It hasn't been an entirely smooth ride for organizers behind the 250th anniversary celebration of the battles of Lexington and Concord, and frustration is mounting as the milestone event nears.
Organizers tell the Boston Globe they still do not have enough transportation resources for the April 19 event that is expected to attract more than 200,000 spectators.
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Earlier this year, the Massachusetts House of Representatives approved $325,000 in transportation and other costs for the four “Battle Road” communities involved in the commemoration — Lexington, Concord, Arlington, and Lincoln — but the appropriation reportedly failed to emerge from year-end budget negotiations with the Senate, according to the Globe.
“We’re going to see the tourists, the traffic, the congestion, and we really need help with transportation — with getting people out of their cars, and helping with parking and shuttle buses,” Suzanne Barry, chair of the Lexington 250th Committee and vice chair of the town’s Select Board, told the Globe. “It’s been challenging, locally. For whatever reason, the rest of the state hasn’t agreed on the importance of funding this.”
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The funds were part of a larger $20 million package for statewide 250th funding, which also was discarded, the Globe reports. Other House-approved requests that didn't make it include $50,000 for Sudbury, $75,000 for Quincy, and $100,000 for Revolution 250, a nonprofit organization that is working on statewide programming.
Jonathan Lane, executive director of Revolution 250, told the Globe he has spent a great deal of time on Beacon Hill lobbying legislators for financial help.
“Every one of them said the 250th is important; we recognize the importance to our community; and it’s all very exciting. But nobody wants to make it their cause," Lane said. "Maybe they expect the Executive Office to do it.”
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While the state has not approved direct transportation funding for the towns, the Globe reports that it has disbursed $1.5 million in 250th grants to communities across the Bay State, with recipients including the Concord Museum, the Lexington Visitors Center, and the Lexington Historical Society.
