After much discussion at this year’s Annual Town Meeting in May, residents voted to appropriate $4 million “for the purpose of undertaking renovations and improvements to Town Park, including but not limited to basketball court, lighting, playground equipment, and baseball field.” 

The Finance Committee had recommended favorable action on the motion, and two-thirds of the voters attending agreed as well. The motion allows the town to borrow money to fund the project. 

Town Meeting also voted to establish a Town Park Stabilization Fund that will help facilitate debt payments; a portion of this year’s “free cash,” or unexpected income, will go into that new account. 

At a public hearing in April, Select Board Chair Bernie Stock explained to a standing-room-only crowd that, “From a historical standpoint, this is really an interesting point in the history of the Town of Hopedale because most of the, what I consider to be, extraordinary things in town were basically the efforts of either the Draper Family or the Draper Corporation. This is probably one of the first chances, other than Mellen Field…to see if we can do as good a job as they’ve done.” 

At the April 14 hearing, Town Administrator Mitch Ruscitti described the two concepts proposed by design consultants Tighe & Bond. 

“Both designs incorporate similar placement for the [varsity and professional sized] baseball field; a play space that is renovated using ADA-compliant materials and new equipment; a swapping of locations between the [tennis/multi-use] courts and the basketball court; a green area on the right-hand side of the playground, just green space for leisure activities.” 

Both designs would have the same size capacity for varsity baseball and field hockey, the fields are currently sloped and will be raised and flattened; and the tennis courts are “multi-use courts,” which will be striped for multiple sport use including tennis, pickleball, and potentially street hockey. 

Design Option 1 calls for the baseball field to be pushed inward to provide more open space on the Dutcher Street side. That design also provides for a walking path around the perimeter of the park; and provides a “full-sized flex field in the outfield of the baseball diamond” for field hockey and soccer. 

Ruscitti said he has confirmed with Hopedale Public Schools Athletic Director Stephanie Ridolfi “that the fields were acceptable with MIAA for play; in addition to the tennis courts being acceptable for tournament play. This would constitute a return of the Hopedale tennis teams to Town Park after a lengthy absence.” 

Design Option 2 includes a similar swap of the tennis courts and basketball court; the green space is decreased on the Dutcher Street side; this does not include a walking trail around the parcel. 

Ruscitti said, “The only real difference here is you get less green space on the Dutcher and Freedom Street side for leisure activities, and just more ballfield space - not that it makes a difference in the quality of play, it would just be a different aesthetic and different uses for some of those green spaces.” 

The redesigned Town Park would have several entrances including one at  Dutcher and Freedom Streets that could accommodate an ambulance, if needed. 

Ruscitti said the designers have identified a list of fruit and ornamental trees, and other plantings, that can be used in the park. 

There had previously been a third option but it was eliminated because it would not allow for high school and baseball play. 

The cost of the project, outlined in April, was $4,433,260,000, the cost included site work, drainage improvements, groundwork and surfacing, walkways, walkways, multi-use courts, basketball court, baseball field, and landscaping. 

Ruscitti said the project would be funded “without incurring the use of an override or a debt exclusion or any adverse impact on anyone’s property taxes whatsoever.” 

He added, “We just paid more than this for a roof on the high school so, to put it in perspective…this Town Park project is something you really only touch once every several decades.” 

At the public hearing in April, Park Commission Chairman Mike Costanza spoke in support of the project and suggested adding a dedicated pickleball court. Of the proposed playground, he said, “It would be a state-of-the-art playground area in line with the best around here…this would be as good, if not better, than all of those. It’s something this town should really consider doing because this might be our only time to do it.” 

The amount approved at Town Meeting was $4 million.

Hopedale Town Park was established in 1900. It was designed by Boston architect Warren Henry Manning, who began his career working with Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., whose firm designed Boston’s Emerald  Necklace and Arnold Arboretum, and New York’s Central Park. 

According to the National Park Service, “Manning formed his own Boston-based firm in 1896 and worked on projects as wide-ranging as planning mining towns in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to designing private estates,” including the Hopedale home of Gov. Eben S. Draper.