GREENFIELD — Thanks to grant funding, the Fiske Avenue municipal parking lot will be transformed into a “pocket park” and community gathering space that will include a rain garden and age-friendly furniture without taking away any parking spaces.
The American Association of Retired Persons, better known as AARP, an organization dedicated to empowering people 50 and older to choose how they live as they age, awarded Greenfield a $22,000 “quick-action” grant for the pocket park.
According to Greenfield’s Director of Energy and Sustainability Carole Collins, there are plans to install a new bench at the existing bus stop there, a chess table with chairs, and a bike pump and repair station.
“The rain garden will not only be a beautiful place to spend time outside, but will also provide a valuable service of filtering rainwater during big storm events,” Collins said. “The Fiske Avenue Pocket Park design was completed for Greenfield by the Conway School of Landscape Design as part of a larger study on downtown streetscape enhancements, and the design was such a perfect use of the site that it was a great candidate for this AARP Community Challenge grant.”
Kristin Thomas, project manager for the Conway School, which is now located in Northampton, said graduate students from the school finished designs for the pocket park in 2012.
“Students who are part of our 10-month master’s program work on real projects, often with municipalities,” Thomas said. “We worked with Greenfield on this park, meeting with city officials back then. We came up with preliminary designs and then finalized them.”
Collins said the final designs were modified, but are still quite similar to what the Conway School students created.
“This is actually the first phase of this project,” Collins said. “Eventually, we’ll have an entrance and exit on Miles Street, but parking will not be impacted.”
She said the bench and chess table will be located closer to Main Street, while the rain garden will be at the other end of the parking lot, where people currently enter.
“The parking lot will eventually be much easier to navigate,” she said. “Right now, people drive in and out the same way. When the project is complete, they’ll be able to exit closer to Main Street.”
Though the project has taken eight years to come to fruition, Collins said it has been worth the wait.
“They’re great plans, and the area will be beautiful,” she said. “We used the same plans for the Chapman/Davis streets municipal parking lot several years ago, so we’ve gotten a lot out of these plans.”
The city’s Department of Public Works had already planned to replace the deteriorating retaining wall there, as well, and that project should be completed this fall, so Collins said the grant came at a perfect time.
“We’re grateful for the work and support of AARP to make this important project possible,” she said.
The grant, which Collins said was “very competitive,” was one of three to be awarded in Massachusetts and among 184 nationwide. Greenfield’s application was one of 2,800.
“We are incredibly proud that AARP selected Greenfield to receive this grant,” Mayor Roxann Wedegartner said. “AARP is a nationwide leader on making neighborhoods, towns and cities more livable for all residents, and we are honored that they see the tangible value this project will bring to our community. This project also aligns with goals of our master plan, Sustainable Greenfield, to provide a vibrant downtown while also building resiliency.”
Reach Anita Fritz at 413-772-9591 or afritz@recorder.com.