HATFIELD – The overhaul of a sleepy and little-used park in the center of town will be the subject of a public hearing Wednesday before the Community Preservation Committee.
The committee wants to present at Town Meeting in May a $194,633 funding request for the restoration of what is known locally as Smith Academy park.
The park is on the former site of Smith Academy and owned by the school’s trustees. It flanks the north side of Town Hall on Main Street where the school’s old cornerstone, dated 1871, anchors the property.
The hearing begins at 6 p.m. at Town Hall and project supporters, including members of the town’s Open Space Committee, will discuss and answer questions about the project.
“It’s a very underutilized space,” Community Preservation Committee Chairman Robert Wagner said. “”This is a real centerpiece of downtown. This is the kind of thing CPA funds should be used for.”
Like others in town, Wagner said he rarely sees people using the park in its current state today.
“Occasionally, I’ll see somebody walking through that park,” he said.
The Community Preservation Committee earlier approved the funding request for the annual Town Meeting warrant, and it must also get a green light from the Select Board.
Town Meeting voters in 2013 approved spending $9,500 in CPA money for planning and architectural designs for a new park. The $194,633 request would cover the park’s demolition and reconfiguration, including new walkways, benches, landscaping, and the relocation of historic stone markers and memorials, according to Wagner.
“There is a design for an entirely new park not unlike what Northampton is doing with Pulaski Park,” Wagner said. “The focal point of the new park is going to be a gazebo.”
Select Board Chairman Marcus J. Boyle said two related articles may also appear on the warrant: the transfer of the park property from Smith Academy trustees to the town and a $50,000 supplemental funding request for park improvements to leverage future grant funding.
“The Smith Academy trustees are really not in the park business and they’ve been maintaining that for years,” Boyle said. “It’s more appropriate as a town function if the board is going to accept that park.”
Boyle said he has reviewed the design plans for the park which he described as a “very attractive proposal.”
Hatfield voters approved the CPA in 2006, which assesses a 3 percent property tax surcharge to fund projects that support open space and historic preservation, outdoor recreation and affordable housing.
Thus far, the money has helped preserve historic buildings and features, protect farmland and forest land in the town’s drinking water supply area and provide recreational assets including hiking trails and basketball courts.
Staff Writer Dan Crowley can be reached at dcrowley@gazettenet.com.