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GRAFTON, Mass. — Full approval for the resurrected Grafton Super Park will be delayed until May's Town Meeting as questions about cost and fundraising are debated.
Super Park Study Committee Chairman Michael Scully told the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday that his group decided to not proceed with the full project at October Town Meeting until it has full plans — including a funding structure — in place. Residents will still be asked in October to approve funding from the Community Preservation Coalition to hire a landscape architect.
"We're not comfortable going forward if we're not certain about the numbers," Scully said.
The original Grafton Super Park was demolished to make way for the new Grafton High School. The new facility will be built at 25 Worcester St.
The vision for Super Park is a fully accessible structure, with ramps and adaptations for children of all abilities. The group has been working with Grafton's Commission on Disabilities to ensure it will be fully compliant with the Americans With Disability Act.
The Super Park Study Committee plans to incorporate fundraising into the project, Scully said. He hopes to work with Grafton's legislators to possibly find state or federal funding as well as create a revolving account for donations.
Public sessions on the park set for Sept. 25 and Oct. 9 are now canceled, Scully said.
Comments (7)
Super park, obviously, had money conflicts with improvements to the HVAC at the municipal center. The selectman can only bring one "no cost" warrant article forward at this October's town meeting. Then next May, this will be presented as a "cost", because the "no cost, no tax" municipal center will have been voted on!
This charade of a "no tax" $3.2/$5.4 million improvement to the HVAC system at the Municipal Center has got to end!
In the end, it's rob Peter to pay Paul! But the town expenses are exactly the same. It's just what you want to defer!
P.S. The super park is in financial trouble.
The Grafton SuperPark Committee is certainly disappointed that we could not move forward with the full project at Fall town meeting but we are moving forward. We have an article for funding from the Community Preservation Committee for us to hire a landscape architect to help complete a site plan and landscape design, bringing the SuperPark committee's vision to a full plan and allowing us to flush out the true cost for a modern and accessible SuperPark.
We need everyone's help to vote for our article at town meeting in the fall and get involved by going to our website and signing up to join the hundreds of fellow Grafton residents that are eagerly cheering on this project and volunteering to help us with this effort.
We will get there. Thanks for your understanding and support!
Michael Scully
Chairman
Grafton SuperPark Committee
www.GraftonSuperPark.com
Please no collection day in front of swirls and scoops! That is an accident waiting to happen, especially for children! I think those types of fundraisers should be outlawed anyway!
Seems like holding off and not proceeding until funding is in place makes sense, otherwise it's not much of a plan. Personally, I would have rather seen the money that was invested into Creeper Hill go towards something useful like the Super Park
Mr. Ed....I agree completely. The Creeper Hill money would have covered the new Super Park quite nicely. Oh well.
Perhaps we can use the Creeper Hill property to put up the new DPW garage.
Now we know the only two votes against the overwhelmingly supported Creeper hill purchase. Get over it!
By the time this is done my child will be too old for it, and he is only 3. What a shame. You should of had a game plan when you tore it down. At this rate a million dollar high school would of been built in faster time than a park for the youngsters. There goes good old grafton doing before having a plan. It's sad I have to go to another town to play. Why not have a fundraiser booth at the Octoberfest coming up or maybe having a collection day at the lights at swirls and scoops. Disappointed!