First phase of three-phase project completed on Fiske Avenue in Greenfield – The Recorder

GREENFIELD City employees and volunteers have finished planting a garden on the south end of the Fiske Avenue municipal parking lot, the first phase of a three-phase project that will continue next spring with the creation of a pocket park on the north end between the parking lot and Main Street.

The recent improvements are the result of an ongoing collaboration of the citys Department of Public Works, Recreation Department, Department of Energy and Sustainability and a group of volunteers with green thumbs, who have worked together to enhance the area.

It is very inspiring to see how the relatively small project of replacing a deteriorating retaining wall has blossomed into a transformation of a central downtown location to become an inviting space for residents to enjoy, said Mayor Roxann Wedegartner. The commitment by city staff and volunteers alike to make this project a reality highlights how special the Greenfield community is and how much can be accomplished when we work together.

The project began earlier this fall, with Wisty Rorabacher and Dorothea Sotiros heading up the volunteers, while the DPW took the lead and replaced the deteriorating retaining wall.

Rorabacher said her involvement began when she and her partner were having a meal at Mesa Verde.

The garden looked so sad and unappealing, she said. I asked if anyone would mind if we weeded the garden and trimmed the bushes. The wall also looked so pitiful.

Rorabacher said she visited with Planning and Development Director Eric Twarog and asked if the city would mind if she and other volunteers did some work in that area on Fiske Avenue. After several conversations with Twarog and other city officials, she learned Greenfield was applying for a grant to pay for the project and the DPW was going to do some of the work.

It was so inspiring to work together and see the outcome, Rorabacher said. And it was really nice that the city used local nurseries and native plants.

Energy and Sustainability Director Carole Collins said a $22,000 grant from the American Association of Retired Persons, better known as AARP, paid for the wall replacement and garden.

With assistance from the DPW, this group of committed citizens dedicated to planting gardens in and around downtown Greenfield did an amazing job converting the southern end of the site from an overgrown patch into an inviting area filled with native plants along with identifying signage, Collins said.

The garden design was based on a plan completed by the Conway School of Landscape Design to enhance downtown parking lots.

Kristin Thomas, project manager for the Conway School, which is now located in Northampton, said graduate students from the school finished designs for the pocket park in 2012. She said students who are part of the schools 10-month masters program work on real projects, often with municipalities.

In spring 2021, the north end of the site abutting Main Street will be improved with a bench, chess table, bike repair station and a grassy area to provide a place for recreation and a place for riders to wait for the bus, she said. In addition, volunteers that include business owners on Fiske Avenue will plant a garden in the strip along the new wall to include vegetables and native plant species.

There is a long list of people who made this project possible, and it was amazing to witness the labor of love by this group of volunteers who are so committed to increasing native gardens throughout Greenfield, Collins said.

To make room for the garden, two parking spaces were eliminated in the Fiske Avenue parking lot. The final phase of the project, to be completed at a later date when funds and resources allow, will move the parking area to Miles Street and include at least the same number of parking spaces as existed in the lot before the project.

Reach Anita Fritz at 413-772-9591 or afritz@recorder.com.

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First phase of three-phase project completed on Fiske Avenue in Greenfield - The Recorder