BY
JIM DEVINE
SALEM – Plans to build a
long-awaited skate park in town
could go hand in hand with the
need to revitalize Hedgehog
Park, according to the town’s
recreation director.
Although the park at Hedgehog
Pond has been a local attraction
to small numbers of
people fishing and swimming
in the summer months, recreation
director Chris Dillon told
selectmen on Monday, May 19,
that the entire park could benefit
from a skate park and other
recreational courts.
The addition of a skate park
could really benefit the area,
which is mostly shady and unattractive
to frequent visitors, said
Selectman Patrick Hargreaves.
“We want to thin out the
trees. We don’t want to cut
them,” he said. “It’s dingy. It’s
dull. No one wants to go there.”
In 2004, the town approved
to fund the construction of a
skate park, but $30,000 in park
materials and items have been
in storage since that time, as prior
locations never panned out.
Sites at the Field of Dreams
on Geremonty Drive and on
Wal-Mart’s property have not
come through as locations for
the park, despite continued discussion
in past months, Hargreaves
said.
Dillon said the plan would
work well if the skate park was
constructed close to the front of
the park on a corner between
the pond and Route 38. Only
a 40-foot setback would be
needed from Hedgehog Pond,
according to the planning department.
Locations farther away from
the road would make it less visible
and more likely a target to
vandals, Dillon said.
Selectman Arthur Barnes
said the park would only do
well there if certain restrictions
were lifted with the new facilities.
“We made it very unfriendly,”
said Barnes, who cited that
the parking lot gate is closed off
for much of the spring and fall
season. “I cringe every time I go
by.”
Dillon said his ideal approach
to the park would be
to increase the hours the park
would be open and expand the
open season to one similar to
the Field of Dreams, which goes
from April to October.
Hargreaves said he’d like
to see the park constructed for
2009 and begin now to trim
back or take down trees that appear
to be rotten.