The society held its summer potluck picnic and program on Wednesday evening, July 24, at the Hope Davey Park pavilion. Approximately 35 people were in attendance to enjoy an array of chilled and warm dishes, salads, and desserts, including ice cream donated by Ben & Jerry’s.
Landowner clashes with neighbors
The program topic was the history of the tract of land on which the event took place, the 28-or-so acres now known as Hope Davey Park. Skip Flanders gave the presentation, showing some early photographs of the Waterbury Center neighborhood and then focusing on the fraught relationship between parcel owner Grace Palacio and community members calling for the town to purchase the property for recreation purposes in the late 1970s.
Residents of Waterbury Center hoped to see a recreation area developed in their section of town, not just in the village. As the land sat undeveloped, locals would informally make use of the space for skiing and snowmobiling during the winters. Neighbors protested when, in 1978, they learned that Palacio was in talks with developer Al Lunde, of Barre, to build a 36-unit apartment building on the site. Palacio is quoted in The Times Argus on December 27, 1978, as saying, “I guess the public has raised such a rumpus, it [the project] has died.”
Davey gets it done
Flanders recounted that Hope Davey’s efforts as a member of the town recreation committee were integral to the town’s successful acquisition of the land. Under Davey’s leadership, the recreation committee completed an application in summer 1979 to the federal Bureau of Outdoor Recreation for 80 percent of the funds needed to purchase the Palacio property. After approval by the Waterbury Select Board and the Vermont Recreation Board, the application was sent to the feds, who eventually agreed to pay half.
According to Flanders, Grace Palacio gave the town quite the runaround with regards to the sale price, but she eventually agreed to the Select Board’s offer of $35,200 in May 1980.
Hope Davey passed away at her Waterbury Center home in 1991 at only the age of 52. Among her many memberships in community organizations and initiatives, Davey was an active member of the Waterbury Historical Society and a founding member of Waterbury Ambulance Service, Inc. Davey’s two sons, Andrew and Warren, were in attendance at the program.
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