Fairlee
Fairlee Town Beach, which includes a playground and picnic area, is slated to receive approximately $9,000 in improvements on Oct. 9 thanks to an initiative set forth by the Vermont Recreation and Parks Association.
Slated enhancements include refurbishing the surface of the playground and creating wheelchair-accessible pathways from the parking lot to both the playground and the picnic area, as well as a new handicapped-accessible picnic table. The park also will receive a water-accessible wheelchair, a new grill for the picnic area and a pair of spring animal play structures for a shaded area of the beach.
The non-profit VRPA, headquartered in Colchester, is holding its 75th annual conference on Oct. 9 and 10 at nearby Lake Morey Resort, where it’s been held for the last 13 years. Organization president Melissa Cate was inspired to improve Fairlee Town Beach during a walk around the lake last year after witnessing similar work on a park in New Orleans as part of the National Recreation and Parks Association Conference in that city.
“Every year, NRPA has a park project for the host city of the conference, and we’ve been having our conference at Lake Morey every year,” Cate said. “I was walking around last year and noticed the playground looked a little dilapidated. I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to do a park project on the local level?’ and our executive director (Betsy Terry) loved the idea.”
Donations of both material and labor accounted for all but the new picnic table and grill, which is being paid for through an online fundraising campaign. That effort had raised $1,200 of its $2,000 goal by Friday afternoon, and the Lake Morey Foundation has pledged to match $1,000 to help ensure the project is completed.
“Fairlee Town Beach gets a lot of use in the summer and is a real asset to the town,” Lake Morey Association President Bruce Durgin said. “This is a great effort. We were happy to jump on board to support it.”
Plans also include regrading the area surrounding the park’s tetherball pole to improve drainage — “It gets to be a big puddle right now,” Town Administrator Tad Nunez said — as well as the placement of large stones along the new playground pathway. Some perennial flowers also will be planted for aesthetic purposes.
Nunez, who was Hartford’s parks and recreation director for nearly 30 years before becoming Fairlee’s town administrator in January, appreciates the value of sprucing up the park beyond the beach.
“It’s called Fairlee Town Beach for a reason, don’t get me wrong, but if you stand with your back facing the water, you realize the lake is just there and it’s really a park,” Nunez said. “To me, it’s a matter of, ‘How can we improve the park?’ You think about things like safety, ADA compliance and being more inviting.”
Previously inserted spring play animals — known as spring riders — were removed after becoming defective and a safety liability, Nunez said. The new ones will be likenesses of a bear and a ladybug, according to Cate.
“We’re certainly glad to be replacing the spring riders, because kids love them and it would have been expensive to replace them on our own,” said Matt Jung, chairman of Fairlee’s volunteer recreation council. “We’re excited for the whole project. It’s beyond the scope of our resources and a great way to improve our little gem in town.”
It will be the first project of its kind performed by the Vermont Recreation and Parks Association, a nonprofit dedicated to the promotion of recreation and park services throughout the state.
Cate said she wasn’t aware of any other state associations that have attempted to adopt the National Recreation and Parks Association’s model of refurbishing a park near to its conference host.
“It’s totally new to our organization,” she said. “We’re really excited about it.”
A ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the new amenities is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Oct. 10.
Jared Pendak can be reached at jpendak@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.