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Date: 12/1/2021
SOUTHAMPTON – The fate of proposed improvements to Conant Park will rest in the hands of voters at the Dec. 14 Special Town Meeting.
The town was the recipient of a $100,000 Parkland Acquisitions and Renovations for Communities (PARC) grant to build differently-abled accessible walking paths and a new splash pad at the park, but to complete the project, an additional allocation of $86,500 in Community Preservation Act funding must be approved.
“We applied for the $100,000 grant [and] CPC (Community Preservation Committee) had to vote on the appropriation of other funding needed to cover the cost of the project. That vote took place and they approved the funding pending town vote,” Kaitlin Swistak-Rooks, a member of the Ad-Hoc Grants Committee, explained. “If that funding is not appropriated, then the project probably won’t be able to move forward.”
The town had conducted surveys to gauge the interests and needs of residents as well as visitors from surrounding communities earlier this year and, according to Swistak-Rooks, walking paths and splash pads were among the top priorities. Additionally, the state put a priority on accessibility in its grant application grading process.
“The grant administrator for the PARC grant, when she came out to do the site survey, identified accessibility as a priority for the park because when it came to the grant funding, she strongly suggested we should make sure that everybody is able to access the amenities in the park before applying for additional things within the park like playground equipment,” Swistak-Rooks noted.
Dan LaValley of the Southampton Parks Commission said that was important to keep in mind as the commission prepares to create a master plan for the town’s parks system.
“We’ve had a lot of conversations about developing the parks’ Master Plan and the plan would be not just Conant Park, but all the parks in town,” he said. “We want to look at what we have at Labrie Field and Conant Park and look at the needs for the town for park usage and make sure we’re covering it. Hopefully out of that we’ll be developing a road map or plan to say, ‘Maybe we need more soccer fields, maybe we need to add a whole other park to support the population growth and the sports that have become more popular over the years.’”
LaValley said feedback for that planning process would be collected through online and paper surveys, similar to previous Master Plan development exercises. While nothing had bene decided, he said the town would likely pursue a District Local Technical Assistance grant with the assistance of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission.
Regarding the current proposal, Swistak-Rooks explained walking paths were identified as a priority in the application because is largely inaccessible to people with mobility challenges.” The proposed paths would lead to the basketball courts, recently opened pickleball courts, children’s recreation area and would connect the park to College Highway. She added the paths would prevent people from having to walk along a busy road in College Highway to access the park. LaValley said the park is also a popular spot for senior walking groups.
LaValley said that the splash pad had been identified as a need as part of the Open Space and Recreation Plan. Swistak-Rooks also pointed out survey results “supported the information that the No. 1 reason people left Southampton for [parks in] other towns was to access splash pads.”
She added there was emphasis on the state level on interventions that would improve access to cooling stations during times of extreme heat. Parents had also requested a shaded area near the splash pad in the survey. “That’s something that Southampton did lack … So we were given extra points because we not only addressed accessibility in our application, but we also addressed climate change and that’s probably a reason we were awarded the funds.”
Swistak-Rooks said water usage was a concern from a conservation and cost perspective during the application process as was the cost of maintenance. She said those were addressed by identifying a low-flow, non-recirculating system with fewer moving parts.
"It’s a two-year grant period, so the first year is for design of both the walking path and the splash pad,” she said. “We have already contacted a designer to get some preliminary information regarding a low-flow splash pad for water conservation purposes. Of course, there are many additional steps that will need to happen and engineering and design that will have to happen before anything is done.”