Plans for Clarksburg Park Center Around Carousel (Video)
The plans for the long-awaited Ovid Hazen Wells Recreational Park are underway and one thing is for sure – it will include a carousel.
In this MyMCMedia Extra, County planners seek input from the community on what they’d like to see move into the Clarksburg area.
A new 290-acre park is in the plans for Clarksburg. And what’s in store for phase one? None other than the famous carousel that once found a home on the Washington Mall.
“I’m just elated because I’ve really worked hard,” said Clarksburg resident Patricia Tregoning. “It got to the point that no one really knew about this.”
The park was a donation to the County from Hallie Wells in 1981 in honor of her husband Ovid. Included in the deed was a requirement that the carousel, currently housed at Wheaton Regional Park be moved when the Ovid Hazen Wells Recreational Park was up and running.
“I just felt that I had an obligation to make sure that this carousel arrived on their land,” Tregoning said.
In a recent public meeting, County planning staff wanted to learn what else the public was interested in having in the park, aside from the carousel of course.
“We all knew that the public wanted the carousel but after that we really wanted to know what people wanted to see in this park,” said Rachel Newhouse, a planner with Montgomery Parks. “We’ve been getting suggestions for an aquatics center and disc golf and tennis courts and trails and community gardens and things like that so we listened to everybody and put together a plan where we thought these amenities could fit in.”
“You can’t just plop down a carousel in the middle of a park without other things to support it like a splash pad and a teen play area that could have all kinds of challenging play equipment or maybe even a skate spot,” said Brooke Farquhar, a supervisor with Montgomery Parks.
The most recent master plan update includes up to two acres dedicated to a dog park as well as the options for the future Clarksburg Community Recreation and Aquatics Center.
But for Patricia, she’s just happy the wishes of the Wells family are coming to fruition.
“I want to be the first to ride it,” she said.
The master plan for the Ovid Wells Recreational Park will be presented to the County Planning Board on July 17.
Find more information through the County’s website here.
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