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Taneytown Parks and Recreation outlines spring events, playground improvements and a $16,000 meditation garden proposal
Summary
Parks staff described upcoming improvements (playground surfacing, pavilion ceiling work), scheduled events including an April 12 Easter egg hunt and a June 7 WineFest, and a resident-donated meditation garden design estimated at about $16,000 for a 3,000-square-foot site with a gazebo and engraved pavers.
Taneytown Parks and Recreation detailed a slate of park improvements and community events for 2025 and presented a resident proposal to donate a meditation garden at Bollinger Park estimated at about $16,000.
Lorena (Parks and Recreation staff member) told the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board that repairs and upgrades will begin as spring arrives: the Neos game wall rubber surfacing at Memorial Park is to be replaced with poured-in-place rubber on March 20; the Memorial Park Pavilion ceilings are slated to be replaced with pressed tin to match interior paint; and staff are evaluating riprap around the pond to reduce vandalism-related erosion. She said the sewer rehabilitation that crossed the park is complete and that landscape crews will continue smaller maintenance projects that were deferred over winter.
Event planning is underway: the department listed yoga in the park (Monday evenings in June'August), a Birds and Bourbon event at Bollinger Park set for Saturday, Oct. 18, and an Easter egg hunt on Saturday, April 12, at 1:00 p.m. Lorena said the Easter event will use 4,000 eggs (1,000 per age group) and staff will need volunteers to help hide eggs starting about 11:30 a.m. Parks staff said dates and listings are being added to the city website calendar and shared via social media.
On funding and capital projects, Lorena said the draft fiscal year 2026 budget has been submitted to the city manager and treasurer; the town's $25,000 athletic association funding pool was noted and managers will reconfirm purchases nearer July 1. She said the planned replacement of the Roberts Mill Park playground is costlier than expected and will be deferred from FY26 to FY27 to track funding and reimbursement timing for grant-funded work.
A resident-donor provided a design and cost estimate for a roughly 3,000-square-foot meditation garden at Bollinger Park, including a 10-by-10 gazebo, concrete walkway, engraved pavers, landscaping and hardscaping. Lorena said the estimate for the proposed garden is about $16,000 and that Cedar Hedge Farm (landscaping) and Pine Creek Structures (gazebo supplier) were potential contractors. "We'll meet with the donor to determine how much they'll provide and how much would need to be raised through grants or additional fundraising," Lorena said.
Other updates: a Little Free Library was installed at Memorial Park by Jim Thomas with Envision Taneytown and the public library donated starter books; the Maryland DNR donated several larger red maple trees that public works planted in Flickinger Park; and park staff are tracking requests for memorial benches and trees on the town website.
On festivals, staff said marketing volunteers are building vendor templates using Canva and recruiting beverage and food vendors for Wine, Art and Music Fest. For the town's WineFest (Saturday, June 7), parks staff reported nine beverage vendors recruited so far, the VIP glass lanyards are ordered, and the department had received three sponsorship checks and the first three online ticket sales.
No votes were taken; the board received the updates and asked staff to continue outreach with volunteers, donors and the county arts council for movie licensing.
