Marblehead board approves park plan

MARBLEHEAD – Recreation and Parks Commission members voted unanimously in favor of landscape architect Matt Ulrich?s concept for Memorial Park, the downtown park between Pleasant and Essex streets which contains monuments to the town?s war dead.Now the commission is considering the details.The basic design calls for “a series of circles radiating outward from the monument (to Marbleheaders who died in the American Revolution, the War of 1812 and the Civil War),” as Commission Chairman Chip Osborne put it Tuesday night.Work on the design may be delayed until spring as the commission irons out the details on fencing and plantings and seeks financing from the Shatttuck Fund.?Realistically, the way the town operates, how muc Zambuto h of this can we get done this fall?” Derek Norcross asked.Ulrich said they could do some plantings as late as the end of October. Osborne said it would take five weeks to get bids for the fence to separate the park from the National Grand Bank parking lot and estimated the cost of that fence at $25,000.Park neighbor Robert Mace told the commission he distributed park plans in the neighborhood and neighbors thought the park was “beautiful” but they were concerned about the number of benches Ulrich included because they were afraid more benches would attract more litter.He said the park was intended to be “a passive park,” where people could sit and reflect.Osborne said he didn?t have a problem with people sitting and drinking coffee, and said there would be a trash receptacle in the park.Ulrich?s design called for seven benches. Norcross said he was willing to consider reducing the number to five.