More than $90,000 donated to Pittsfield Mill Pond project

PITTSFIELD – Local businesses, clubs and individuals have donated more than $90,000 in goods and services to turn a former trailer park into a walking and garden park on Pittsfield’s downtown Mill Pond.

That’s fortunate, town officials said recently, because the deadline for completing the $196,000 renovation has just been moved up and volunteers have less than four months to complete the job.

“If we gear up and push straight through, we can meet the deadline,” Mill Pond Task Force chairman Bernard “Barney” McGowan said last week.

Town Manager Kathryn Ruth said that the town is using the $90,000 in donations along with $38,596 worth of work from the town’s public works department to put in gardens, walkways, a parking lot, clean up and replant the shoreline, revamp an existing storage building and pave a parking lot. But it is a $50,000 Maine Department of Conservation grant awarded last week for the project that is affecting the deadline.

Town officials want to apply for a second DOC grant to help build a new town swimming pool at Manson Park but learned last week that they cannot until the first grant project is completed.

Task force members were concerned that a wet spring season may slow the project down.

“If Mother Nature is good to us, we’ll be all set,” said Jack Wright, a councilor and task force member. Wright will be meeting with officials from Central Maine Power at the site this week to get all power lines removed. Once the lines are out of the way, removal of the dead or dying trees will begin immediately, he said.

Three companies have donated labor and equipment to clean and rehabilitate the shoreline: Wright, as East Shore Landscaping, Cianbro Corp. and Higgins Tree Service.

Task force members will bring conceptual drawings of the park to a meeting Thursday. Those ideas will be incorporated into a final design.

Because town regulations require any purchase more than $5,000 to go through a bid process, Ruth will put the paving and the building foundation work out to bid.

As soon as weather permits, removal of the former trailer pads will begin, quickly followed by excavation of the walking path and parking lot.

The parking lot will be paved, landscaping and gardens installed, park equipment such as tables and benches installed, and the existing garage will be stabilized and painted.

The entire project must be completed by June 1 and will be inspected by the DOC on June 17.

Some of the other substantial donations include engineering and permitting services by Kleinschmidt Associates, planting duties by the Pittsfield Garden Club, electrical wiring and lighting installation by Cianbro Corp., revegetation and hydroseeding by Gordon Construction Co., 2,000 yards of gravel from C.M. Almy, trucking services from Frank Woodworth Inc. and S&G Construction Inc., light police and ground lights from Gilman Electrical Supply, and $14,000 worth of loam from Peter G. Vigue.

Ruth said that another $19,000 in donations is being sought and encouraged any civic group or local business to contact the town office at 487-3136.