Residents urge repairs, Select Board weighs $3M Sawyer Park plan focused on storm resiliency

A master plan to protect Sawyer Park and the Nubble Lighthouse from rising storms and crowding drew both praise and concern at the York Select Board's June 8 meeting.

Pete Murray, the town's parks and recreation director, told the board the plan's foundational goals are to "preserve the park by making it more storm resilient and to increase pedestrian safety." Consultants from Richardson Associates and Walsh Engineering described measures including large stone benches and revetments to disperse wave energy, a reconfigured parking and promenade layout, a dedicated bus pull-off, and new viewing decks and interpretive displays.

The consulting team presented a conceptual cost estimate of about $3.0'$3.1 million, emphasizing the figure is a planning-level number and carries a sizable contingency because permit-level designs are not yet complete. Bill Walsh of Walsh Engineering said permitting with Maine DEP (for work within 75 feet of the water) typically takes months and that the project timeline must account for grant requirements if the town hopes to capture MaineDOT funds that require finished construction by Sept. 2029.

The plan calls for roughly 65 parking spaces (about a one-space net increase from current identified and ad-hoc spots), new pedestrian circulation to reduce conflicts with cars and buses, ADA improvements, and native plantings to stabilize shorelines.

Public commenters and several board members urged a narrower near-term focus on urgent remediation to prevent further storm damage. "We can't allow this to continue," said resident Kathy O'Donnell, who asked the board to prioritize the immediate stabilization work left from the 2024 storms before undertaking larger enhancements.

Select Board members debated financing options: staff said the Sawyer Park enterprise fund could contribute about $800,000 and committee modeling assumed roughly $100,000 per year in gift-shop revenue over a 10-year period, plus $200,000 in near-term fundraising. Board members noted the project competes with other capital needs including a seawall program and village revitalization. One member said the park's core resiliency elements might cost "just slightly less than a million" if the board chose to phase work.

Board members did not vote to appropriate construction funds that evening. Instead the discussion concluded with a request to return to the board with options: (a) proceed to permit-level design (estimated design cost about $200,000) to make the project shovel-ready for grant deadlines, (b) present staged scope-and-cost alternatives that isolate immediate resiliency work versus optional enhancements, and (c) review financing scenarios including bonding, grant outcomes, and further use of Sawyer Park enterprise funds.

The board also instructed staff to report back on grant competition and whether the MaineDOT application is currently considered in the running. Consultants warned that waiting until grant awards are announced in September could compress permitting and construction timelines and might force a summer closure during construction if a grant is awarded and the town wants to meet the grant completion date.

A follow-up discussion and potential sunk-cost decision on whether to proceed with permit-level design is expected at a future meeting.