An expanded park and outdoor amphitheater are among the recommendations for the former site of the Maine State Prison that a committee will present to Thomaston later this month.
The Thomaston Green Park Committee, which consists of 21 Thomaston residents, will put forth recommendations to the public on how to better utilize a large park off of Route 1 that housed the prison until 2002, when a new prison was constructed in Warren and the Thomaston facility was demolished.
The area, acquired by the town in 2005, currently has benches, gazebos and a youth soccer pitch.
Citizens were previously divided over whether to develop the green or keep it as a park, Town Manager Kara George said. So, the ad hoc committee was formed last August as a way for the citizens to decide what to do with the park.
“I’d love to see it be usable space,” George said. “It’s been really underutilized for a lot of years.”
The recommendations, which include plans to upgrade and add to the park’s design and amenities and how to govern the park, will be presented to the town at a workshop on Sept. 19.
Some of the action items labeled by the committee are set to be taken care of by the end of the year. These include renaming the park to something “more inviting” than Thomaston Green Park. The committee conducted a survey of elementary and middle school students to help pick names.
More immediate actions include looking into purchasing land surrounding the park to expand it, adding gateways at two entrances to the park, and extending water and electricity to the gazebo and flagpole.
The committee’s recommendations also call for letting the area of the park that overlooks the St. George River to grow wild and pursuing a Certified Wildlife Habitat for the area.
In the long-term, the recommendations include an outdoor amphitheater at the west end of the park.
Oversight of parks and trails in the town is broken into several departments, according to the document — Public Works takes care of landscaping, the Recreation Department handles youth and senior recreation on the green, and the Environmental Department has constructed a network of hiking and biking trails in the area. None of these departments fully oversee the park.
The committee recommended turning the Recreation Department into the Parks & Rec Department and adding stewardship of the park to the new department’s responsibilities. It recommended that a part-time staff position is created to oversee the town’s parks and trails.
Funding the project is still in question though, George said. The area is a downtown TIF district, and the town has set aside $26,000 from last year’s budget. Officials are also looking for grants and other funding opportunities, she said.
Because money and staff capacity are still in question, George isn’t sure how long the project will take. Some of the recommendations have goals to be completed in three years, while others are meant to be completed in 2024.
“Time, money and capacity will determine how quickly we can implement recommendations,” George said.
George said though a group of citizens put forth the recommendations, the town is still looking for public input through surveys to see if the recommendations align with the majority of opinions.
The public workshop will be at the Thomaston Municipal Building at 6 p.m. on Sept. 19 to discuss the committee’s recommendations.
