City looks at park development in downtown

Council gets first look at planning group’s ideas for along Black River

The Medford City Committee-of-the-Whole reviewed an update on the Riverside Park project during its meeting Monday night.

City coordinator Joe Harris said the park planning committee conducted a two-day community workshop with GRAEF Engineering to develop a vision for the downtown to attract more people to use the downtown area. He said the plan was to do the project in phases rather than doing it all at one time. Ultimately, the committee selected the city-owned parking lot on South Whelen Avenue as the “priority” site to receive an initial concept plan.

Alderman Mike Bub said when the project started, it involved doing something with the site where the old laundromat was, which is not going to be part of the initial project, and now the focus seems to have completely changed. Alderman Laura Holmes agreed.

Mayor Mike Wellner said it’s changed, in part, because since the project began, several local individuals have purchased buildings in the downtown area and plan to revitalize them to attract people to the area. He said the city is working with the developer and that a number of things will be happening on Main Street in a positive way which will turn these buildings into areas that people will hopefully want to come to. Wellner said with Marilyn’s [Fire Station] on the south end which has many promotional events that draw people to the area will also help draw people to the Main Street area. He said the objective of the planning committee was to get people to come to the downtown area.

Alderman Greg Knight said the motion passed by the council was not just about the laundromat, it was about coming up with a plan for the downtown, whatever that plan may be. He said the plan does show the laundromat property on it with possible future use [cafe/recreational rentals], but it is a good example of where the city has a broad vision and big plan for what its goals are. Knight said he liked the idea of building on to the farmers market and doing something with an existing space that could be greatly improved upon and “get the ball rolling so to speak” and to do that, the city needs a bigger plan like this to help point it in the right direction.

Looking at the report handed out to the committee, Alderman Dave Roiger asked if the city would close Whelen Street for the farmers market. Harris said there would be bump outs in the curb where vendors could park, but closing Whelen Street would be an option if the number of vendors became large enough.

Bub asked if the space that will be left over would be large enough for the farmers market. Harris said if the project started in the middle of the lot and left the north and south ends of the parking lot for the farmers market, that would give the city time to adapt and figure what’s going to work best. Bub said on Tuesdays, the farmers market takes up the whole parking lot from end to end and if the city takes out some of the lot, he didn’t know how it would fit. Harris said this was just a conceptual design and may not be how the final project will look.

Wellner said that was a big concern of the planning committee that it didn’t want the vendors to think that the city was trying to push them away. He said the committee has been working with the vendors during the process to make sure their concerns are addressed. Wellner later said to ease people’s minds, the city was going to be very flexible with the farmers market because it is the key to bring people to the downtown area. He said the city is not going to do anything to upset the vendors and if the city has to close part of South Whelen Avenue on certain days to make more room for the farmers market, then that’s what it will do.

Bub asked what the price tag for the project would be. Harris said $3.4 million for the whole project and that the city was not proposing to do the project all at once. Bub said eventually the council will have to vote on the spending and even though the city would be doing the project in stages, eventually it would be spending the $3.4 million and he just wasn’t comfortable doing that.

Harris said the planning committee had discussed this and was recommending constructing some sort of shelter on the site and doing fundraising during the farmers markets this summer. He said the city wouldn’t be responsible for the entire cost of the project and that they planned to do fundraising and applying for grants to help with the cost.

Bub said the project was a lot bigger than what the council had talked about. Knight replied they had talked about making a plan and didn’t set any dollar amounts. Bub said he disagreed. Knight admitted while the dollar figure was large, it represented an investment in bringing value to the downtown area and attracting future private investment, which requires the city to have a vision of what it wants to do with the downtown.

Knight went on to say the city obviously wasn’t going to come up with $4 million in public money for the plan, but through some public money, grants and private investment, the city might be able to achieve the proposed vision. He said even if the city is unable to complete the project within the next 20 years, it will at least have something in the downtown area that is better than what it there now. Knight said it all has to start with some sort of vision and not something small, but something that includes the whole area that has been defined as the river corridor. He finished up by saying, according to the consultants, in communities with rivers through them that have done a riverfront development, it has generated a substantial amount of private investment and that while the council would be spending money, it would be generating money due to private investment the project would attract.

Bub said he understood, but in the meantime, could the city plant some grass seeds over the old laundromat site so it didn’t look so ugly. Harris said the site has a gravel surface and he had spoken with someone who operates a food truck that may want to park it there. Bub said could the city at least clean the site up so it looks better, since it appears the site will be vacant for several more year.

Alderman Christine Weix, said the tourism aspect of the project aside, places like the Riverside Park were going to be a key drawing feature of a city for the next generation of business or community leader. She said this was what they are looking for when they move into a community and that Medford would be losing out if it didn’t come up with a plan like this. Weix said if the city was not going to build it [Riverside Park], then people were not going to move to Medford.

Maple Island easement

The committee approved sending to the full council for final approval an easement agreement with Maple Island to connect into the city’s sewer system.

Harris said Maple Island will not be able to comply with the new phosphorus limits set by the Department of Natural Resources with its current treatment process and had approached the city about connecting to its sewer system, which the council approved at a previous meeting. He said the easement agreement would allow Maple Island to begin installing a pumping station and connecting sewer line at the Public Works Department shop on Industrial Drive.

The plan calls for Maple Island to install a sewer line from its treatment ponds underneath CTH O and a cityowned lot to the pumping station. A flow meter will be installed on the pumping station to monitor the discharge for billing purposes.