| The area was purchased by DEC sometime ago, I think maybe 15 years ago.
The idea was to build a Small Conference Center on the site. Stan Olsen
was the driving force behind it. The idea died. And the property has
sat Idle for years except for the first few years it was used by the
DEC Softball League.
The first DEC Family outing were held there in the sixties and early
70s.
When we bought it, there was still a few outing on the books from
Boston Armenian Churches, I ended up being the Manager for those outing
as I worked for Stan at the time and he said, "in addtion to running
the Trade Shows, I have another project for you"
The pond was a local swiming hole when I was a kid.
Roy
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| One of the tough parts about being a town official is when an
obvious conflict of interest situation comes up, as is the
case in the Voses Land/Digital and Town of Maynard.
With that in mind, I will attempt to be informative, without
offering any opinions.
The Voses land is 22.3 acres in the southern end of Town. The
property is an "L" shaped parcel and fronts on Old Marlboro
Road on the west, Puffer Road on the south and Parker Street
on the east.
As has been mentioned previously, Camp Ararat was owned for
a long time by an Armenian organization headquartered in New
York City. There were several buildings on the site including
a large pavilion and there were many picnics and outings held
there through the years. After a suspicious fire destroyed
the pavilion in the late 70's or early 80's, Digital had all
the other structures taken down and the land returned to its
natural state.
In addition to the buildings and pond, at one time there was
a softball field and a running track on the site, both of which
have been reclaimed by nature during the last 20 years.
The pond itself is very clean in terms of water quality. However,
through the years there has been some debris tossed into the Pond
which will require some dredging before safe swimming can resume.
Digital rebuilt the dam and spill-way several years ago and they
regularly clean the litter and debris from the property.
The adjacent property, however, including the Annex land and Puffer
Road, have become convenient dumping spots for construction debris
and appliances. About once every two years, the Town attacks the
area with a front end loader and cleans up the mess, but because
the area is remote, the illegal dumping continues. We are planning
on installing gates on each end of Puffer Road to put an end to
this problem.
The Town of Maynard has had this land on our Open Space Plans
since the early 70's and in 1973, while I was on the Conservation
Commission, we entered into negotiations with the owners. We
got to the point where representatives came up from New York.
As I recall, the asking price was rather steep, and while we were
preparing an article for Town Meeting to fund the purchase, the
owners sold the land to Digital.
As Roy mentioned in .1, Digital had plans at one time (I've
seen them in the Property Development Group Archives) to build
six or eight "cabins" to be used for woods meetings.
Frank
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