Three Fredericksburg parks were under the microscope at a recent public meeting where planners were there to hear suggestions for the future of these parks in the wake of floods, funding shortfall, and changing outdoor trends.
“You’ve got to live with the flooding,” said environmental engineer Elizabeth Lardner, who went between the three displays talking to the residents and city staff at the Dorothy Hart Community Center. “We’re working with Mother Nature,” she said, referring partially to a recent flood that put Old Mill Park underwater when the Rappahannock River overflowed its banks in early January.
Old Mill Park, on Caroline Street, was one of the parks under review, along with Alum Spring Park and Ficklen Island. Each park had a station with diagrams, specifications, and statistics that allowed the onlookers to see what could be in store for the parks. They were asked to put suggestions down on a Post-It note on the park information board, and these were collected at the end of the night.
This meeting was their winter meeting, where park officials can make an assessment based on public input. The spring-summer meeting is where they will examine the concept alternatives and in the fall they will come up with a plan for improvements over the next 20 years. Lardner summed up this process as “not really sexy but it really matters,” she said.
Fredericksburg Park Director Todd Brown could tell by the number of participants that the parks mattered to many in the city.
Hector C. is a kayaker who was interested in the plans for Ficklen Island, the pedestrian park just off Riverside Drive. One Post-It had to do with the dam that was built years ago and Hector wants the river to stay as it is. “This whole river is a great river for kayaking,” he said.
Some of the parks are possible because of the river floods, said Lardner. The space Old Mill is on is a flood area that is not built up because the river overflows its banks every once in a while, and would destroy houses and buildings.
At Alum Spring, bordered by Routes 1, Blue and Gray Parkway, and Lafayette Boulevard, there is a path that goes right past the back of the bathroom structure, and this is not in tune with the outdoor theme of the park. “It’s time for a mural on that building,” said Lardner.
As the night wore on, the Post-It’s came out with suggestions of every type. “Establish a maintenance plan” was posted more than once, followed by suggestions to preserve historic resources, maintain access, put in campsites, remove poison ivy, and put in a canoe launch. This is only a start for the parks.
“We want to build on the investments we already made,” said Lardner.
Mike Salmon is a freelance reporter for Potomac Local News.
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