ATHOL — Athol residents are invited to join town officials for a site walk of Lord Pond Plaza this Saturday from 10 to 11:30 a.m. The walk will facilitate a feasibility assessment of the shopping area to determine if much of what is now pavement can be converted into urban green space, and whether efforts should be taken to once again allow Mill Brook — which runs under the plaza — to see the light of day.
“One of the things the town has been talking about for many years has been trying to redevelop and kind of clean up the whole sea of concrete at Lord Pond Plaza,” said Athol Planning and Development Director Eric Smith. “For some time, we’ve been trying to find a way to challenge what funding we could use, to try to get some money to further these planning efforts.”
Smith said it was “striking” how the plaza stood out when a map of urban heat islands in downtown Athol was completed under a state Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Action Grant received by the town. The first meeting aimed at hammering out details of an MVP plan was held in March of this year.
“If you look at the (heat island) map, you see a red bull’s eye right in downtown,” said Smith. “Part of downtown includes Lord Pond Plaza and that sea of concrete. So, with the support of our state MVP representative, Andrew Smith — he was encouraging us to proceed with a feasibility assessment of redeveloping Lord Pond Plaza, which would incorporate nature-based solutions, you know, green infrastructure, like collecting more of the rain water before it becomes storm water runoff — maybe explore daylighting the buried Mill Brook, which has been buried ever since they filled in that area.
“It’s called Lord Pond Plaza for a reason, because it was Lord Pond at one time, before they created the plaza and paved over the pond. So, this is literally an example of where they ‘paved over paradise and put in a parking lot.’
“It was a pond, a working pond with a mill on it, at one time. Still, it was a drastic change and it’s been that way since at least — we don’t have the exact records of when that transpired — but somewhere in the late ’40s, early ’50s is what I ascertained by looking at some deed information.”
It’s hoped the public will take part in Saturday’s walk and provide some ideas on how to improve the area, not only to reduce the impact of potential environmental emergencies, but also as part of the town’s ongoing downtown revitalization efforts.
“Obviously, we also need to take a look at the traffic flow in the area,” Smith continued. “That’s another issue people want to take a look at to see if there’s a way to kind of slow down traffic, make it safer for pedestrians.
“Right now, anyone who ever goes to the Senior Center or Council on Aging, or any of those services there, or Job Lot — as soon as you leave those businesses, you’re right in the driveway. There’s no separation.”
One idea floated is the creation of some green space between businesses/offices and the parking area. In fact, said Smith, there has been talk of creating more green space in general, while also creating space for community activities.
“We might like to put in more trees, additional greening. There’s been discussion of maybe trying to put some kind of area where we could do events, festivals, farmers markets — that kind of thing. There’s kind of like wasted space behind the Senior Center that could be used for picnic tables or some raised garden beds, things like that
“So, that’s kind of the idea, but we obviously need to get public engagement. That’s part of this process. We built that into the (grant) proposal and the scope. So, in the early phases of this project we want to have this site walk.”
Smith said the idea for the site walk arose from the limitations on indoor meetings imposed by COVID-19 restrictions.
“We decided,” he concluded, “instead of doing a Zoom meeting, let’s actually get out there and see the area and discuss it with interested abutters, the community as a whole, people who might be going to the Senior Center, people like that.
“So, what we’ll do Saturday morning is meet out in front of the Senior Center/Council on Aging office, give a short little overview of the project, then walk around the site. We really do hope folks will take the time to join us.”
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.