Kennedy Library

An ad hoc tenant group representing Boston's Columbia Point housing project has asked the John F. Kennedy Library Corporation to employ a minority consulting firm to study the impact of the library complex on the project.

The group, which was petitioned by 80 per cent of the project's residents to represent them on housing issues, is not opposed to construction of the Kennedy Library at Columbia Point, but wants to be directly involved in its planning, Nathaniel Hailey, co-chairman of the Columbia Point Housing Corporation, said yesterday.

The group's main objective is to convince the Library Corporation to hire and train residents to build and operate the library complex, since the unemployment rate at Columbia Point is currently 60 to 70 per cent, Hailey said.

The Columbia Point Development Council, the officially elected representatives of the project's residents, in a press conference held Monday reiterated that the Columbia Point community welcomes the library complex, and that the community, through the council, is already represented in the planning of the complex.

The University of Massachusetts at Columbia Point will deal exclusively with the development council, Bernie Sneed, manager of the UMass Field Office, said yesterday.

"Big money interests" may be trying to close down the Columbia Point housing project, and "there is no way they are going to move us out," Hailey said Wednesday.

The Boston Housing Authority announced in March that the project will remain and that eight million dollars will be spent to renovate it over the next two years.