DPW Director: Only Weeks Remain Until Hannah Willams Reopens

It's been more than nine months following an assessment that the playscape featured "structural safety hazards" and in anticipation of constructing new equipment in the space.

Throughout the winter, residents have watched as the old wooden playscape came down, piles of dirt moved around the park, and new trees and plants were added to the area.

And then the new play equipment went up and children got antsy to give the new equipment a try.

That opportunity is coming soon.

Department of Public Words Director Don Ouellette said that a best case scenario would allow him to reopn the park the weekend of March 24-25, possibly in conjunction with a scheduled open house at the DPW garage on Main Street.

More likely, he said, is an opening date of April 7.

When the equipment went in last fall, Ouellette said, he anticipated the park wouldn't open until late spring, but the mild winter allowed work to progress more quickly than he had expected.

Ouellette said crews need about another week to finish the concrete curbing around the playground and then will need to lay bark mulch around and under the playscape.

The newly expanded parking area also needs to be "cleaned up," Ouellette said.

When the playground does open, it will likely do so without the gazebo side of the park doing the same. Ouellette said he anticipates keeping the grassy side of the park closed for a time to allow newly added loam and seed to rest.

As originally anticipated, the plan remains to add a pathway through that section of th park down the road. Ouellette said he plans to request funds in the Fiscal 2014 budget to progress to the next phase of redeveloping the park with additional play equipment, a new gazebo or even a bandstand.

Ouellette said he is also interested in pursuing the . Already four blueberry bushes have been planted to "add a different element to the park."

“I hope people eat them so I don’t have to harvest them,” Ouellette said.

Regardless of when the opening comes, Ouellette said he plans to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony of some sort to welcome people back to the park.

“I think [the park is] going to be nice," Ouellette said. "It’s [the play equipment] a major step, but it’s still step one. If you really want to make it special, I think we have a good chance to do that.”