Meaghan Meerburg goes over some of the details of the concept plans for the Hallville Community Park with long-time Hallville resident Threse St. John. Morin Photo
HALLVILLE – The residents of the Village of Hallville are several steps closer to seeing their community park become a reality.
A large group of more than 35 residents came to the Hallville Fire Hall on Mon., July 25 to take part in an open house put on by the North Dundas municipality.
Meaghan Meerburg the director of recreation and culture, presented those gathered at the meeting with a brief overview of the two concept plans being considered, but stressed the municipality was waiting for input about what choices the Hallville community wanted to make for their park. At the moment, there are two concept plans for the park. They are very similar. Both plans call for a senior and children’s play structure, an outdoor skating rink and rink house, a pumphouse to supply water to the rink, various walking paths from one section of the park to another, paved parking lots and two crosswalks with audio and visual warnings along Reids Mill Road that run by the entrance to the park.
Most of the discussion at the open house was about the three optional ideas presented to residents. They were including a splash pad, a ball diamond and a soccer field to the park plan. Including any or all of the three would result in the project going over budget and would require additional grant funding or community fundraising.
Residents were asked to fill out a form describing what they would like to see in the park and the results of that informal survey will be the driving force for the park plan. The deadline for submission of the forms is Fri., July 29. A decision about what to include at the park will be presented to the council at their next meeting.
Mary Cook has been the Hallville resident who has been speaking for the residents. She was pleased with how the meeting turned out.
“I think we had a very good turn out too. Many who attended any of the council meetings were here,” she said.
Cook noted there were a wide range of ages at the meeting.
As to what major features the community park would have, the crowd at the meeting were divided.
Cook said, “I am hearing a lot of different things. I think a lot of the residents are looking at a splash pad.”
She said as far as the soccer field and baseball diamond went, the soccer field might be preferable than the ball diamond if the community could only have one of them.
She noted that having a playground in close proximity to the splash pad was a good idea.
One of the conclusions from the open house was that Hallville residents would be better served by creating their own local recreation committee so that they could stay involved throughout the construction of the park.
The park would be built in three phases with each phase including different features.
Mayor Tony Fraser encouraged and invited those at the meeting to become involved in the decision-making process and to not be shy about telling him or the director of recreation and culture, what their ideas were and what choices they wanted the municipality to follow.
Meerburg told the crowd to decide what their community would like to have in the park as a first step, and then consider the financial part of the project.
Joseph Morin is the Editor of the Eastern Ontario AgriNews, and the Record. He is, despite years of practice, determined to eventually play the guitar properly. He has served the Eastern Ontario community as a news editor, and journalist for the past 25 years with the Iroquois Chieftain, Kemptville Advance, West Carleton Review, and Ottawa Carleton Review in Manotick. He has never met a book he did not like.
