Fountain Park sidewalk on High Street side of park, looking north toward People’s Bank.
During the town council meeting held on Monday, August 4, Mayor Chris Cerino asserted that time was of the essence for beginning restoration work on Fountain Park and delaying the work past September would put off the remediation process for another year.
Keying off a recommendation made by the Strategic Committee for Fountain Park to widen the brick sidewalks around the park—other than the 12ft Park Row sidewalk—both the mayor and City Manager Bill Ingersoll recommended widening the High Street park sidewalk by 6ft. The additional width would offer more room for artisans and visitors to the Saturday Market.
Ingersoll said the town could keep the job “in-house” citing the town’s recent completion of a connecting walkway at Heron Point as an example of their work.
To begin the soil remediation process and to lay down new sod, 12 samples of soil are being sent for analysis by the University of Delaware Soil Testing Program.
“If we were to widen the High Street sidewalk the Garden Club has a lot of related plans to extend the beds there and to create some really nice landscaping elements,“ Cerino said.
Fountain Park, looking east from High Street. One of the most soil-compacted areas in the park.
If the Fall park restoration take place, some Saturday Market vendors will be temporarily relocated. One current idea is to section off High Street for those occasions. During each phase of the park restoration only sections of vendors would be displaced to allow work to be done.
“I would like to do the sidewalk work during the week and have it so that it’s usable and not dangerous during the weekend,” Ingersoll said
Ward 2 Councilwoman Linda Kuiper mentioned that it is was very important to contact vendors and non-profits as soon as plans for the renovation were known.
She also discussed a proposal to measure off a grid for the growing number of non-profits present at the Saturday Market.
Ingersoll stated that the non-profits were very important to him and the town but permits might have to be limited at least as far as duration.
A motion was passed to move ahead with cost estimates and planning.
“This is the best idea I’ve heard since we started looking into this,” Ward 4 Councilman Marty Stetson said.
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