HAVERHILL — Mayor James Fiorentini had it all set up — the idea for a new neighborhood basketball court, an artist's drawing of the court, and a group of neighbors to hear the good news.

There was just one problem — the neighbors wanted nothing to do with it.

While making one of his frequent neighborhood stops Monday, Fiorentini revealed a plan to build a basketball court at the inner city Freeman Street Park. The city plans to replace a water pumping station in the public park and resurrect a basketball court that was there years ago.

He made an abrupt about-face when some of those neighbors squashed the basketball idea. They told him that back in the 1980s and early 1990s the park was a hangout for kids who played basketball late into the night and caused many problems.

"Kids ride their little bikes here now and that would be fine," Freeman Street resident Janet Kolodziej told the mayor. "But I would not want any late-night congregating. We've been through it before and I don't want it."

Heads shook back and forth after the mayor handed out copies of a proposed design showing how the park would look with a basketball court.

Fiorentini told the crowd he would return with a different plan, such as turning the asphalt-covered park into a grassy picnic area with shade trees and possibly a play area for children.

"We'll be back in a month and we won't do the basketball hoops," he told the half-dozen neighbors who responded to his invitation to meet him at the park this week.

Neighbors said that in recent years the paved park has become a gathering spot for parents who bring their children there to ride their tricycles and bicycles.

Ford Street resident Henry Beaudoin, 56, told the mayor a park would be a nice thing for the neighborhood — as long as the city maintains it.

Beaudoin said the last thing he'd want to see is a return of the repetitive sound of basketballs bouncing off the pavement late at night. It often kept him awake, he said.

"They were driving us crazy and we had to call the cops to get them out of here," he said. "I'd like to see something in here that we won't have to put up with a lot of noise. And something kids would not destroy."

At the corner of Freeman and Washington streets the park is the only one in the city that doesn't have a grassy area.

Years ago the city removed the basketball hoops that had caused so many problems for neighbors. It installed a water pumping booster station to improve water pressure to homes in this hilly area, and it paved the park. City officials say the face of this neighborhood has changed many times over the years. Now city leaders are reaching out to today's neighbors to learn what they want in the park.

Robert Ward, water/waste water superintendent, said the 20-plus-year-old pumping station must be replaced because it does not have a backup power supply as required by the state. In addition, it does not provide enough pressure to the roughly 125 single- and multifamily homes in the area, including those on Observatory Avenue, Freeman Street, Silver Street and Ashworth Terrace.

"The new one will also provide much better flow to fire hydrants," Ward said. "We'd like to make sure it won't be a problem in the future."

Ward told neighbors the park's metal shed which houses the pumping equipment will be replaced by an aesthetically pleasing block or brick structure that will be to the rear of the park. He said the entire project will cost around $700,000, and that funding is included in the Water Department budget.

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