City Council President JP Kwiecinski, Precinct 3 City Councilor Thomas Peake and At Large City Councilr Koni Denham sit at their microphones during the Dec. 3 City Council meeting. The council accepted grants for the incoming Skatepark and improvements to Nonotuck Park. They also held off on a vote around short term rentals.
Photo credit: E-Media
EASTHAMPTON — Two major projects in the city will move forward after the City Council officially accepted state grants to help fund the undertakings.
The long-anticipated Easthampton all-wheels park project is one step closer following the council’s Dec. 3 regular meeting, where the body approved a resolution that gives the project’s committee $425,000 from the state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
Known as the Parklands Acquisitions and Renovations for Communities grant, the money will fund final design and construction of an approximately 6,000-square-foot all-wheels park with proposed ADA accommodations. The new park will be located on the grass knoll next to the bandshell inside Millside Park. The location was chosen in September 2024.
An initiative years in the making, the new all-wheels park will cost around $750,000 to build. Outside of the $425,000 PARC grant, the Community Preservation Act Committee and City Council approved $250,000 in CPA money in September, and the Easthampton Skatepark Committee — which has been spearheading this project for several years — will raise the remaining $75,000 through a partnership agreement with a local nonprofit that has yet to be announced.
Several residents spoke in favor of the all-wheels skate park at the September council meeting where the body accepted the CPA money. One speaker, Jeff Burke, has been a part of the Easthampton Skatepark Committee since 2019.
In his comments to the council, he emphasized the importance of having a park in the city that prioritizes all types of riders, whether BMX, roller skating, scooters, skateboards and wheelchair sports.
He added that skateboarding is a “way of life” for people and teaches perseverance while spanning multiple generations.
“We’re just trying to build a community park that is a good place for kids to gather safely and enjoy the sports that they like to do,” Burke said.
When built, the all-wheels park will be the first of its kind in Easthampton in over 20 years. That previous park was in honor of Hampshire County resident David MacDonald, an avid skater who died in a car crash 28 years ago.
His father, Bob, said at the September meeting that the park was used by many children until it was taken down and given away without the family’s knowledge. He shared that a park in Chesterfield still honors his son with a plaque in his memory, but the family is still waiting for the replacement in Easthampton.
“And we’re at the point where I’m so close, I can taste it,” Bob MacDonald said. “And I’m hoping and praying that this will make it this time. I don’t know if I can wait much longer.”
Final designs for the all-wheels park project will likely be formulated between now in July. Construction is expected to start sometime in the summer or fall and run through the winter. The hope is to have a ribbon cutting for the new park in spring 2027.
The other grant the council accepted is a $264,500 Land and Water Conservation Fund Grant for the city’s Nonotuck Spray Park Renovation and Improvement project. According to previous Reminder Publishing reporting, the improvements would focus on capturing reusing the water from the park as a way to conserve water and provide significant savings to the city.
The grant accompanies $264,500 in CPA money that the council approved in September. The two appropriations will cover the project’s total cost of $529,000. The project is expected to begin in fall 2026.
In addition to those two items, the City Council also elected to hold off on a vote for a short term rental ordinance that would essentially regulate those types of rentals in the city. The lengthy two-hour-plus conversation came several months after the city announced that it would suspend zoning enforcement on short term rentals relating to private properties until a new zoning ordinance is reviewed and passed.
The council plans to take the issue up again at a meeting in February. Reminder Publishing will have more in-depth coverage on this issue in the next edition.
