The plea to ‘Save Diamond Hill Park’
Cumberland resident wants regulations instituted for event cleanups... because, really, who still wants to see Halloween decorations in May?
CUMBERLAND — Later this month, the Diamond Hill Park Conservation and Management Plan for the next five years will come before the Town Council. It lays out a vision for renovations of the ski lodge, filling in the pond in front of the band shell to create a lawn, and adding new landscaping and signage to the entrance.
But Chris Ratcliffe, who resides on adjacent Fisher Road, has another vision.
Ratcliffe wants to see regulations put in place so that remnants of an event are not scattered around the park weeks or months afterward.
“The venue itself is not suitable to do the level of events they're doing in the park,” Ratcliffe said, noting that he doesn't lay blame for the rubble with Mayor Bill Murray or Parks and Recreation Director Michael Crawley. “It's just not the right place for it, and that's what's led to this problem.”
Crawley disagrees, saying the park is meant to hold events for the community.
To Ratcliffe, “this problem” is best illustrated by the photos he posted in Save Diamond Hill Park, a Facebook group he created at the end of April. He also created a Save Diamond Hill Park petition to Murray and the Cumberland Town Council on Change.org, which has garnered more than 350 signatures.
The photos Ratcliffe took show detritus and props remaining six weeks after the end of Haunted Hill. They show race tape remaining two weeks after the F.IT. Challenge. They show a Winterfest inflatable in the water in April, and a saw blade from Haunted Hill in the water in May.
Since creating the Facebook group on April 30, Ratcliffe posted photos that he identified as being taken on Dec. 15, April 29 and May 26.
Crawley felt that it was misleading
to post pictures from Dec. 15 in April, saying that the Haunted Hill residuals were cleaned up in January and that cleanup depends on the weather.
Mayor Murray last week said of Ratcliffe, “He's constantly complaining, and the problem was the pictures he took were right at the time everything got frozen.”
However, photos from both Ratcliffe and the town indicate that the areas around the bathroom facility and the parks and recreation building were cleaned up after Ratcliffe took photos of those spots on April 29, which he posted on April 30.
In a May 24 email to Town Council members, administrative assistant Heather Borges attached photos of the same spots but cleaned up. She said the park had been cleaned up for approximately three weeks, which would be just a few days after Ratcliffe created the Facebook group.
On May 25, Ratcliffe posted on Facebook, “I'd like to thank Mayor Murray for cleaning up most of the trash from Diamond Hill Park. Although there is still work to be done to remove some debris and remnants from Haunted Hill, the park has not been this clean in years.”
But he is confident that without a policy in place, organizers of events at Diamond Hill Park will “just trash the place again” next year, and that's where the petition comes in.
“Since the Town of Cumberland took over management of the park, Diamond Hill Park has become a rundown, neglected, trash filled eyesore,” the petition reads. “The park is a perpetual construction zone for most of the year, taking months to set up for Haunted Hill and the Christmas event. After these events, it takes months to break down and clean up.”
It goes on to ask the mayor and Town Council to adopt five changes:
1) Events must be cleaned up within 24 hours of the end of an event, and the cleanup must be verified by someone who is not a Parks and Recreation Department employee
2) Equipment and props won't be set up until a week before the start of an event
3) Storage containers will be removed from the field behind the bathroom facility
4) Haunted Hill will be moved back into the woods and not run by a for-profit company
5) The wooden dam to the pond will be replaced and a spray fountain installed
Ratcliffe's request for outside verification ties in with his belief that pictures the town sent the Town Council to show the cleanup done since December don't show the full story.
“I could take 10 pictures and show you how beautiful the park is, and I could take another 10 pictures and show you it's really not that clean,” he said.
Asked about the petition, Crawley indicated that Ratcliffe's requests are not fea- sible. He explained that the time it takes to clean up after an event depends on the size of the event, and that it depends on the weather.
Along with freezing temperatures, Crawley said rain is an issue, because he can't bring heavy trucks and the backhoe loader in when the ground is still soft. He added that he wouldn't ask workers to pull anything out of the pond because of snapping turtles and water snakes.
Crawley said that Haunted Hill and the F.I.T. Challenge take more than a week to set up, and he pushed back against Ratcliffe's call for Haunted Hill to not be run by a for-profit company.
“You can't pick and choose who you let the event out to. There are a lot of events that are for-profit,” Crawley said.
Ratcliffe's petition drew more than 120 comments on Change.org.
Jessica Cournoyer said she is always impressed when she visits other local town parks but is embarrassed when she thinks about Diamond Hill Park, while Rachel Noury, Mary-Jane Verdier and Katie Mathers also used the word “embarrassed” or “embarrassment.”
“I walk my dog in the park almost everyday and I'm disgusted at the trash and leftover props, etc from past events,” Mathers wrote. “I'm embarrassed to admit this is part of the town I live in. There is no excuse for this lack of upkeep.”
Patty Reilly suggested that the town get creative to pay for money for improvements. Others spoke of how much they love they park, and of how they want it to be nice for their children and grandchildren.
Ratcliffe said he doesn't think the Diamond Hill Park plan should be approved until town administration has a plan for maintenance.
The conservation and management plan, dated May 8, was a collaboration between the town planning, recreation, building, and public works departments, along with the Parks and Recreation Commission, Conservation Commission, Haynes de Boer Associates and Gifford Design Group.
Jonathan Stevens, planning director for the Town of Cumberland, said the petition was never sent to him.
While Ratcliffe's petition focused on maintenance surrounding perennial events, the conservation and management plan is more focused on longer-term capital improvements to the park, a 373-acre area that was transferred in ownership from the state to the town in 1998.
This plan follows master plans in 1995, 1998 and 2013.
Its first recommended initiative is to renovate the ski lodge, a 56-year-old cinderblock structure.
“There is frequently standing water in the basement. The HVAC and electrical system are antiquated. The grandfathered ISDS system dates back to the 1970's,” the plan states, and the 1998 master plan pointed out some of the same problems.
This summer, the Planning Department will apply for a $400,000 grant from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM) for renovations to the ski lodge.
Stevens explained that the town applied for the grant a little more than a year ago but didn't get it because the 2013 master plan didn't address renovation of the ski lodge as a focus.
If the town gets the grant, the money will be used for design and installation of a new pitched trussed roof, ADA-compliant bathrooms and ramps, compost toilets and an upgraded septic system. The town has also applied for a Champlin Foundation grant that would be used to address the fire alarm system, lighting, basement ventilation, plumbing and more.
The second recommendation of the plan is for the pond in front of the band shell to be filled in and converted to an audience area, on the basis that the wetland impedes the function of the stage.
“It causes a frustrating separation between the performers and the audience,” the plan asserts. “Town officials and concert organizers are also concerned that performers or audience members could fall into the pond and injure themselves.”
RIDEM has already issued a permit allowing the pond to be converted into a grassy area.
The Diamond Hill Park master plan also calls for refreshing the park entrance. This is part of a town-wide effort to install “customdesigned signs that evoke an elegant formality while referring to Cumberland's mining heritage.”
Other recommendations for the entrance include adding vegetated traffic islands, replanting to improve sight distances on Diamond Hill Road, delineating parking areas to improve circulation, and improving drainage by installing rain gardens.
Another objective in the plan is to improve access between the town park and state park.