Beacon continues partnership with high school class
For the third year, students in Erin Haddeland’s Participation in Government class at Beacon High School made proposals in November to the City Council on “how to improve Beacon.”
The council includes $10,000 in its budget each year for the “participatory budgeting” exercise, which, in its first two years, yielded new basketball backboards and rims at South Avenue Park and a water-bottle refilling station at Memorial Park, among other completed projects.
This year, City Administrator Chris White recommended during the council’s Dec. 9 workshop that the city fund two of the student proposals: the creation of a native garden at Hiddenbrooke Park on Beacon’s east side and a “creative” public space for artists.
The native garden, proposed by Anabelle Arginsky, Taryn Beardsley and Anastasia Santise, dovetails with the city’s partnership with the Pollinator Pathway Working Group to install patches of native flowers and plants at Hiddenbrooke, White said. The city already plans to enhance the gardens there in the spring through seeding and allowing wild flowers to grow in the meadow, with walking paths cut around the perimeter and through the field.
White recommended allocating $5,000 to the student proposal for additional plantings, bench areas and other public amenities.
He recommended using the remaining $5,000 for Chiara Fedorchak and Kira Sheehan’s proposal to create space for artists to express themselves without adversely impacting buildings or other structures.
The city plans to resurface the skateboard park at Memorial Park in the spring while repairing fences and adding new elements for skating, and White recommended purchasing wall installations and cement barriers that can be painted by community members without a lot of restrictions beyond a ban on hate speech or obscenity. Inspired by the students’ idea, the skate park would become a space where people can “graffiti, essentially, legally,” he said.
A third proposal, presented by Sally Betterbid and Katherine Ruffy, to repair the fencing at Memorial Park’s softball fields will be folded into the city’s capital plans.
White said that he and Recreation Director Mark Price inspected the fences and found the supporting posts and wire mesh beyond repair. Replacement of the fencing will cost more than the $10,000 set aside for student proposals, “but that is more than a worthy capital project,” White said. Funding for the replacement, expected to cost around $30,000, will come from the Recreation Department budget.
The city also will look for ways to improve drainage at the fields, which flood often.
Other projects proposed by the students will not be funded this year but could be added to long-term plans.
Jude Betancourt and Brody Timm suggested creating a “fitness community” by installing a circuit of exercise stations at the former tennis court behind the skate park in Memorial Park. White said that he and Price like the idea but the proposed location is already being considered for rehabilitation as pickleball courts.
The city will consider other locations, including the walking path along Wilkes Street and a concentrated space at South Avenue Park, which is being rehabbed this spring.
Amir Figueroa’s proposal for the city to purchase 50 electric scooters for residents to use around Beacon raised concerns about liability, storage in public areas and conflicts with pedestrians. There are “micro-mobility” programs being tested in other municipalities, White said, but he did not recommend advancing the proposal.
Kekoa Baysa’s idea to expand public restroom facilities on Main Street could become a long-term project, White said. The city will install a public restroom at South Avenue Park in the spring, with its exterior to become a community mural led by artist Joe Pimentel, who created the murals at Memorial and Green Street parks.
White noted that a public restroom at the Welcome Center at Polhill Park reopened last year after closing during the pandemic. The city could also move forward with restrooms on Main Street if pocket parks, which have been considered at Veterans Place and the Department of Motor Vehicles parking lot, are created.
The proposal by Nolan Miller to add recycling receptacles in public spaces, particularly on Main Street, would require a change to the city’s contract with Royal Carting. Two-in-one trash and recycling cans on Main Street were removed several years ago because of ongoing contamination.
The city recently purchased more than 60 garbage cans for Main Street that will be cleaned and/or painted over the winter, White said.
