By Kevin Robbins

Staff Writer

After years of planning, Scarborough has begun construction on a new park located on Black Point Road next to St. Maximilian Kolbe church. The park is expected to be available for public use by fall of 2009. The park does not currently have a name.

Scarborough originally planned to create a more developed park, but the design failed a November 2007 referendum vote of 1,350 to 2,997. It was estimated the original project would cost $1 million and include installing sidewalks, walking trails, athletic fields and a parking lot for 109 vehicles.

The park will not open for another year because it takes three growing seasons (fall, winter and summer) for grass to grow properly. Scarborough Community Service Recreation Manager Bill Reichl said seeding will begin after R. E. Coleman Inc., the construction company involved in the project, levels the ground of the park area. Reichl said in an e-mail the park will not be available for use until the seeding has settled. 

Scarborough Town Manager Ron Owens said although anybody in the town can use the park when it opens, it is being primarily designated as a neighborhood park. 

Reichl said the park would include a small 50-vehicle gravel parking lot, a temporary storage shed, a watering system, a community-sponsored garden, and landscape buffering. One park entrance will be built off Black Point Road. There will be no other public entrances.

Reichl said community services did not ask any input from the general public. The Recreation Advisory Board, chaired by Brian Van Dam Sr., made the recommendation to make the park more of a green space.

The town is planning to install three raised garden beds after the ground is leveled. The garden beds will be community-sponsored. Riechl said groups would be able to pay a user fee so they could plant various vegetables and flowers. The user fees will then be used to make donations to charities of the town’s choice.  

Reichl, who is spearheading the project, said neighbors have volunteered to do some of the planting for the landscape buffering.

“It is just a green space. The park will be an open area space,” Owens said. 

“I don’t know even if I would call it a park,” Reichl said. He preferred the name “green space.”

Owens said there would likely be no inconvenience to automobile travelers on Black Point Road or any of the surrounding areas and he said traffic patterns will not be altered.

Reichl said Scarborough appropriated funds a few years ago for the construction of the park. Owens said the estimated cost of the whole project is between $350,000 and $370,000.

Reichl said there have been people who displayed some opposition to the project; though, there has been no organized opposition. 

“I am sure there are some people opposed to the idea of constructing a park on Black Point Road. However, a decision is always made in the best interest of the town,” Owens said.

Overall, Reichl is satisfied with the progress of the construction of the park.

“I think it is going pretty well at this point,” Reichl said.