Town, CPC Weigh Eldredge Park Funding

ORLEANS – When it comes to community preservation funding, recreation projects have arguably been underserved in past years, with more funding going toward housing, historic preservation and open space.

But with a $5 million request before the community preservation committee to fund renovations to the town’s Eldredge Park recreation area, the select board is hoping that this is the year that recreation gets its due.

The request is considerable, and CPC members earlier this month expressed some concern with funding the project in full. Last week, the select board expressed a willingness to support a CPC appropriation of at least $3 million, a number that board Chair Kevin Galligan said could still support the core of the proposed project.

Plans call for a new 35-by-50-foot half-basketball court with tiered bleacher seating at the far end of the field near the Eldredge Park baseball diamond, six new pickleball courts and a new playground with a track for children’s bicycles. At the opposite end of the park fronting Eldredge Park Way, two new tennis courts are proposed along with a small handball court and a full 50-by-80-foot basketball court. Plans also include four accessible parking spaces, an accessible trail system connecting the park components, water bottle stations and areas for three shaded structures. 

For Andrea Reed of the select board, the project as proposed offers an opportunity for the town to change the narrative around how it supports recreation locally.

“We have a history of devaluing needs for kids and families here, and that playground is atrocious,” she said. “It does not represent our standards or our investment in the community.”

But while the project is eligible for community preservation funding, Town Manager Kim Newman said with the CPC’s uncertainty around the $5 million request, it may be up to the town to fund some portion of the project. Without any available funds dedicated to the project, she said any funding request for the Nov. 17 special town meeting would have to come from a debt exclusion.

Support for such an article in November would keep the project on track for construction to start next fall, Newman said. She said fall construction would allow the park work to be done without interfering with the Orleans Firebirds’ summer season. 

But a debt exclusion request would come in the midst of a number of other impending capital projects, most notably a new fire station, that have already been long in the planning and discussion.

“It’s an excellent project and it should be funded,” she said. “There’s no doubt it would be excellent as a focal point in our community. That’s not in question. The question really is what’s the board’s appetite to take this on ahead of a potentially much larger conversation about the fire-rescue station and other capital needs moving forward? And that’s your decision to make.”

Galligan said Sept. 10 that while there was “quite a bit of deliberation and concern” around the request from the CPC at its Sept. 4 meeting, there was also support voiced for the project.

“I think we’re all wanting to get this done, it’s just a matter of how and when,” he said.

The select board gave resounding support to a draft of the project when it was presented to them on July 30, but Michael Herman of the select board, who is the board’s representative to the CPC, said there was a lack of information regarding the project financials provided to the CPC at the Sept. 4 hearing.

“We were going to, I thought, bring back some scenarios about how we could possibly fund this and what the timeline would be,” he said. “We didn’t get to that before it went to the CPC, and that’s where I think some of the confusion happened.”

But Mefford Runyon of the select board said that the time is now to support recreation, noting the work that has been done in recent years to improve programming in the department.

“But all along, it was recognized that the facility part of recreation was going to need a big investment,” he said.

Beyond offering funding, the CPC also has the option of borrowing to support the project. Runyon calculated that borrowing $3 million for the project over 15 years would amount to $290,000 in CPC support per year against the committee’s annual allotment of about $1.5 million.

“That’s 18 percent, and each of the other categories have had well north of 18 percent year after year after year,” he said. “So I think this year is recreation’s turn for the big ask and the big award.”

The question then turned to how much the CPC should pick up and how much the town should contribute. Mark Mathison of the select board said it’s hard to say without considering the cost of other projects currently before the CPC.

“We can’t be making these decisions in isolation,” he said, saying that the town may not be in a position to pursue a debt exclusion for this fall. “I think there’s too many of those other factors out there that are just up in the air right now.”

Galligan, meanwhile, said that the town has already contributed to the project in the form of $850,000 in free cash that voters approved in October 2024 for the project’s design. 

The board voted 4-0-1 to provide the CPC with “supplemental” information in support of the project and to express its support for a lesser request of at least $3 million in community preservation funding. 

“I want to champion this thing. I really, really do,” Galligan said.

In a text last week, Jamie Balliett, who chairs the town’s recreation advisory committee, said the committee would welcome CPC support at the lower number if necessary. 

“The Eldredge Park project is a win-win for the health and wellbeing of our entire community,” he said. “It’s got something for everyone and will surely be a major economic driver in the heart of our downtown for years to come.”

Balliett said the committee is looking forward to public comment that will be allowed on the project at the CPC’s next hearing on Oct. 2.