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Date: 4/17/2023
SOUTHAMPTON — Residents hoping to see the East Street Bridge and part of Labrie Field named after a loved one received a boost from the Select Board last week. The board voted to include articles on the warrant for annual Town Meeting to give voters the chance to decide.
John V. Garstka was the superintendent of the town’s DPW for 36 years, from 1948 until he retired in 1984. According to a handout presented by Patricia Parenteau of Cold Spring Road, his daughter, Garstka built 60 miles of roadways in the town.
“Dad loved Southampton,” Parenteau said. “We used to joke that he would spend so much time doing stuff for the town that we had to make an appointment” to see him.
According to a handout first presented to the board in 2020, Garstka invented tools to help the DPW. He saw the loss of blacktop using a road grader alone, so he gathered materials from the DPW yard to build a ‘"magic box" that spread macadam more efficiently. Garstka also invented a “patch pan,” a device suspended from the back of a truck that made patching potholes much easier and safer. Several other towns adopted the devices, with similar mechanisms in wide use today.
James D. Carey, chair of the Select Board when Garstka retired, said, “We can’t replace his skill, energy, and enthusiasm [but] we wish him nothing but the best because nobody deserves it more than John Garstka.”
Richard LeClerc, a resident of Strong Road and Garstka’s nephew, told the board about his uncle’s service in World War Two, when he suffered shrapnel wounds from a hand grenade. LeClerc also recounted how Garstka used the difficult weather of 1955 to benefit the town.
“John said, with the ‘55 flood he could build Southampton,” LeClerc said. “There was Chapter 90 money all over the place. He used it to build this town. There were all sorts of dirt roads. He paved them. He got them done.”
With Joy Pipher absent, the Select Board voted 4-0 to include a warrant article at the May 3 annual Town Meeting asking voters if the East Street Bridge should be renamed the John V. Garstka Bridge. The board then heard from representatives of Maddie’s Magical Playground, an effort to build a play area at Labrie Field.
Southampton resident Madeline O’Hare Schmidt passed away last year, at the age of eight, after suffering a rare pediatric cancer called diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, that begins in the white matter of the brain. She attended the Norris School, where she was voted president of her kindergarten class.
“One of the things that has become important to the family is to make this horrible situation mean something,” said Jennifer Capshaw, a resident of Kevin Drive.
Mark Reed, chair of the Park Commission, informed the members of the board that Community Preservation Act money was earmarked for the project by the town’s Community Preservation Committee at its March 8 meeting. A vote at Annual Town Meeting will be required before those monies will be available for the playground.The family will foot the bill for some of the installation costs, and annual maintenance.
Capshaw and Juliet Locke told the board about the playground equipment and improvements the family will donate for the completion of that area of Labrie Field. Maddie was unable to walk for the last months of her life. One emphasis will be to make the play equipment handicapped accessible.
“One of the most difficult parts of Maddie’s battle was the last four or five months when she was in a wheelchair,” said Locke, a Crooked Ledge Road resident. “There’s other kids in town that have disabilities and can’t use the equipment [so] one feature of the play area will be a ramp to get disabled children up and able to play with those who are able-bodied.”
Reed found the proposal supportive of the master plan for the park.
“We’ve been working for many many years to complete Labrie Field,” Reed said, but “we have never been able to complete it. So, we thought this was a wonderful project to get another piece of the pie done at Labrie Field.”
The Select Board voted 4-0 to authorize a warrant article at Annual Town Meeting to build Maddie’s Magical Playground at Labrie Field. Annaul Town Meeting is scheduled for May 3.