Well, life in Chelmsford is starting to enter that rhythm again. The windows are open tonight, and the air has that cool stillness that only seems to happen in late spring before summer really kicks the door in. I was gently woken up by the sound of the train whistle crossing town. Tonight it seemed to go on forever. Maybe it really did, or perhaps the town was just that quiet. It’s funny how certain sounds become part of where you live. The train whistle, peepers at the bog, and lawn mowers starting up on a Saturday morning. You hear them, and your brain instantly says, “Yep… summer is coming.”
Of course, once I was awake, the brain started doing what brains do at 2 am. Running through what got done, what still needs to get done, and the classic “You should have done that three weeks ago, Phil”
The big one is we had our final inspection at Sunny Meadow for the workshops and overall site work, and it was a total success. That does not mean we are done. It just means we can finally stop focusing every second on cleanup mode and get back to the normal rhythm of summer stewardship. Fences need fixing. Grass needs cutting. Flower gardens need weeding. Storybook Trail needs maintenance. The pond needs monitoring. The greenhouse needs new plastic and wood on the front section. Every mower seems to have one tire that slowly leaks just enough to annoy you every single time you use it. So new tires are on the list too.
New projects are mostly on hold right now while we wait to see what new town management looks like and honestly because the ticks are absolutely brutal this year. Worst season I have seen in a very long time. Some sites like Wright and Warren-Pohl are just about no-go areas for me right now unless someone invents a full-body tick-proof scuba suit.
Scouting is slowly recovering from the COVID years, which really did a number on local troops. Chelmsford lost two troops during that stretch, and we are down to three now, but the Cub Scout packs are doing very well, and that gives me hope. Packs feed troops. That pipeline matters. I would not be shocked to see one troop return in the future if the momentum keeps building.
My email has also started popping again with groups looking for summer volunteer projects. That is always a good sign. The Chinese Bible Church of Greater Lowell and Nashoba Outdoor Club are both likely coming back, and they have been wonderful groups to work with over the years. The challenge is now figuring out what projects are worth the effort and what projects are going to drown everyone in paperwork and meetings before a single vine is cut.
That is honestly part of the reality now. Some places are easy to work in. Koulas, Sunny Meadow, and Heart Pond are all places where volunteers can actually make visible progress. Other places have so much red tape around invasive mitigation and trail work that it stops being fun and starts feeling like applying for a mortgage just to trim bittersweet. We tried doing invasive work at Southwell Nature Trail and Bartlett Woodlot and Park last year, and the process made it tough to justify doing it again this season.
Which honestly is frustrating because Bartlett Woodlot really does need help. The Two Oaks Trail especially needs major work, and people ask me all the time when the unfinished section is finally going to be completed. It has become one of those “everyone knows about it” projects that just sits there waiting for momentum and enough people willing to push it forward. Between vines, narrowing trails, and sections needing attention, there is definitely work to do over there if the path ever clears enough to actually get volunteers moving again.
So the focus will likely stay on Koulas and Sunny Meadow, where volunteers can show up and actually accomplish something.
Roberts Field might become interesting again too. There appears to be a real grassroots interest in restarting the Friends group over there. DPW is stretched thin, and Roberts is a big site with a lot going on. The flower gardens need help. Some of the trails are slowly disappearing. I noticed several “dead bird boxes” and numerous vines that really should be cut back. If enough people are interested, maybe the kids’ craft day that was planned for Sunny Meadow could become an opening event over there instead.
Koulas was another thought for the craft day, but the lot is small, and no porta-potty changes the math pretty quickly once you start talking about families.
Heart Pond is entering its normal summer rhythm too. This year has a couple of extra wrinkles. The big ADA work around the playground and beach area is going to impact parking and access for a while, but it absolutely needs to happen. Better paths, better drainage, and better accessibility are all worth the temporary inconvenience. The other issue is the algae. At this point it feels less like “if” the beach closes and more like “how many times.” Sadly there is really no easy fix for that. As long as fertilizer use stays high around the watershed and average temperatures continue to climb, you are going to get green lawns and green ponds. One usually follows the other.
On the Eagle Scout side there are a few projects moving forward. The Purple Heart monument at Veterans Park is well underway. The temporary bridge relocation and permanent bridge replacement at Koulas are progressing nicely. Thanksgiving Forest still worries me a little. The replacement bridge there has been stalled for close to a year now, and when projects go quiet that long, it usually means something is stuck somewhere in the process. I know there are at least three more projects somewhere in the pipeline, and rumor has it one might involve ADA tables, which would be a great addition.
For me personally, summer means summer camps. Those start in about four weeks, and then it becomes five days a week for nine straight weeks, teaching all over the area. Thankfully evenings still leave time for open-space work and getting outside. COSS keeps growing too, and we are finally getting our footing as a 501(c)(3). Board members change over time, and we may even be adding a farmer to the board, which honestly makes me delighted. Farmers see the world differently, and that perspective matters.
We also have a few “Help a Farmer” days coming up, which may include installing deer fencing. I strongly believe if we want farming to survive around here, then communities need to actively help farmers when they can. Margins are razor-thin already, and recent drought years plus fuel prices have not helped at all.
Now that Sunny Meadow inspections are behind us, we can finally move forward with the six summer concerts. Those are one of my favorite things we do. Simple. Relaxed. Community focused. Bring a chair. Bring something to eat or drink. Let the kids run around in the grass while music plays in the background. We have all kinds of styles lined up this year including Americana, Irish, jazz, folk, chorus groups and even spoken word. No vendors. No giant setup. Just families sitting in a field enjoying a summer night together. The donation buckets are for the artists because honestly the stipends we give are embarrassingly small but the performers love the setting and many record video there because the farm photographs beautifully.
Not a huge slate of events at Bartlett Park this summer and the Land Trust has its annual meeting coming up. One thing that will be interesting to watch is John Ray from Koulas tossing his name into the ring again for the board. His focus continues to be transparency, inclusion and building volunteer energy. Looking at what happened at Koulas over the last year there are definitely possibilities there.
One thing quietly sitting in the background is our website project. That is going to be a monster. The long-term goal is one central site with current interactive maps of every open space no matter who owns it. Most residents do not care who technically owns the land. They just want to know “Can I walk there with my kids or dog?” Years ago I built a trail page for the land trust but it is badly outdated now. OpenStreetMap changes everything because trails, conditions and features can be updated in real time instead of waiting years for printed maps to catch up.
Every site will eventually have its own page with maps, photos, accessibility information and background history. And yes all of it should be ADA friendly because frankly every website should be by now.
I will also keep writing these blog posts even though my wife stretches out her arms and says “they are THIS long.” She is not wrong. But town websites can be confusing unless you already know exactly what you are looking for. I think there are close to 150 blog entries now covering all kinds of local stories and projects. Like that train whistle tonight they travel across town quietly saying “hey… we are over here.”
Anyway I mostly needed to get this all out of my head so maybe I can get back to sleep. Windows open. Cool air coming in. Train long gone. And hopefully dream a little about what we can build next.
COSS does not speak for the Town of Chelmsford. COSS is a 501(c)(3) volunteer organization