As a member of the Koulas Task Force, I know there has been interest in adding a sledding hill there because safe public options in town are limited. The town has always said it is open to new ideas from residents, so from time to time I come up with them. Sometimes it’s ideas like making Red Wing family friendly, building community gardens, adding pollinator gardens, or finding locations for a Storybook Trail. This is not something new. Sometimes these ideas happen, sometimes they don’t, and sometimes a variation happens. That is understood with any plan and is key to a good community decision.

The Lime Quarry Reservation off Littleton Road holds one of Chelmsford’s oldest industrial stories. Long before the highway or modern houses, this area was a working quarry where stone was burned into lime for building mortar and plaster. The first kilns and quarry pits appeared in the 1730s, and by the early 1800s as many as five separate lime operations were active. The work was tough and hot. Quarrymen split limestone from the ledges using hand drills and black powder, loaded the stone into ox carts, and hauled it to kilns built into the hillside. Inside each kiln, the stone was fired for days with stacked wood until it turned white and crumbly. The finished lime was packed into barrels and shipped to builders in Chelmsford and Lowell.