BRUNSWICK — Farmers market foot and vehicle traffic on the Brunswick Mall has been good for business, but bad for the grass.

In April, a portion of the lower mall — nearest the gazebo — will be closed and fenced off to allow workers to place new sod where the grass is thinnest.

Brunswick Parks and Recreation Director Tom Farrell said the timing in late April will allow the town to get good quality sod and to have that portion of the mall ready in time for the town’s annual Memorial Day festivities.

Temporarily, the farmers market will move to stalls along Park Row with two asphalt ramps providing access to the side of the Mall along Park Row for vehicles carrying farm produce to the twice weekly outdoor market.

Farrell said that the new arrangement would not affect the total number of vendors allowed at the market, but would leave most with smaller spaces.

In a memo to the Town Council, Farrell said that the project will involve rototilling 21,000 square feet on the lower mall and then fencing in the area for about a month once sod is installed.

At Monday’s Town Council meeting, Farrell also talked more generally about the use of the Brunswick Mall, calling back to the early 2000s when the town commissioned a study of its uses.

Farrell said that study produced four scenarios for relocating the farmers market off of the Mall proper — onto Park Row or Fitch Place, behind the gazebo — or a plan that would have the farmers market rotate to different plots on the grass to give certain areas periodic relief.

In response to a question from Councilor Benet Pols, Farrell said that changing the elevation of the Mall to enhance drainage could prevent ponding and be better for the soil but would also make the process of creating a skating area in the winter more expensive and difficult.

“Historically, that has been an area that the community has responded very well to and changing the elevations would make that difficult to maintain,” Farrell said.

In his memo the council, Farrell said funding for the re-sodding would come from money the town had budgeted for two outdoor athletic fields it expected to acquire — one at Brunswick Landing and one at Harriet Beecher Stowe School.

Fields at the former Navy base have not yet been conveyed to the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority (MRRA), Farrell wrote, and the Brunswick School Department has not officially accepted the lighted athletic field.

[email protected]

The Times Record Sustaining Sponsor
We believe a community must be informed to thrive. bowdoin.edu