Park Plans Pass Muster

The State Attorney General’s office has approved the work being done on the Belding Memorial Park.

Assistant Attorney General Kerry Kosla met this morning with the Select Board, Highway Superintendant Tom Poissant, and Park Commission Chair Nina Coler to review the work that has been done on the park thus far and the plans for completion of the restoration project.

Milo Belding willed the land to the town for use as a public park in the 1920’s. For many decades, the town used the two buildings on the land to house the town’s Highway Department. Now that the new highway garage has been built on Cape Street, the town is restoring the land for use as a park according to the terms of Belding’s deed.

Much of the restoration work has been done by the Highway Department. Last year, the area below the two structures was graded and the hillside seeded in rye to prevent erosion.

Park Commissioner Nina Coler presented Ms. Kosla with the Commission’s plans for the remainder of the restoration. She then took Ms. Kosla, the board, and several interested spectators on a tour of the land and buildings.

The plans Coler presented envision two possible scenarios. In both, the flat land below the hillside will be further graded, covered in clean fill, and seeded, at a total cost of $23,400. An additional $5000 is set aside in both plans for trees to screen the property from neighboring lots, plus a few specimen trees. Both plans also include $23,500 for repairs to the historic post-and-beam hay barn and $3,600 to paint both structures.

The two plans differ on the fate of the enclosed four-bay shed built in the 1920s and expanded in the 1950s. In one, the back three bays of the shed – the oldest and least structurally sound – will be converted into an open pavilion overlooking the park at a cost of $43,400. In the other, the back three bays will be simply demolished at a cost of $7,720. Ms. Coler reported that she will be meeting with a structural engineer tomorrow to see whether the back three bays can be salvaged. She also said that, if the current shed building can’t be salvaged, she hopes the town will build a pavilion, with public restrooms, on the site, though such a building is not required to fulfill the terms of the Belding deed.

Kosla asked Poissant about a timeline for the completion of the grading work. He replied that he hoped to have it finished by fall, though it depended heavily on the weather. The work done so far was scheduled for last summer but had to be put off until last fall because of heavy rain throughout the summer.

In the end, Kosla said that the Attorney General’s office is satisfied with the progress so far and with the plans for the future. The AG’s office is supervising the work, having found, many years ago, that the use of the park for a town garage was in violation of the Belding deed.

David King