The Grassi Bog Conservation Area is a popular spot, but it’s riddled with potholes and people who use it to socialize during night hours, according to Open Space Acquisition Commission members at their January 8 Zoom meeting.
OSAC members are looking to find donated posts to rebuild the gate to close the parking lot after hours. OSAC members learned that there are no Community Preservation Act funds for fixing the potholes, but members are asking the Department of Public Works for help with filling the potholes.
OSAC members Adele Sands and Carol Molander frequently walk the trails there. They reported broken beer bottles there, out-of-town residents in pick-up trucks, and hunters who frequent the area. “There is a lot going on in the off-hours when we are not down there,” Sands said. “Quite a bit of activity down there.”
OSAC member John Friedman says he knows someone who can donate pressure treated wood to help refasten a gate that once was there to close the area after daytime hours. Chairman John Rockwell said a dock owner once donated posts, but they were stolen. He said the gates are still in the town’s possession.
The OSAC also approved some small routine items but talked at length about hiring an engineer to fill gaps within the gravel-surface Point Road walking and biking path. Neighbors in the area who frequent the path note that the area is not wheelchair or stroller accessible, limiting the access for some people. Rockwell also said that the project once had an in-house engineer to maintain the path, including submission of a stormwater management report to the Conservation Commission. He said since 2019, when first approved, OSAC no longer has an in-house engineer to maintain the gaps in the path or complete the stormwater maintenance reports.
Select Board member Norm Hills expressed frustration over the issue. “We keep putting stuff on to stuff and we are not accomplishing anything. We are just wasting money,” Hills said, while also that the project originally was supposed to rely on donated funds and materials and has strayed away from that goal.
Hills said only the Select Board can accept donations for town projects and he is not aware of donations recently for the Point Road path.
OSAC gave Rockwell the green light to seek engineering funding from the CPA to remedy both issues.
The next Marion Open Space Acquisition Commission meeting was not scheduled at adjournment.
Marion Open Space Acquisition Commission
By Jeffrey D. Wagner