A rendering of the proposed splash pad at Whalley Park.
Reminder Publishing file photo
SOUTHWICK — After nearly a year and a half of fits and starts on the installation of a splash pad at Whalley Park, the chair of the Parks and Recreation Commission said during the commission’s March 12 meeting that progress is being made.
Commissioner David DeiDolori said that a meeting is planned between Crestview Construction Co., and Westfield-based R. Levesque Associates to begin planning for the installation of the splash pad.
During Town Meeting in May 2023 voters authorized spending $294,000 of Community Preservation Act funds for the splash pad’s installation.
Then the project languished for months.
At nearly every Parks and Recreation Commission meeting between April 2024 and August 2024, it was announced that the start of construction of the splash pad was only weeks away.
In April, Commissioner John Whalley III said that Crestview Construction & Trucking Inc., which has been contracted to do the site work on the pad, was planning on starting in early May.
May came and went, and during the commission’s meeting in mid-June, Whalley III said that Crestview was planning to start the site work “next week” based on a conversation he said he had with Crestview’s President John Dziengelewski.
Crestview didn’t start in early July.
In August, Crestview had planned to start site work, but the town’s Chief Administrative Officer Nicole Parker paused it because there was no one to supervise or serve as the contractor to oversee the project.
A few weeks later it was announced the town planner would oversee the project, and that Crestview would begin site work in October.
That didn’t happen and it was announced the project had been pushed forward to the spring of 2025.
R. Levesque has long been involved in the project. It was contracted to draft design and engineering plans for it and was billed $13,000 for that work.
However, it was the town’s chief administrative officer who, after examining the town’s contract with Leveque and its scope of services, learned that Levesque was contractually obligated to oversee projects like the splash pad for the town.
The meeting between Levesque and Crestview was scheduled for March 19.
The equipment needed to build the pad had already been purchased for $103,000 and Leveque has been billed $13,000 for design engineering plans.
During the commission meeting, there was also a short discussion about the town’s pickleball project.
Last year, the commission voted 3-2 to apply to the Community Preservation Committee for $670,000 for construction of six pickleball courts at Whalley Park.
The CPC approved of putting the allocation request before Town Meeting in May.
At the March 12 commission meeting, DeiDolori said the commission would need to make a presentation to Town Meeting before the vote.
“We’ve got to do a presentation about what we’re doing and why we should do it,” DeiDolori said.
“I don’t think there’s going to be any objection to it,” Whalley III said during the meeting. “It’s anxiously anticipated by a lot of people that will certainly be at Town Meeting.
Commissioner Richard Harriman chimed in referring to Town Meeting.
“I wouldn’t be surprised that there were some people who wouldn’t want their taxes to go up because of pickleball, but they don’t get it. It’s CPC funded,” he said.
“That’s what we’ll have to explain” DeiDolori said.
DeiDolori spoke briefly about a proposal to build a spur from the rail trail that would connect it to College Highway.
Last month, Town Planner Jon Goddard let the Planning Board know that the Economic Development Commission Chair Greg Deily had approached him with the idea of connecting the trail to College Highway through the Christ Lutheran Church property at 568 College Hwy.
While nothing needed to be done immediately with the proposal, Goddard said the commercial developer building the 100-unit condominium project off Depot Street was amenable to having the trail cross his property.
DeiDolori said during the commission meeting that state grants were available for rail trail projects, but the state isn’t accepting applications right now.
