Volunteers gather to plant trees as park nears formal opening
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
Shovel Ready! Volunteers, including numerous township residents and officials, gather Saturday to plant trees at the new Unionville Park. Residents were also offered a ‘preview’ of the park, which is expected to be completed and formally opened later this spring.
EAST MARLBOROUGH — Numerous township officials, employees and residents gathered Saturday at Unionville Park to mark a “preview” of the new park and plant dozens of trees, as the park closes in on completion of its first phase of construction.
While most of the major work is now complete — pathways dot the rolling hills of the parkland, a footbridge has been completed on the west side of the first phase and much of the work on the parking lot is now complete — there are few more bits to finish off, and the park should be fully ready for public use by early June, Board of Supervisors’ chair Cuyler Walker said.
Walker was there with his colleagues Buzz Hannum and John Sarro, along with Township Manager Jane Lazlo to work with a about a dozen township resident volunteers to plant trees, in what will eventually be a lovely grove.
Robert Struble Jr. (right) instructs volunteers — including East Marlborough Supervisors John Sarro, Cuyler walker and Buzz Hannum — on the finer points of tree planting.
Robert Struble, Jr., from the Red Clay Valley Association, offered the volunteers a quick lesson on tree planting and the more than a dozen volunteers made quick work of the plantings in the warm morning sun.
Although still only in phase one of what is anticipated to be three phases, the property which had been little more than a dump for appliances and other detritus (and almost became home to a large townhouse development before the township purchased the land), has been transformed into rolling hills and new walking trails offer impressive vistas.
The new footbridge over wetlands is completed, offering local strollers views of neighboring vistas and the green surroundings of the new park.
Township officials plan a more formal dedication of the park, once all of the work is completed.
