RUTLAND, Vt. (WCAX) – The city of Rutland is taking a closer look at green spaces and how to make them more accessible for everyone to enjoy. That starts with Main Street Park and a project kicking off to revamp an old landmark.
A project five years in the making is now underway in one of Rutland’s oldest parks after a groundbreaking on Monday.
Local officials originally had three proposed plans for the Main Street Park project, all surrounding the old wooden gazebo in the park’s center, a roughly 100-year-old landmark sitting near downtown Rutland. While one proposed plan would destroy and rebuild it, two other potential ideas would refurbish it. Locals wanted to keep it the same.
“We wanted to know if the community wanted to see the same traditional gazebo. So we put surveys out there and we actually got a really good response. The majority, 100%, wanted that traditional look,” said Kim Peters, the superintendent of the Rutland Recreation Department.
One of the goals of the project is to make the gazebo ADA-compliant, along with adding new pathways, lighting and cameras for safety, all while keeping the feel and layout of the park which used to host concerts and events weekly before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Some of the conversation was do we move it, do we back, do we move it forward, but what we found out, it’s the center of the park and we wanted to continue with that,” Peters said.
“From a design standpoint, from a community feedback standpoint, from a what we want to do next approach, I think we ended up with really good result with this multi-phased project that we’re going to do,” Rutland Mayor Mike Doenges said.
Later phases of the project are expected to add a new building housing bathrooms and storage for the rec department.
It’s a renewed focus on outdoor recreation in Rutland County for everyone to enjoy.
“That focus of outdoor recreation and making recreation more accessible to everybody and having a welcoming environment is something that is really helping us recharge how we look at our parks,” Peters said.
Officials believe any construction of the plans in phase one of the Main Street Park project will be complete in November, along with other accessibility-related projects near Goodnick Adult Center and Giorgetti Park wrapped up before the first winter snowfall.