ATHOL – A UMass grad student interning in the town’s Office of Planning and Development has drafted a proposal to upgrade Fish Park.

Sneha Shinde, who is working on her masters in landscape architecture, presented her plan to the Open Space and Recreation Review Committee at its meeting on April 22.

Shinde’s proposal includes pathways compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), amenities and signage, while also creating specific areas for year-round social, cultural and recreational use. Also among the proposed improvements would be inclusive play areas for children of all abilities and improved parking.

The five-acre Fish Park is an open space with little in the way of shelter or shading. Shinde’s proposal would create green infrastructure to include bioswales, rain gardens and permeable surfaces for flood resistance. It would also “support biodiversity through native plantings and landscape strategies; provide reading and relaxation zones with shade, seating, and visual connectivity to nature.” This would include planting trees of varying species around nearly the entire perimeter of the park.

Aspects of the plan which the committee took particular interest in is the creation of an amphitheater which would allow for a variety of community events, from rallies and celebrations to musical concerts and theatrical performances. This could alleviate the need for the expensive rehabilitation of the crumbling bandstand, which has been closed for several years due to its condition and that it does not comply with the ADA.

Shinde provided a brief history of the park, which opened around the turn of the last century. The bandstand was constructed in 1919 and restored in the 1980s. She also displayed photos from the park’s early days, which showed people skating on a temporary pond and participating in other activities. The photos showed many more trees in and around the park than is found there today.

Town Manager Shaun Suhoski, who viewed Shinde’s presentation remotely, told the Athol Daily News, “I think Sneha did a great job. We’ve been having sessions internally – planning, DPW, and my office – about how to re-envision Fish Park, for a couple of reasons.”

Suhoski said that “The old bandstand is not accessible – it’s not accessible and it’s falling apart. I would like to something a little more accessible. And then, we were looking around the natural ‘shell’ to see if there was a way to install some kind of amphitheater. It could be designed so we could still have sledding in the winter, but there would be a space where people could have events there. We could just take advantage of the natural resource.

“So, this is something we wanted to do internally, and when Sneha came on, she was generating ideas that really got everybody brainstorming and thinking about possibilities.”

Suhoski noted that grad students majoring in design were brought in to envision possible plans for redevelopment of the former Bigelow/Riverbend schools.

“These graduate students put forward ideas,” he said. “That’s not what we did, but it got people thinking about possibilities and provided a proof of concept, economically. A couple of years later we had a developer on board and an engineer that took those ideas to the next level. That’s analogous to what we’re doing with Fish Park.

“We have these great ideas that Sneha put forward. The boards and the committees will pick the best of them, and we’ll find a way economically to make it happen. I think there are ways to find the funding. By the time we get designs and do the community process, we’ll be able to identify some funding sources that can make this happen.”

Planning and Development Director Eric Smith he plans to make Shinde’s proposal available for public viewing.

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.