Greenfield residents shared their ideas for the upcoming redesign of Oak Park at a feedback session during the town’s weekly farmers’ and crafters’ market Sunday. 

“We have been planning and talking about this for years, and the voters have supported it. This is the exciting time, with surveys and design, when we can start to think about what the priorities are,” Greenfield Select Board member Mason Parker said Monday. 

Parker noted that the costs of Sunday’s information session were covered in the town budget. 

“We had money in the Oak Park maintenance fund, which was voted in at Town Meeting, and then we had some money in the Recreation Department line that had never been spent, so that’s how we funded the architect. We have had enough feedback from the town that people support Oak Park. We need a plan, or we are  just wasting time and money,” Parker said. 

According to Parker, the Greenfield Select Board, Greenfield DPW Director Jim Morris, Recreation Department Director Kayla Kokal, Oak Park Committee Chair Dave Thimmel, architect Paul Simon and representatives from Greenfield’s sports programs got together to decide how to best get feedback from town residents, and decided on a “charrette” type meeting to solicit suggestions and ideas.

Residents were invited to write ideas on sticky notes and add them to the conceptual site plans displayed at the event. Architect Paul Simon was available to answer questions from the public. 

“The whole purpose was to just get public input about what the park should be like, to find out  what people would want to  improve, what should be replaced,  to think about how we might redesign the park,” Parker said. 

The feedback session included a brief survey with questions about existing park amenities, reasons for visiting the park, suggestions for new amenities and other concerns. 

“It gets very complicated. People say they want to fix the soccer field, but that requires irrigation, which then requires a new well or a cistern, so it gets very expensive, very fast. The Select Board decided to go ahead and start working with an architect to get guidance on priorities and what makes sense,” Parker said. 

Parker credited Thimmel and Kokal for taking the lead on fundraising and organizing volunteers.

“They will be doing the fundraising for different projects as we go along,” Parker said. “There may be different elements of the park that residents are more interested in, so they may want to donate to some projects more than others.” 

Recent issues raised by residents include safety concerns at the playground, which has some outdated equipment, and the condition of the baseball diamond, soccer field, tennis courts and walking track.  Parker noted that the feedback session was “just Phase 1 of public input.” 

“We will be working with our architect to  release a longer, more in-depth survey for town residents in the upcoming months, via Survey Monkey,” Parker said. 

After tabulating the results from Sunday’s feedback session, which Parker estimates will take a month to six weeks,  Simon will present an updated  draft of the Oak Park master plan to the Select Board. The updated draft will then be presented to to town residents at the Friends of the Greenfield Meetinghouse Oktoberfest fundraiser on Sept. 28 from 4 to 8 p.m. in Oak Park. 

“This will be a nice collaboration with the Friends of the Meetinghouse. Our architect suggested we hold the feedback sessions during other events so we don’t have to try to get people out to another event, which is why we had the first one at the farmers’ market,” Parker said. “The timing works out perfectly to reveal the next draft at Oktoberfest, which is family friendly and draws a lot of town residents.” 

Greenfield Oktoberfest, an annual fundraiser for Greenfield Meeting House will take place at Oak Park this year due to the start of construction at the Meeting House. 

Parker said the Oak Park project will be funded in stages and from multiple sources, including departmental budgets, capital reserves, grants and fundraising by the Oak Park Committee. 

“Going forward,  we will see warrant articles and capital reserve fund. It will happen a little but at a time, and it will be one thing at a time.  People will see this on the ballot going forward. The town has been very supportive of the project for the past several years and have approved funds for Oak Park. This is something people in town want,” Parker said. “It has been a lot of legwork just to get to this point. We are just trying to get as much input as we can, and to get all shareholders involved.”

The final plans for Oak Park will be presented to voters at Town Meeting in March. For information about the Greenfield Select Board or the Oak Park Committee, go to greenfield-nh.gov. 

Reporter Jesseca Timmons is secretary of the Friends of the Greenfield Community Meetinghouse.