Village Board gets update on Millerton Community Park project

MILLERTON — Welcoming Kevin Hasselwander, a landscape architect from The Chazen Companies, to its 6 p.m. meeting on Monday, Feb. 16, the Village Board was eager to hear the latest news concerning the revitalization of the Millerton Community Park (a.k.a. Eddie Collins Memorial Park).

As the most recent development, Hasselwander announced that boundary maps have been completed for the park. He explained that a topographic map was done as part of the initial study in order to advance the design. Meanwhile, the boundary maps were a requirement as part of the grant authorization from the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) that must be finalized. Hasselwander said Chazen will now be able to submit the required review set to the OPRHP for its approval for the bid set the company also wants to submit.

Hasselwander reported The Chazen Companies has been very busy behind the scenes putting together the bid set for the revitalization project. Its current goal is to issue the bid set on Friday, March 19, and to open bids on Friday, April 23, thereby creating a five-week period for bids to be submitted. If bids are opened on Friday, April 23, Hasselwander said they could get construction started in early May.

To date, he said it currently has an 80-day construction period, though he mentioned to the board that “the longer you give the contractor, the better price you’re going to get.” This period could bring the project to completion by early-  to mid-August if all goes well.

Village Trustee Jenn Najdek asked Hasselwander if he knew whether it would be possible for the village to still hold its summer camp program at the park if the state permits summer camps to be held this summer. She noted that the camp is generally a four- to six-week program starting in July. Hasselwander responded he could include some language in the bid set that would allow the contractor a “construction pause” period for that possibility and shared his plans to look into it more closely.

Regarding the opening of the bids, Hasselwander asked the board to let him know if there’s any language it wants to include about whether it will open the bids virtually. Mayor Debbie Middlebrook said the board could see what the guidelines are and whether the village would be allowed to open the bids in a socially distant way with people wearing masks. If it’s possible, she said the board would like to do it in-person, but if not, it could open the bids over Zoom.

Trustee Matthew Hartzog mentioned that a village constituent had contacted him to ask if efforts were made to ask adjoining communities (like the towns of Amenia and Pine Plains) to also be part of the process of building the park “in that Webutuck schools do have students that go not only to Amenia and North East but also to Pine Plains.” 

Najdek said board members didn’t really reach out to anybody as this was the village’s park. She shared that there have been thoughts and plans that, once the park is built, the village can potentially hold events or share opportunities for Webutuck students from Amenia to make use of the park, such as if they want to host a soccer league and hold other events at the park. That being said, Najdek said she believes most towns have their own parks where they can organize events and recreation opportunities.

Hartzog mentioned the constituent said they hoped the park’s pool could be enclosed so it could be “a 12-month structure and a 12-month facility.” Their hope, he said, is that by bringing in a couple of other communities, the village could get some additional money to make that happen. Middlebrook said she believed a number of ideas, like an indoor pool, were taken under consideration during the design and development phases and it was determined many were not possible.

“When we originally started this, we kind of came up with a park for the ages, like we tried to put in a bubble so you could have year-round events and an indoor swimming pool,” Najdek said. “We wanted everything.”

However, she said the Eddie Collins Memorial Park Revitalization Committee and Hasselwander looked at the project as not just the costs to install that kind of facility, but also the costs to maintain a structure of that size. After much consideration, it was determined that the village couldn’t afford it.

Additionally, Hasselwander said The Chazen Companies had some challenges with the stormwater design. Since the park is in an aquifer, he said there’s high groundwater, which is a challenge in treating stormwater under New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) guidelines. Yet he said this worked to their advantage as they plan to raise part of the parking lot. This, in turn, will help with the pool, which Hasselwander said will need to be raised as well.

Community members can learn the latest updates on the revitalization project at the board’s next meeting, which will be live streamed to the “Village of Millerton VOM” Facebook page at 6 p.m. on Monday, March 15.

Donations still needed

Meanwhile, of the $1.25 million budget for Phase 1, $130,000 remains to be raised. 

Donations may be made online at www.communityfoundationshv.org/Single-Donation-Pages/MillertonCommunityPark. Checks may be made out to The Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley with Millerton Community Park in the memo line; send it to: Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley, 80 Washington St., Suite 201, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601.