China’s Thurston Park committee continues planning future activities

by Mary Grow

China’s Thurston Park Committee members continued planning future activities, undeterred by bad weather having canceled their February China Ice Days plans.

At the committee’s Feb. 20 meeting, chairman Jeanette Smith said the owl prowl scheduled as part of the Feb. 14-16 weekend events was not held. She added that she has not yet heard owls, perhaps because the cold weather has delayed mating.

Committee members discussed plans to maintain and improve trails in the park and events to schedule in warmer weather. They seek to expand handicapped opportunities, including accessible and interesting trails and parking. At their January meeting, they proposed adding a handicapped-accessible toilet.

Also under consideration is making some trail sections usable by mountain bikers.

Smith raised a new issue: now that the town-owned lot south of the town office building is to house the relocated ice rink and the new community garden, is there still room for the planned dog park? (Recreation Committee chairman Martha Wentworth proposed the dog park that China select board members first discussed at their July 1, 2024, meeting.)

Smith intends to ask Wentworth about building the dog park in Thurston Park. Many local people already walk their dogs there, committee members said.

Another new project, with which China Historical Society member Tim Hatch is helping, is finding names of people who lived in the park decades ago. Hatch said he is checking 19th-century maps of the town for names of former residents whose homes are marked only by cellar holes.

More trail signs are needed. Smith said she visited a company from whom she hoped to order some and found it had closed. Discussion of alternatives included mention of an Oakland company.

Committee members again discussed the problem of improving the southern access to the park over neighbors’ opposition (see the Jan. 23 issue of The Town Line, pp. 2 and 3). The Haskell family uses for a driveway the south end of Yorktown Road (which the town discontinued years ago, maintaining a right of way).

Committee member Scott Monroe recommended continuing to try to talk with the Haskells, with approval from Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood. Smith thought she might be able to get a legal opinion supporting the town’s right to use the road, at a cost the committee’s fund from past timber sales could cover.

The next Thurston Park Committee meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 20, in the portable building in the town office complex. Committee members agreed their April meeting should be a workshop, to include repairing picnic tables and benches.