9 September, 2014
Work on Legacy Farms is underway, and Roy MacDowell stopped into the September 8 Planning Board meeting to give an update. The three areas covered in the update were the East Main Street sidewalk, the East Main Street road work, and the proposed hockey rink.
The shimming plan on East Main Street has been approved, meaning that work can start on the sidewalk soon. MacDowell hopes that work will start next Monday. First, however, DPW Director John Westerling plans to meet with the Hopkinton Police and Fire Departments to discuss traffic management and hours of operation during construction. Part of the sidewalk will be in front of the Spangler property where the riprap is. Before building in front of the property, Westerling would like to prove that it is town-owned land that will be used. Although the town does not keep records of their own land, MacDowell is fairly certain that the land is town-owned. Should there be a question of ownership, MacDowell will ask for permission from landowners to build on their land and, if granted, can have the land transferred to him at a later date. Sidewalk construction will start at the Athletic Fields and will last for five weeks due to the stone wall and riprap.
The East Main Street road work has been delayed because of two telephone poles. One pole needs to be moved 30 feet in order for work to be done while another needs to be replaced with a deeper pole. Although there have been many calls and emails to Verizon asking for the work to be done, there have been no responses. The road work will include installing a water main, a sewer line and a gas main. The gas company needs to install a 12 inch main from Wilson Street to East Main Street or else there will not be enough gas for the winter. The main will run parallel to Legacy Farms Road North as it is proposed. MacDowell hopes to start the road work within two weeks at East Main Street and have it completed by November 15.
Although a hockey rink was proposed three years ago by the Demons youth hockey league on East Main Street, the Demons have decided not to go forward with the project. Other rinks have been built in the area for the past few years and the project is not as financially viable as it was when the project was started. Without the hockey rink, the land is due to transfer to the town on July 31, 2015. Other potential uses for the town include turf fields for athletic recreation. Board Chairman Ken Weismantel stated that the Board should decide what they would like to do with the land and put together a site plan with the Parks & Recreation department.
“Working with Parks & Rec is an excellent idea,” said Weismantel.
Although the Board was unsure as to what type of field Parks & Recreation would want, the two departments will work together to start the planning process. The goal is to decide what to do with the site within the next month or so in order to ask for CPC funds for the project.
When discussing the option of a field, Board member Deb Thomas stated, “It would be nice, in my opinion, to have turf on this side of town. All we have is over on Fruit Street.”
Other suggestions to go along with the field were to have a lighted field so that sports activities could go into the evening if necessary, or to have a storm shelter and equipment storage, since not many fields have storm shelter and equipment has been stolen from other fields.
One problem that needs to be addressed is how to access the site. Unless another plan is devised, the most likely option is to extend an existing culvert pipe another 20-25 feet and fill in where a man-made brook is currently flowing. Once this is done, the site can be accessed from East Main Street where no access existed before, but the plan may require approval from the Conservation Commission.
To see the full meeting, click here.
