Madison council receives parks master plan to guide future improvements

Madison — A parks master plan designed to guide improvements across several borough parks was presented to the Madison Borough Council on May 13, with the consultant urging the council to treat the document as an ongoing tool for future design and grant work.

Tom Salaki, the consultant who led the master-plan process, told the council the document is deliberately concise and intended to be “approachable by everyone in this town.” He said the plan includes park concept designs, project cost estimates, maintenance recommendations and a list of funding resources intended to help the borough prioritize projects and pursue grants.

“The document itself is broken up...so it’s a usable guide,” Salaki said, adding that the plan provides low- and high-range cost estimates and maintenance schedules so decision-makers can determine whether a project is “a $20,000 project or a million-dollar project.”

The plan covers four parks at a concept level, offers alternative design options where appropriate (Salaki noted two options remain for an entrance drive at Summerhill), and contains renderings intended for grant applications. Salaki said the plan is intended to be a starting point for design development and bid documents rather than an immediate construction specification.

Council President Rachel Ehrlich and other council members praised the report as practical and well organized. Ehrlich said Madison was recognized statewide for energy retrofit projects and said the parks report similarly provides a tool future councils and volunteers can use. Council members emphasized the document’s public-engagement foundation and suggested holding a review session with the original steering committee and parks volunteers.

Salaki described next steps as applying for design-stage grants (he said the borough is already pursuing a design grant for Summerhill), refining some renderings and posting the final document to the borough website. He also recommended that work be pursued one park at a time if the council prefers a phased approach.

The presentation concluded with council members encouraging collaboration between the consultant, the borough’s engineering and public-works staff, and volunteer committees to move selected concepts into design and construction phases.

The council did not take a formal vote on the plan at the meeting; Salaki invited council members and steering-committee members to schedule a follow-up review session.