HADLEY — A project to renovate a 6-acre park at the intersection of Huntington and Breckenridge roads is finished, meaning Zatyrka Park can be used for passive recreation, including walking or tossing a Frisbee, for the first time in more than a decade.
“My understanding is that it’s substantially complete,” Town Administrator David Nixon said Tuesday.
The project, which cost over $350,000 to complete in three phases, began with planning in 2016 and then actual work in 2017, with the removal of a fence surrounding a former baseball diamond and demolition of aging tennis courts.
The second phase, also in 2017, included reseeding a hill at the rear of the property to stabilize it, and cleaning up the site by removing stumps from a former stump dump.
The third and final phase, handled by Omasta Landscaping Inc. of Hadley, was done in 2018 and throughout this spring and summer, including the installation of a parking lot, construction of a rain garden, paving of a loop trail and planting of screening trees.
Zatyrka Park has not been used by the public in any organized way since 2006, two years after the construction of new ballfields on East Street. In 2012, Town Meeting considered selling the land for private development.
The project was mostly supported by money from the town’s Community Preservation Act account, and was guided by the Friends of Zatyrka Park and the Park and Recreation Department. It was originally supposed to be ready for use by Memorial Day 2018, but faced delays, including the need for more money, with an additional $32,000 from the CPA account approved at this year’s annual Town Meeting.
Though the overhaul is done, and people have been walking their dogs and pushing strollers through the loop trail, the town has not yet scheduled an event to celebrate, Nixon said, though “no trespassing” signs that were up for the duration of the work have been removed.
Nixon said Park and Recreation officials are hoping to have a dedication toward the end of summer or the beginning of the school year, after its various summer camps are over.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
