By Elisabeth Strillacci

SPENCER — At the end of 2023, the town of Spencer adopted a Creating Outdoor Recreation Economies or CORE Strategic Plan.

That plan was the result of months of work by a group of residents in and around the town who have a varying degree of expertise is outdoor recreation, community event planning and volunteer work.

But CORE does not address the financial side of goals and projects for parks and recreation. At Tuesday night’s meeting, Joe Morris, special projects director, asked the board of aldermen to officially adopt a Parks and Recreation Capital Improvement Plan, for a number of reasons.

Morris told board members that along with acting as a guide for project costs during future budget seasons, having a CIP for parks and recreation will help facilitate future grant requests.

Recently, the town received a donation of a house and property at 401 11th Street from Howard and Louise Carter that is required to be used for recreation. The location of the property is at one of the trail head access points for the Fred and Alice Stanback Educational Forest and Nature Preserve, and will be an ideal location for a welcome center and educational facility.

But over the long range, adaptations to the property to get the best use of it will likely be a $2 million venture.

The town has no plans to take that big of a bite all at once, but Morris said they have gotten the go-ahead to apply for a $250,000 matching grant from the state’s Parks and Recreation Trust Fund or PARTF.

The town would have to raise the matching $250,000, but Morris said having a CIP will show the town’s long-term commitment to parks and recreation and improve the chances of receiving the grant.

There have been both landscape and building architectural renderings submitted, both of which represent the entire scope of the plans, but recently those plans have been scaled back to show the work done in phases. Bogle Architectural Firm just submitted a redesign of phase one, which now represents only work that would be done to the house itself, creating public restrooms, classrooms, a welcome space, and pushing work on the garage and basement off onto a second or third phase.

Morris said he was asking the board to essentially adopt the CIP as an appendix to the current parks and recreation plan, and explained that “it isn’t an actual budget, but a guideline for the financial needs for projects going forward, and it would be reviewed and updated during the budget process each year.”

The town has been intensely active in its development of outdoor and recreation spaces in recent years. They have tackled the $2.3 million Town Park project, it recently received $100,000 in grant monies for the Grants Creek Blueway, and it is waiting to hear about a possible grant approval for the Rocky Branch Loop Trail among others.

“We have done, and continue to do, the best we can to provide recreational outlets by taking advantage of funding sources that add value,” said Morris. “As a note, we have been encouraged by the philanthropic community to keep them in mind as we go forward.”

Board Member Pat Sledge, who made the motion to approve adoption of the CIP, added, “I think it’s great that people like us so well, and recognize what we are trying to do here.”

The plan spans the years 2026-2031, and is described in the proposed language as a “useful guide for anticipating costs of parks and recreation infrastructure and helps align funding strategies for the future implementation of items identified for development and improvement through the Parks and Recreation Comprehensive Plan.”