HOLYOKE — The long-awaited first phase of improvements at Anniversary Hill Park is scheduled to begin Wednesday.

Holyoke has long sought to restore the city’s largest park, which was bisected by the construction of Interstate 91 in the early 1960s. The interstate cut off the western part of the park from Community Field.

The Anniversary Hill Park project is a multi-year effort. The first stage of work includes the creation of a new accessible trail corridor and burial of overhead utilities.

Also among the first phase of improvements are creation of a new utility corridor and accessible trail off Overlook Drive, and an upgraded trail system to Scott Tower that will be wheelchair-accessible, according to the Holyoke Office of Conservation and Sustainability.

Burial of overhead utilities that currently service the cell phone tower in the park, built in 2001, is a requirement for several funding sources that the city plans to leverage for further improvements.

Current restoration efforts began in 2021 with the acquisition of an additional 14.1 acres of forest north of Scott Tower — an undertaking assisted by Kestrel Land Trust. The city used Community Preservation Act funding and a grant from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund to complete the $300,000 acquisition, which opened up the possibility of an alternative point of public access.

Community outreach

Holyoke’s Office of Conservation and Sustainability collaborated with the Parks and Recreation Department and Kestrel Land Trust to conduct a community outreach process and creation of a master plan for overall park improvements. This included an online survey distributed in English and Spanish that garnered over 450 responses from residents in all wards of the city.

The city hired GZA GeoEnvironmental to work from these recommendations, conduct in-person outreach events, and develop a master plan for improvements. The collaboration brought about a community vision event in October 2021 where over 100 people joined in participatory planning activities.

Feedback on the master plan was incorporated at on-site community events on April 29 and Aug. 27, and a live Powerpoint presentation at the Holyoke Senior Center on Oct. 19.

During 2022, Holyoke’s Office of Conservation and Sustainability gathered an additional $1.7 million in funding from grant sources to support an initial phase of improvements: the Land and Water Conservation Fund, MassTrails, Community Development Block Grant, and Gateway Cities Parks Grant all leveraged in match by additional local CPA dollars.

Step 1 is the utility burial and creation of an access corridor with stone dust trails and benches. Any available funding left over will be used to improve existing Civilian Conservation Corps-era stone structures, trail improvements, and landscaping in accordance with the community vision.

Work is expected to be completed and trails open to the public by June 2024.