Bay State park needs donations for full amenities
By Catie Foertsch Community Reporter

Westborough - Two years ago, the Bay State Park Committee (BSPC) came up with a list of items it wanted for the twoacre public park that will be built in front of Bay State Commons. Those items included a gazebo, a tot lot, game tables and a fountain.

At the Aug. 13 Planning Board meeting, Bay State representatives told the board that the money allocated for park items would not pay for all of them, and the town would have to choose which ones it wanted and which it could do without. Town Planner James Robbins said the town wanted all the items, and some could be purchased and installed through donations from citizens, businesses and community groups.

The deal the town made with Westborough CC LLC, owner of Bay State Commons, was that $100,000 would be set aside to buy amenities for the park. Part of the problem, Robbins said, was that it was never clear that the stone walls that would be installed in the park would come out of that $100,000. Robbins, a member of the BSPC, said it was always assumed that the walls would be paid for by the developer as part of the park, and not billed as part of the amenities.

On Aug. 13, landscape architect Michael Dowhan, of Waterman Design, presented a list of amenities and their cost to the Planning Board, and asked for direction on what to purchase. The total for all elements on the list is $183,000, including $132,067 for stone walls. The list also included a gazebo ($33,000), a fountain to match the fountain across from Town Hall ($12,000), two concrete game tables and seating ($5,500), and lighting conduit to allow the town to light up the park ($18,000).

BSPC member Kristina Allen said her committee had last met in June 2006, and since then, the price for the stone walls "had more than doubled."

After the meeting, Robbins said he'd gotten independent estimates for the walls, and the Bay State numbers were right in the ball park.

Planning Board member Augustus Ashton said not placing the planned amenities in the park was unacceptable. Bay State Commons will hold its ribboncutting in October, Ashton said, and the park needed to have its amenities by then.

"We really don't want to look at it [the park] six months from now and say, 'Oops, we almost did it,'" Ashton said.

Dowhan said that the "drop-dead date" for ordering the gazebo and the fountain from their manufacturer so they would be delivered in time for installation by the October ribbon-cutting had already passed.

Planning Board members questioned the $18,000 cost to install conduit around the park, as the park will already have street lamp-style lighting and the conduit could be piggy-backed onto the conduit for those lights.

Robbins said he'd already heard from a few groups that wished to make some kind of donation to the park. Donations that are needed include equipment for the tot lot, along with the other items that will not be purchased by the developer.

The Planning Board asked the BSPC to convene as soon as possible and come back with a list of its recommendations for what should be purchased by the developer, and what should be purchased through donations from town groups.