Conway Village park plans spring ahead

Centerpiece will be a circular or oval-shaped green on site of old skating rink

Work will begin this spring on a Conway Village park that will feature pedestrian paths, a gazebo, picnic areas and a canoe launch on Pequawket Pond.The park will be located on just over two acres of land owned by the Conway Village Fire District. The property fronts Main Street next to the fire station and runs behind Conway United Methodist Church and along the pond to Lake Street.Precinct voters over the past two years have appropriated about $210,000 for the project, and a federal park-service grant has been approved for another $100,000. Eugene Shannon, of Albany, is the apparent low bidder, precinct Officer Manager Lianne Boelzner said Monday, although a contract has not yet been signed.Boelzner said work on the park will probably go through the summer and be completed by early fall."We're looking to hold a community volunteer day in the very near future in order to help us clear out brush and get rid of garbage," Boelzner said.Landscape architect for the project is John Wacker, of John Wacker and Associates Inc., of Conway.The centerpiece of the park will be a circular or oval-shaped green between the church and the fire station, where the skating rink used to be located during the winters. There will be a brick walkway around the green and a variety of trees and shrubs, including sugar maples, birches, crab apples, Japanese tree lilacs, swamp azaleas and forsythias, on the outer perimeter. The gazebo will be situated inside the circular lawn area.To allow room for more green space, the current parking next to the church will be eliminated and the pavement narrowed to an in/out driveway only. The parking area behind the church will be reconfigured to make up for the lost parking spaces on the side.There is room behind the parking lot for a skating rink if the town chooses to erect and operate the rink again at some point in the future.From the Lake Street side, an existing gravel parking area will be retained and a canoe launch added. Branching off from the parking area will be two paths, one along the shore of Pequawket Pond and the other providing a more direct route to the village green. There will be two picnic areas along the path overlooking Pequawket Pond.Boelzner said there will be some cutting and thinning of vegetation along the pond, but otherwise the area will be left in its natural state.The park hasn't been formally named but for now is being referred to simply as the Conway Village park. Boelzner said Pequawket Park might be an obvious choice were it not for the fact that the name is already taken. The "triangle" off Washington Street is named Pequawket Park for the Pequawket Foundation that helped fund it.Boelzner said precinct taxpayers will have a say in the name. She said questionnaires will probably be sent out with bills, asking residents to submit their recommendations.