HANSON – It may take a bit longer to complete plans, but members of the High Street Park Committee want residents to know they will have a chance to spend a Saturday in the park before too much time passes.
The Select Board helped the process along a bit more by voting to conceptually approve its plan layout.
High Street Park Committee members gave its presentation to the Select Board on Tuesday, Aug. 29 on plans for recreational facilities at the former Plymouth County Hospital property.
“We get lots of questions [about] ‘What’s going on up at High Street?’ and we know you guys are meeting fast and furiously and frequently,” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “It’s just that progress is not necessarily visible to people, but that doesn’t mean there’s no progress.”
High Street Park Committee member Marianne DiMascio said she had been thinking the same thing, before presenting an update to the Select Board.
“It wanted to start by saying it’s a beautiful spot and a great place to visit,” she said. “We have an agenda here to look at yesterday, today and tomorrow for people who are not familiar with this spot.”
Infrastructure is being worked on as the first step in plans as well as for traffic flow and parking. They are also looking at where sidewalks, crosswalks and foot traffic would go, as well as where there would and wouldn’t be tree cover, vegetation, wooded area and an initial clearing for play areas.
Committee Vice Chair Don Ellis has been working a lot on utility plans in coordination with town departments which encompass plumbing, irrigation, septic, drainage and electrical services.
“This really is the piece that has taken a while to do,” DiMascio said. “You can’t keep doing things unless you know where the roads are, where the parking is, and so this has slowed us down, but I think we’re in a good spot now to move forward when some of these plans are done.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett asked if there was anything the Select Board could do to help the Committee’s work.
Ellis mentioned the old hospital well flushing and inspection, noting they have been having trouble getting call-backs because it is a commercial-sized well. The Committee is trying to determine if the well is still usable.
An issue raised was the cost of requests for proposals, he said.
One firm was also concerned with prevailing wage law, which does not apply to a survey, according to Town Administrator Lisa Green, but it would apply if any repair or construction work is done.
The Highway Department has cleared trees to enable inspection of the septic field and also took off the well head several times and reinstalled it. Health Agent Gil Amado helped with the Title 5 requirements for the septic system.
FitzGerald-Kemmett suggested the Committee meet with the Food Pantry Board, which was having concerns about placement of public restrooms near the pantry building, out of a desire to protect the privacy of its clients or to make that building an attractive nuisance.
Select Board member Joe Weeks, who also serves on the High Street Committee, said the town is lucky to even possibly have an irrigation source there, which would be crucial for much of what is planned for the site.
“It might feel slow and it might feel like it’s taking forever, but these things are meticulous and we want to make sure we’re doing it right,” he said.
The playground is the next consideration, but Weeks said there, too, they don’t want to “overpromise and under-deliver.”
“We want to do a ground-clearing and focus on that playground area,” he said. If they find the funding and get a playground done, Weeks said the Committee feels they will get a lot of use out of the park.
The former Plymouth County Hospital was razed in 2017. The facility had opened in 1917 as the Hanson Tuberculosis Hospital and was closed for good in 1992. It had changed its mission to that of a general hospital and the name was changed to Plymouth County Hospital when the tuberculosis died out with advances in medicine and, in 1982 its mission changed again to that of a long-term specialty care facility for patients with chronic and terminal illness, such as muscular dystrophy.
The Final Plymouth County Hospital Reuse Committee had been budgeted $1 million for the tear-down and returned $200,000 to the town.
“We did a lot of research about ‘could we keep it,’ but it was in quite a state of disrepair,” DiMascio said of the hospital building. It had also become an “attractive nuisance” to vandals and would-be ghost hunters over the years since it closed.
The site now hosts the Community Garden and lawn area behind the Food Pantry and a meadow with an 8/10 mile perimeter walking trail, part of the 218-mile Bay Circuit Trail that also stretches from Kingston to Newport, R.I. Entrances are located on Pierce Avenue and Bonney Hill Lane near the boardwalk.
The trail was funded by the state Division of Conservation Services as well as the town’s Community Preservation and Conservation committees.
“We’re hoping to have a grand opening in mid-October,” DiMAscio said.
A parking lot on Pierce Avenue can accommodate 10 to 12 cars and additional parking is available at 252 High St. There is no parking on Bonney Hill Lane.
The remaining goals are: building infrastructure, prioritizing features and projects, creating a phased plan, apply for the funding, build it and enjoy.
The playground will be the main project on the “tomorrow” list.
“We’ve been doing the research,” DiMascio said. “We really want to make sure that it’s designed for different ages, different abilities, different development levels and has interaction between people of different ages.”
While playgrounds are designed with children in mind, the Committee is also keeping parents in mind as well as the elderly.
“We’re thinking more broadly about it than 2 to 3-year-olds only,” she said.
An event area for events such as farmer’s markets, community events and gatherings and picnics and a stage area for concerts and performances as well as a pavilion or covered area could be included. Additional features in the thinking states are additional walking trails, a veteran’s memorial, a picnic area near the Bonney House, an orchard, avenue for picture-taking for events such as proms, weddings and family reunions. A Native American history and acknowledgment space is also being discussed.
In other business, Green announced the board is looking for volunteers to serve on a Master Plan Steering Subcommittee.
The town received a $60,000 grant through the Massachusetts One Stop for Growth Program to update the town’s master plan. The Steering Subcommittee will represent Hanson while Old Colony Planning helps guide officials through the process.
The number of volunteers needed is unclear at the moment, Green said, noting they “just want to get it out there” that they are looking for volunteers.
“Does anybody feel passionate – well, maybe not passionate, maybe just inclined – to be a [Select Board] member of the Master Plan Steering Subcommittee?” FitzGerald-Kemmett asked.
Select Board member Ann Rein said she would give the post a try.