Welcome to May 2025, my friends. As the late great philosopher Bernard Williams said, “The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created spring.” So, with more weather-friendly days joining us, I trust your springtime “hopes” are enlivening your days.

Now that I have my first lawn mowing of the year in the books, the preliminary grass seeding complete and the house freshly aired out, aided by the multitude of gusty days we’ve experienced, I’m ready to get back down to Canal Street Park and pick up right where we left off last year. Let’s see — gloves, check; rake, check; pruning shears, check; seeds, check. Let’s do this!

As anxious as I am to get started, so is our borough family, led by our outstanding public works department.

We had an Earth Day outing April 22. I was invited to join our borough office staff, police chief and public works crew to clean and refurbish the 26th Street Playground.

Blessed with perfect weather and great company, everyone did their part to freshen up the park. All of the picnic tables and benches received a fresh coat of paint, and plenty of grass seed was spread on barren areas, along with the cleaning and repainting of the equipment in the children’s playground.

When those projects were completed, a maple tree was planted for future generations to enjoy. All in all, it was an incredibly enjoyable day, with borough Manager Brian Welsko promising to add another Earth Day experience in a few months.

When the tree was being lowered into place, Andrew Marzen, public works crew chief, asked why they can’t plant more trees, which had me thinking, “Yeah, why can’t we?”

I was thinking about opening up an Adopt a Tree program. For a very nominal price, any citizen can buy a tree, supplied by the borough, for the public works department to plant somewhere in a Northampton park.

According to public works Director Rich Ackerman, there are plenty of trees throughout town that are dying and should be taken down, with no plans to replace them. As we don’t normally budget for such an event, this would start a great tradition of giving back to Mother Nature, beautifying and naturally enriching our parks and greenways.

After I run through what this process should entail, I’ll plan to present this idea to borough council at our next meeting. I’ll even pony up and buy the first tree!

That said, in the next few weeks, look forward to seeing much more refurbishing and cleanup activities in all of our parks — starting with Canal Street Park, as it has such potential for beautification. I’ll be working with our crews and volunteers to first trim and clean the existing gardens, then start an aggressive planting schedule, ensuring we hit the prime growing season.

With more cooperative weather, we’ll start adding additional gardens between the monarch butterfly waystations, as well as planting new vegetation in the waystations themselves. As you travel along the trail this spring, plan on seeing much more color as the plants and blooms take hold.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, the borough continues to plan for a complete refurbishing of the macadam pathway itself. We understand it has become worn, damaged and uneven in many spots, certainly needing repairs and maintenance. As we receive the grant money to proceed, I’ll keep you informed of our progress.

Speaking of progress, the new Route 329 bridge construction is something to behold. Every day, I see more and more people out enjoying watching the construction, up close and personal, as the bridge seems to expand exponentially day by day. It’s going to be an incredible accomplishment, given how long we’ve waited for this structure.

Now that the Northampton Hometown Heroes banner project is complete, I wholeheartedly thank everyone who sponsored a banner or worked with me behind the scenes to make this project the incredible success it is. At last count, there will be 509 banners flying throughout the borough! Your thoughtfulness represents such an incredible outpouring of love and respect for those family members and friends embodied on these banners.

Also, thank you to everyone, young and old, who came out supporting the borough’s Easter egg hunt and our police department’s fishing derby. Both events were fun, well attended and very successful, bringing out the best in community spirit this town has to offer.

With that in mind, I look forward to our next big event. Paw Prints on the Canal will be held June 8. You and your favorite pet(s) can spend the day out at Canal Street Park with your friends, neighbors and more than 100 vendors.

For now, as often as possible, I’ll be down at our Canal Street Park and adjoining D&L Trail to begin these springtime seedings and plantings. As you walk the trail, do stop by and say hi if you see me.

This May, have fun starting your springtime by heading out to enjoy all these wonderful parks our town has to offer. You’ll be glad you did.

Happy springtime!