BERLIN – Efforts to redevelop the town’s newest park officially got underway last week as the Berlin Falls Park Advisory Committee met for the first time.
The 11-member advisory committee, created in October by municipal officials, has been charged with recommending future uses and features for Berlin Falls Park. The roughly 60-acre park, formerly a chicken processing plant, was purchased by the town in 2016.
“What this property can become, and will become, not just in the next few years, not just in the next decade, but for the generations to come, is in your hands,” Mayor Gee Williams told committee members Thursday night.
Williams welcomed the group of two councilmen and nine residents to town hall.
“This has been a long anticipated evening,” Williams said. “When we first started discussing the possibility of what is for now called Berlin Falls Park, we got a lot of laughs. We got a lot of people who said this is beyond anything Berlin can imagine. But I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to be able to transfer the responsibility of this very unique opportunity to you folks.”
Williams was eager to “hand off the baton” to a group of residents with an array of backgrounds who would be able to come up with a cohesive plan for the park.
“I’m not only grateful I’m excited,” he said. “You bring a variety of talents you bring different perspectives and different experiences. I can’t be more grateful for the potential that you bring.”
Committee members, who have backgrounds in areas such as education, conservation, recreation and parks, park management and camping, also heard from David Deutsch, the Berlin Falls Park coordinator. He said the committee would be tasked with ensuring the park complemented the community, was inclusive and balanced active and passive uses.
“We’re really going to rely on you to help us move this process forward and look at options,” he said.
Deutsch encouraged committee members to voice their concerns and ideas in the coming months.
“I’m looking forward to working with all of you,” he said. “I think we’ve got a great opportunity here.”
The committee is set to meet again Jan. 11. Prior to that meeting, committee members will tour Berlin Falls Park and review the various environmental and site reports associated with it. Town officials are currently in the process of creating a webpage dedicated to Berlin Falls Park documents and reports to serve as a reference page for committee members as well as the public.
“Most of the information is already public in some fashion,” Town Administrator Laura Allen said. “This way we’ll have a separate webpage with documents they’ll use as reference.”
