By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer 

CASCO —Last month, the Town of Casco and landowner Sharon Davis signed a vegetation agreement for the future walking path that will start at the Memorial Field sports complex. 

The agreement to plant 8 to 10-foot Fraser firs along the pathway will be put in the planning board’s file on the Memorial Field project. The vegetation pact meets one of the conditions requested by the planning board when it amended the plan. 

Casco Interim Town Manager Don Gerrish provided the recent update on the sports field complex and community greenspace, which is located off Route 11 where the Casco Memorial School once stood. 

“As you know, the Casco Planning Board approved the amendments to the Memorial Field Project, specifically the location of the walking path, with the condition that a vegetation plan be developed with abutting property owner, Sharon Davis, for the area that was changed from the original plan,” Gerrish said. “I am pleased to say that we met with Sharon, and we reached an agreement on the vegetation plan.” 

“The town had planned to plant six 7-foot-tall Fraser firs in the specific area of concern. The additional cost to the town will be $2,800,” he said. “Sharon would like the initial trees to be larger and has agreed to donate $2,000 to the town so that the initial size of the trees will be in the 8-to 10-foot range.” 

The plan has been put into writing this autumn. It will not be until spring that the tree take root.

“We have this agreement signed with Sharon, and we will put that in the planning board file,” Gerrish said. “We plan on doing the work though in the spring. It is too late now to plant the trees. We will order the trees. That was one of the issues that we had to do is order them now so we would have them” in the spring.” 

“It has worked out very well. I want to thank Sharon. We came up with a solutionthat is beneficial to the project and beneficial to Sharon so that has worked out well,” he added.