2005 Annual Report

Montpelier Parks benefited from a wonderful addition to its park system this year with a new riverside park, the Mill Pond Park on Elm St. The Mill Pond Park has a small launch site for small boats, a few wooden benches to enjoy a quiet talk or peaceful riverside moment and a semi- circular stone bench facing the river. Numerous trees, shrubs and flowers were planted, many in an attempt to displace invasive species with natives. Thanks go out to the Land and Water Conservation Fund, Vermont Housing and Conservation Fund, the Robinson family, the Vermont Youth Conservation Corp, Kate Douthat, Tino O’Brien, and the International Volunteers for Peace for helping make this park possible.

Local resident, Kate Douthat, worked as a Park intern this summer and was a huge help with numerous projects, including working with and occasionally guiding this years International Volunteers for Peace group, who came from Spain, Austria, Italy, France, and Belgium. The group of ten came for three weeks helped create the Mill Pond Park, as well as work on trail restoration work, building a new outhouse, and more. The Park Commission would like to thank Christ Church, the Hunger Mt. Coop, Shaws, First in Fitness and other local businesses for helping make their three-week stay not only possible and but welcoming.

Owen French, the Parks’ Americorp member, worked through August to assist Park’s Director Geoff Beyer with park and trail maintenance, river bank restoration, and coordination of volunteer work in the parks. Owen’s year of service ended in August, but in September Travis Pate got the position and has already made a big contribution. In October, Vista volunteer, Alethea Jones, was hired to do service in our Parks, 1/2 time and conservation work for the other half of her position. The conservation work will be on open space and river bank improvements. Alethea holds a BS in Environmental Science from UVM and has worked as a caretaker at Camels Hump State Park.

This year, for the first time ever, the Parks Department held a tree sale in Hubbard Park. The purpose was to remove young hardwood saplings trying to “move in on” our majestic stand of pines adjacent to the “old shelter”. For donations, young maple, beech, and ash trees were dug up by volunteers and sent to new homes along with care and maintenance instructions. The “sale” was successful! We hope it will become an annual fall event and/or in the spring.

In December, the Parks Commission held a public hearing concerning creation of a mountain bike trail in the North Branch Park. Currently, bicycles are only allowed on roadways in the parks due to potential conflicts with pedestrians walking on trails and trail erosion concerns. After meeting with the Montpelier Area Mountain Bike Association (MAMBA) and hearing from bikers and the park users at the December hearing, the Park Commission voted unanimously to build a dedicated mountain bike trail in the North Branch Park that will connect to the East Montpelier trail system going to Sparrow Farm. With grant funding and volunteer labor, we hope this new trail will be open for riders sometime in August 2006.

[Webmaster's note: this trail was constructed and completed Summer 2006. Funding was recieved from Bikes Belong Coalition and the Vermont Recreation Trails Fund. The trail was completed with many hours of volunteer labor. The Montpelier Area Mountain Bike Association (MAMBA) played a key role in the trailwork, and the International Volunteers for Peace were involved as well.]