This Week's Winchendon News
BOS Hears Presentation from Parks & Rec on Successes, Goals, Rebranding the Park and New Rental Fees
from left, Melanie Franklin, Deb Kane and Shaina Cunningham address the Board of Selectmen
Image copyright Town of Winchendon
At the Board of Selectmen's meeting on Monday, December 22, three representatives of the Winchendon Parks & Recreation Commission appeared before the Board to give a presentation on the Commission's activities and plans for the future, and present a proposed new schedule of fees for use of the Winchendon Community Park and amphitheater. Speaking were Shaina Cunningham, Recreation Coordinator, Deb Kane, Chair of the Commission, and Melanie Franklin, Commission Secretary.
Ms. Cunningham began with an overview of the presentation, explaining that they wanted to review thr 2025 season, talk about the impact of their volunteers, go over goal for 2026 and talk about challenges they face. They also want to introduce plans for "rebranding" the name of the park "to something that would be marketed across the region in a more appealing way, to really highlight everything that the venue has to offer." Finally, they would tak about rental fees and some of their sponsors and funders.
"So our mission currently is to enrich the well being of Winchendon residents through inclusive recreation, cultural programming and community driven events that strengthen social connection," Ms. Cunningham said. "Our vision is to create a vibrant and accessible park system where people of all ages gather to learn, explore, celebrate and build a stronger Winchendon together. A lot of what we do, we look through the lens of the Master Plan, and we try to align it with that so it supports community engagement and place making goals, advances public health and outdoor recreation priorities and builds local cultural identity and economic vitality."
Ms. Kane spoke about sponsorship growth for the park and programs. "We had 15 sponsors supporting our 2025 season," she said. "Naturally, we'd like to grow our sponsorship as time goes on. Community insights: we took informal surveys. We go around and we talk to people who are at our concerts and engaged in our events, and they've expressed interest that they'd like to see a lot more live music, food events, free programming, which is hard to do if you want to sustain your facility, more hiking. There's also been strong interest in health and wellness activities, arts and crafts, sports camps, teen activities, cooking and baking.
"Throughout the course of the seasons, we've impacted 13,000 attendees and over 50 events, spread out between the parks and our events that we have indoors, like our Crafternoons and such."
Sponsors have included the Robinson Broadhurst Foundation, Community Foundation of North Central Mass, Winchendon Housing Authority, French Family Foundation, the Romanowski family, Michael & Heather Connor and family, The Farm Stand of Winchendon, Powell Stone & Gravel, To Each His Own Design, Oppure Oil, Harvey Waste Removal & Recycling, Brooks Automotive, Athol Savings Bank, Belletetes and Sevigny Incorporated. "We'd like to expand on that, and we've been working on more sponsors for the coming year. The response has been very slow, whether it be the economy or it's hard to say," Ms. Kane said.
Ms. Cunningham described some of the biggest highlights for the 2025 season--those with high attendance and regional impact. "The Food Truck Festival and Battle of the Bands [at G.A.R. Park], and that's an event that has been anchored in the community for the past four years, and it has a true turnout. We saw roughly 4500 people attend that event. We shifted it to a Saturday, and we saw a significant increase, because it was ranging over a seven hour time period versus a four hour time period, and Saturday seemed to be more successful. So moving forward, we will keep it on a Saturday. We had the Central Mass Irish Festival, and that saw more than 1500 people, and that was by far our largest ticketed event of the season. We had the Haunted Fair, which was a free community day, which saw upwards of 4000 people." Founders' Day, an annual event celebrating the opening of the park and amphitheater, was heavily rained on this year, but still saw more than 500 people gather for fireworks after skies cleared in the evening.
Other "Accessible Community Programming" included the band concerts at G.A.R. Park, Movie Nights, Open Mic Nights, Sunset Socials, "Blues, Brew & BBQ," Harvest Festival, Classics Night with vintage cars and bands playing oldies, a Comedy Show, and various indoor programming. "We're continuing to expand and kind of pivot to what the community is looking for" in indoor programs, Ms. Cummingham said. "Karaoke, Trivia Night. We've done Bingo. So we're doing Crafternoons, Breakfast with Santa, and we're open to suggestions. Most recently, we were told Family Feud. We want to see Family Feud happen in Winchendon. So that might be on the horizons to be determined." Another Murder Mystery night, "Murder at Mardi Gras" is planned for 2026.
Moving to Volunteer Impact, Ms. Cunningham said, "Our volunteers donated over 200 hours of planning and leadership for events, 400 hours of powering events and logistics on site leading up to it, 150 hours strengthening community outreach, and a total combined together, on a very conservative side, is over 750 hours of community driven impact. We have about 20 volunteers that'll give us 30 hours throughout the season, right especially at those larger events, you draw a lot more folks in the concert series, especially, so that's 600 hours right there. And then, with the Commission alone, an average of six members, you have two meetings a month averaging about two hours. That's 48 hours. And if you multiply that by the six commission members, there's 288 hours. So it's a very conservative estimate to say that together, there was over 750 hours of community driven impact."
Ms. Kane put in that volunteer hours aren't logged just during an event, but before and afterwards, with setting up tents, chairs, equipment and so on, and then breakdown at the end. "It does add up to a very long day," she said.
The Commission has four strategic goals for 2026, Ms. Cunningham explained. The first is to complete the Ingleside Woods Disc Golf Course, which is slated to be an 18-hole course. This should be completed by Founders Day (early June), 2026. It promises to be a regional recreation and economic driver, as people already come long distances to play at the disc course in the park. The second strategic goal is creating an ADA-accessible, nature-based play area for children in the Winchendon Community Park. The third goal is a parking and multi-use use event space in the field, which would support festivals, athletic events and tourism. Finally, the Commission aims to create a "Friends of the Park" volunteer group which would offer formal, structured volunteer and stewardship opportunities and help support ongoing maintenance and beautification of the park. Ms. Cunningham mentioned being impressed by the dedication and energy of similar groups such as the Friends of the Beals Memorial Library and the Friends of Old Murdock.
Challenges include improving the ADA accessibility of areas of the park as events grow larger and programs expand. "At a lot of our larger events, we're finding that there's not enough designated handicap parking spaces with the growth in turnout, and in addition to that, a lot of folks sometimes need to be dropped right off at the stage. So is there potentially another pathway that could be paved around the back where the fencing area is for access? So those are some things that we've been looking into," Ms. Cunningham said. Other challenges include staffing and volunteers, funding stability with sustainable key partnerships and state and federal grants, and developing new revenue sources for long term growth. The benefits include increased economic activity throughout the town and an higher quality of life for residents and visitors alike.
Image copyright Town of Winchendon
She went on to say that the rebranding would afford wayfinding clarity, with clearer signage for visitors and event guests, marketing consistency that aligns web, print and park materials, and community engagement. It would build momentum for park events, tourism and park rentals.
The next slide showed three initial designs created for rebranding concepts (they were all identical except for slight differences in their color palettes). "It would put the amphitheater front and center. It would have Ingleside as a big name. You see performing arts amphitheater, a Robinson Broadhurst foundation destination, and then you also see the highlight of the recreation activities as well. So the Whitney pond, the trails and fields and the disc golf," Ms. Cunningham said.
Board member Erika Eitland asked who did the design work for the signage. Ms. Cunningham said the designs were done by Melissa Lee Graphics. (Melissa Lee is a freelance designer based in Ashburnham.) Ms. Eitland and other Board members expressed some ambivalence about the designs shown onscreen, saying that it was difficult to tell what the logo at the top really was--it could be a satellite dish or a solar panel. (It seems to be the amphitheatre seen from the east side). They suggested that the logo be more "celebratory" and express more of the park's natural beauty, and really reflect Winchendon itself as a unique place. Ms. Eitland, Board member Audrey LaBrie and Board chair Andrew Beauvais all suggested that the Commission solicit community feedback and input on the logo and sign designs, which Ms. Cunningham said would be used for signs out on Rte 2 as well as locally. Ms. LaBrie said that she liked the idea of going back to the name Ingleside for the park.
Ms. Cunningham said, "We want whatever ends up being solidified to have community buy-in and community pride and really allow us to market this venue across the region. We love Winchendon Community Park, but it's challenging. It's the home of the Robinson Broadhurst Performing Arts Amphitheater, and it also has the disc golf and the pond and the trails and the fields. And with our current visual and that name, we've run into some issues as we've tried to expand our marketing and also diversify our streams of revenue with rentals. There's a lot of people that would have interest in renting an amphitheater that wouldn't necessarily have interest in renting a community park. So we're really looking for that unified branding that would allow us to really put Ingleside or Winchendon Community Park and the amphitheater on the map."
Image copyright Town of Winchendon
Image copyright Town of Winchendon
Mr. Beauvais asked what comparable facilities the Commission had used to base its rental fees on. Ms. Cunningham said that it was difficult to find facilities in the Northeast that were truly comparable with the Winchendon Community Park. They tend to either be smaller and simpler, or much larger and well equipped than Winchendon. Several parks in other states, including Georgia, Florida and Arizona, that do seem closely comparable to Winchendon Community Park, were used as a basis for the new rental rates.
Ms. Cunningham showed a graph of the percentage of Parks & Recreation funding that comes from various sources. The amounts in the graphic come to $232,030. Of this, $66,130, or 28.5 percent, comes from the town. The rest comes from grants, sponsorships, event revenue and donations. The presentation did not include a corollary breakdown of how Parks & Rec funding is spent. Mr. Beauvais asked how much of the funding is spent on marketing. Ms. Cunningham said that she can get that figure for him.
After more discussion by the Board of ways to expand usage of the park (it was noted that Beals Memorial Library has snowshoes for loan in its Library of Things collection), the Board agreed to vote on the proposed new schedule of fees at their next regular meeting, which should be on January 12, 2026.
BOS Formally Endorses Winchendon Community Heart & Soul Statements
At their meeting on Monday, December 22, the Board of Selectmen returned to the request made to them at their November 10 meeting by members of the Winchendon Heart & Soul team, "that the Board of Selectmen would formally endorse the Heart & Soul statements in a resolution, just to reinforce our commitment and celebration of these statements and everything that the residents have done." ("Citizens Present Community Heart & Soul Action Plan for Winchendon to BOS" in the November 13-20, 2025 edition of The Winchendon Courier) The team agreed to prepare a document for the Board to sign, and submitted the following resolution:
Whereas, the Town of Winchendon has undertaken the Heart & Soul community engagement process to identify and affirm the shared values, priorities and aspirations of its residents, andAfter Board Chair Andrew Beauvais read the resolution into the record, Board member Erika Eitland said, "I think that I was just really moved when we heard what the process to this resolution was. And so I stand by everything that's been shared, and hope that we can have this printed or posted somewhere in Town Hall, so people know that it's not just living digitally, but it's something that we abide by."
Whereas the Heart & Soul process has engaged hundreds of community members through storytelling, public meetings and collaborative visioning, producing a set of Heart & Soul statements that capture what matters most to the people of Winchendon, and
Whereas, these statements serve as a foundation for transparent community-led decision making, ensuring that resident voices guide the town's direction in matters of planning, development and public service, and
Whereas, endorsement of the Heart & Soul statements by the Board of Selectmen would demonstrate the town's commitment to inclusive governance and reinforce the values of trust, collaboration and civic engagement, and
Whereas, adopting the principles aligns Winchendon with best practices from other Heart & Soul communities nationwide, which have successfully integrated resident values into municipal planning and policy making,
Therefore, be it resolved that the Winchendon Board of Selectmen hereby formally endorses the Winchendon Heart & Soul community statements and affirms their role as guiding principles in town planning, transportation, economic development, land use and public service decisions, and be it further resolved that all municipal boards, committees and departments are encouraged to consider these statements in their deliberations and initiatives ensuring that the values and priorities of Winchendon residents continue to shape the future of the community.
No other Board members had comments, and the Board voted animously to adopt the resolution.
Winchendon Teens Rescued from Mount Monadnock
A pair of Winchendon 18-year-olds are safe, but famous for all the wrong reasons after being rescued from the slopes of Mount Monadnock in Jaffrey, NH on December 19, as reported by The Boston Globe.
The weather that day had taken a turn for the milder, with pouring rain earlier in the day, but temperatures were dropping rapidly. Brendan Girouard and Shawn Paelin decided to begin hiking up Mount Monadnock around 5:30 p.m., more than an hour after sunset and in full darkness. According to officials, the teens had "no food, water, warm clothes, change of clothes, or any cold-weather gear." They did, however, have alcoholic beverages, according to officials.
Around 10:00 p.m., both young men fell into a brook on Ferry Spring Trail. Another hiker passing by called 911 for emergency response and tried to help the teens, who were now both soaking wet. At that time, according to weather records, it was 17° in Jaffrey.
Conservation officers reached the hikers at around 11:00 p.m. They reported that Mr. Girouard was "heavily intoxicated" and unable to walk or move by himself without receiving warming measures by emergency responders. Mr. Paelian was able to walk down the mountain and get into a vehicle to thaw out. Mr. Girouard was taken to a hospital by ambulance around 2:00 a.m. to be treated for "cold weather injuries." His injuries were not specified, but injuries that commonly result from similar conditions can include hypothermia and frostbite.
Mr. Girouard was charged with alcohol possession.
New Hampshire officials said that they would recommend that Mr. Girouard and Mr. Paelian be billed for the costs of their rescue from the mountain, adding, "These situations are avoidable and put rescue crews at unnecessary risk."
(The Courier thanks New Hampshire emergency responders and the alert hiker who stopped to help for making sure these two Winchendon young people got home.)
