John Ward's Plan for our parks and some economic development

Part one. Move our athletic fields to Cass Park. A little complicated, but let’s start with this. Get rid of the tennis and basketball court along Cass Avenue. Put two basketball courts where the ice rinks used to be near the high school. No tennis courts as we already have them on Aylsworth Avenue. Dredge out a new pond where those courts were. Cut the existing pond in half, leaving a smaller pond close to Cass Ave. and a stream to run between the ponds and further down to Sylvester Pond. Fill in the rest and use it for parking that will be used for the new, lighted football field at the base of the hill (which will be completely cleared of the trees) with the grandstands built right into the hill. Have Renaud field become the home field for the baseball field (unless it already is) and let the school department take over responsibility for the maintenance of the park where their fields are located.

One big hurdle will be to raise the needed money to build a new football field on the site, with proper turf, stands, parking and lights. We will need to do some serious fundraising and locate good corporate sponsors, but I’m confident that a well designed vision for the space will make it easy to market.

Part two. Sell Barry Field as completely commercial property or do some split of commercial and residential. Use the proceeds to leverage with state and federal grants and corporate contributions in order to pay for the work at Cass Park. Note that Barry Field is a 23 acre park.

Part three. The city council and budget commission have already approved a plan to negotiate with DEM to take over WW2 park, but it still needs to be negotiated for the extra five year phase-in. I say drop the phase-in money and find some DEM grant money to help with the costs of renovating (moving the water areas) at Cass Park.

WW2 park is 21 acres, an almost one-to-one trade for lost acreage at Barry Field, so the city will have the same number of park acreage. We shouldn’t need to add costs for maintenance if we don’t add space. Do the renovations as planned already and then add one other important aspect that will promote a higher number of visitors. Make WW2 Memorial Park just Woonsocket Memorial Park. In the area surrounding the current World War II Memorial, move all of the war monuments from around the city into that space to create a Memorial Plaza. Of course, the park will need marked walking paths so people will naturally walk through the memorial area every time they use the park. This will increase foot traffic in the park and create a space for residents to see the memorials where there is adequate parking.

Finally, get DOT and DEM to add an extension to the bike path spur to the city library that will extend way-finding signage to bring cyclists to the Woonsocket Memorial Park via Pond Street and Veteran’s Way.