Grafton Super Park gets nod from CPC. Total cost: $2.6 million

Two Grafton Super Park warrant articles are headed for spring Town Meeting, requesting nearly $1 million for the first phase of a sprawling park that would include an accessible playground, pavilion, walking trails with boardwalks, a splash pad and dog park.

The park, with a final price tag of $2.6 million, is the intended replacement of the former Super Park, a fondly remembered wooden structure built by volunteers which was torn down in 2010 to make way for the new Grafton High School.

“I was there,” Community Preservation Committee member Jim Gallagher said. “I helped build the first one. I was there when it was torn down and the promises that it would be rebuilt. We’ve got to get this done.”

Plans for the park had lain fallow after years of false starts and suggested sites. At one point, the final cost was projected to be $500,000. This version would be on the parcel bought by the town from the Perrault family for the Grafton Public Library expansion.

With the library now under construction, Town Administrator Tim McInerney said the initial phase of the project would need to be done to lay utilities before the library’s parking lot is complete.

D.J. Chagnon of CBA Landscape, the firm the town hired to design the park, laid out the plans for the three phases. The first would include parking, an accessible playground structure with sensory elements, and an open lawn area. Later phases would add a zip line, nature trails that would require boardwalks over wetlands, a multi-sport court, a pavilion, bathrooms, a splash pad and a dog park.

Hanging over the discussion were variables both financial and life-threatening. While CPC funds can only be used for recreation, historic preservation, open space or affordable housing, concerns have been expressed about presenting a large and expensive project in the same year as a $4 million override intended to maintain the school system, bring in a full-time fire chief, and add positions at the Municipal Center.

There is also the question of the affect the growing COVID-19 pandemic will have on the town, starting with the possible postponement of the May 11 Town Meeting and May 19 Town Election.

Recreation Director Jennifer Anderson said the park should not require an increase in department costs since it will be designed to be low-maintenance.

The first Town Meeting warrant article will request $250,000 from the CPC fund. The second would allow the town to bond approximately $700,000 over multiple years.

Planning Board member Justin Wood was the only person to vote against the warrant articles.