Lights for a Keach Park soccer field, a new irrigation system for Beaver Meadow Golf Course, a riverside park beside the former Penacook tannery site and new recreational opportunities at Rollins Park.
Those projects were prioritized and added to Concord’s capital improvement program, which plans for major investments in future years, by a series of votes taken at a city council budget session last week.
The plans are tentative and may change with the adoption of each year’s budget. Similarly, the programming for the 2018 fiscal year is subject to final adoption of the budget this month.
Councilor Mark Coen, who is also a member of the Golf Course Advisory Committee, said the city-owned golf course’s irrigation system was recommended for an upgrade in 2007, as it neared the end of its life expectancy. Coen said it was prudent to delay the plan during the recession, but it shouldn’t wait until its scheduled implementation in 2020.
“We’re at a point where a failure of the irrigation system at Beaver Meadow would adversely affect the performance and viability of that golf course financially,” Coen said, “and I really feel strongly we should address the irrigation system in 2018.”
The council supported Coen’s motion to move an $810,000 expense planned for 2020 and a $910,000 expense planned for 2021 to 2018 and 2019, respectively.
The course’s manager, Sid Chase, said he deals with breakdowns in the irrigation system on a “daily basis.”
Councilor Steve Shurtleff proposed to move up and increase spending for an item related to a riverfront park in Penacook.
A $185,000 expense was slated for 2022, but Shurtleff successfully argued to bump it up to 2020 and expand the funding to $1.2 million to build a park previously designed by city staff at the former tannery site.
That timing would align with the construction of a nonprofit affordable housing development proposed for the site and supported by the city council in May.
Shurtleff said he hoped the park would eventually connect into a network for trails, including the Merrimack River Greenway Trail.
Councilor Candace Bouchard sought to respond to a plea made two weeks earlier by a group of young adults asking for lights on a soccer field at Keach Park.
Parks and Recreation Director David Gill estimated that their request would cost about $400,000 to achieve.
“I realize $400,000, putting it into this budget we’re working on now, is probably not doable, but I would like to show somehow to these young adults that we can move forward on this in the future years,” Bouchard said.
The councilors voted to add a new $400,000 item to the capital improvement program in 2020 for the lights, with some of the money set to come from sources other than the city. City Manager Tom Aspell said there are “agencies and organizations that I think would contribute to something like this,” especially considering the money the city is investing in the adjacent community center and pool.
Mayor Jim Bouley noted there are roughly 20 homes surrounding the park whose owners may be concerned about the addition of lights, and he recommended in the meantime that their input be considered.
“There are very delicate balances that need to be found there,” he said.
Councilor Keith Nyhan sought to follow on the planned stump removal and tree planting scheduled for Rollins Park this year with new improvements next year.
He successfully moved to add $90,000 for 2019 for new amenities at the park, possibly to include picnic shelters, a natural play area and an educational planting area. Those were among the suggestions made at a recent neighborhood meeting in the park.
Nyhan said he hoped the concept would be discussed further over the coming year.
“In keeping with making sure we have ample input from the community, this would allow us time to vet a plan design that’s reflective of those ideas with the residents,” he said.
Merwyn Bagan, the president of the Abbot-Downing Historical Society, told the city councilors about his plan to establish a museum of Concord Coaches somewhere near downtown.
The society’s historic vehicles, produced by the famed Concord company, are currently kept in Hopkinton, he said.
“We really need a new building, and the building should really be within a very close proximity to downtown Concord,” he said.
Councilor Allan Herschlag, who is a member of the society, moved to put an item on the capital improvement program related to the museum to show the city would be a partner, “even if not financially.”
The city councilors decided, however, to ask Aspell to return with more information about the feasibility of such a museum before they finalize the budget.
Public hearings on the proposed budget are scheduled for Monday at 7 p.m. in the city council’s chambers.
(Nick Reid can be reached at 369-3325, nreid@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @NickBReid.)