the proposal.
The Pawtucket Water Supply Board was listed as an interested partner given its interest in protecting the major watershed area on the Sisters of Mercy property and located near its Diamond Hill Reservoir, a primary drinking water supply for 125,000 customers in Central Falls, Pawtucket, and the Valley Falls section of Cumberland.
The Cumberland Land Trust had been involved early on in the town’s talks with the Sisters of Mercy Northeast about the potential for preserving a large portion of the natural areas in the Order’s holdings.
The Sisters of Mercy have been in Rhode Island since 1851 and have had a long history of service in healthcare and education and other ministries since that time. Their service has ranged from the past operation of Mount St. Rita Health Centre to community service.
with organizations like Amos House and Dorcas International in Providence, and a long list of Rhode Island and New England Catholic elementary schools, high schools and colleges and universities. Sisters of Mercy have taught at the Greater Woonsocket Catholic Schools, Mercymount, Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro, St. Mary Academy Bayview, St. Joseph School in Pawtucket, St. Brendan School in East Providence, St. Joseph School in Pascoag, Salve Regina University where the president is a Sister of Mercy, and many more.
Poltorick said there are approximately 550 Sisters in the Northeast Community and approximately 160 of that number in the greater Rhode Island area.