Committee to mull Kendrick Park options

By Nick Grabbe
Staff Writer

Published on November 02, 2007

Town Manager Laurence Shaffer said he will appoint a committee to look at the options for Kendrick Park, the 3-acre finger of land at the northern end of downtown.

The options could include a skating pond, an open-air market, a place for band concerts and a bocce court, he said.

Public rest rooms could be incorporated into the design, he said.

"Once we get a concept of the kinds of things that could transpire there, we'll solicit a design competition from landscape architects," Shaffer said.

The town took ownership of Kendrick Park last year. In the 1930s, a banker named George Kendrick established a trust whose purpose was to buy all the properties as they came up for sale, then move or demolish the buildings.

His goal was to eventually create a landscaped public park.

The last remaining house has been purchased by Barry Roberts, who intends to move it to a lot on Gray Street next month, Shaffer said.

The town also acquired about $20,000 from the trust that can be used in any redesign of the park, Shaffer said.

The pool of money arising from a tax surcharge under the Community Preservation Act could also be tapped, he said.

Kendrick Park presents a design challenge, in part because it is about a quarter-mile long but only 180 feet wide at its widest point. At the southern end, where Boy Scouts sell Christmas trees, it is only 43 feet wide.

Also, Kendrick Park is bordered by heavily trafficked Triangle, North Pleasant and East Pleasant streets, with a residential area to its west and a commercial area to its east.

Tan Brook runs under Kendrick Park, and could be "daylighted" to give the area a water feature, Shaffer said. A proposal to dam it to create a skating pond is probably not feasible, he said.

Residents who are interested in serving on the Kendrick Park committee should contact Shaffer at shafferl@amherstma.gov.

Nick Grabbe can be reached at ngrabbe@gazettenet.com.