Baker Administration Promotes Montgomery As New DCR Commissioner
A ghost bike memorializes Paula Sharaga, the former children’s librarian at the Coolidge Corner Library, who was killed by a truck driver at the intersection of Park Drive and Brookline Avenue. The intersection, which marks the northern edge of a recent repaving project by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), features crowded sidewalks, long crosswalk wait times and inadequate bike facilities.
The Baker administration today announced that Jim Montgomery has named as the new Commissioner of the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), an agency in charge of managing the Commonwealth's parklands as well as several high-speed "parkways" in the Boston region.
Montgomery had been serving as the interim DCR commissioner since the retirement of former Commissioner Leo Roy last September. Previously, Montgomery had been the agency's Director of Administration and Finance.
The appointment “will allow the Baker-Polito Administration to continue building a clean energy future for Massachusetts residents while protecting and preserving the Commonwealth’s environment for future generations,” said EEA Secretary Kathleen Theoharides in a press release issued on Wednesday.
“I am truly honored to work with the Baker-Polito Administration and to carry on with the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s mission to protect, promote, and enhance the state parks system for residents and visitors to enjoy,” said Montgomery in the same press release. “It is my hope that we will continue to ensure a high level of access is provided for all to experience the Commonwealth’s impressive natural, cultural, and recreational resources for years to come.”
StreetsblogMASS has reached out to Montgomery to ask about his strategy for helping the Commonwealth meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals through more efficient transportation on the roads it manages, and whether DCR roadways could be redesigned to better reflect the agency's mission "to protect, promote, and enhance the state parks system."
This story will be updated if we hear a response.
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