AUBURN — A report on how to best balance recreational uses at Mt. Apatite Park with the Maine National Guard’s Auburn Training Site gets a public hearing June 10.
Auburn city councilors and Planning Board members will discuss the Joint Land Use study of the park at a meeting in Auburn Hall.
The area is home to the 344-acre Mt. Apatite Park city recreation area, west of Garfield Road and north of Minot Avenue. The site is covered with gemstone quarries, summertime hiking trails and winter cross country skiing and snowmobile trails. It’s also home to the Auburn Suburban Little League’s team fields.
The Maine National Guard operates its Auburn Training Site there 270 days each year on 154 acres between the park and the Little League ball fields. Activities there include small arms training and small unit tactics, chemical and biological defense, navigation, combat skills, heavy equipment operation and combat engineer operations.
The soldiers and their equipment have to drive through the Little League parking area to reach the training site. Hikers and gem hunters have to walk through the Guard’s training site to reach the Mt. Apatite area.
A draft of the study is available online on Auburn’s website, www.AuburnMaine.gov .
The study looks to find better ways to balance those uses and perhaps provide better access to the area. It is being paid with a $149,998 grant from the federal Office of Economic Adjustment.
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