NORTON - The estate of supermarket founder and former town official Joseph E. Fernandes has bequeathed $5,000 to Norton for the upkeep of a Route 123 nature park in his parents' memory.

However, the Jose and Rosa Fernandes Park hasn't been built, and selectmen said this week that Norton can't afford it.

Selectmen hope Marcia Fernandes, Joseph's daughter and his estate's co-executor, will agree to meet with Chairman Timothy Giblin, Treasurer/Tax Collector Jackie Boudreau, and members of the park and recreation commission and the Norton High School grant-writing group to discuss the future of the $5,000 gift.

Selectwoman Mary Steele had suggested the recreation board could seek grants for the park project, which she said would be considered passive recreation. She will contact the recreation board and the high school grant writers.

The Fernandes family donated the 27 acres off West Main Street near Honey Dew Donuts to the town in 1999. Preliminary designs for a nature park with a fountain, ice skating rink, and a 20-foot-wide nature path were developed in the summer of 2003. Giblin said Marcia Fernandes told Boudreau in a recent letter the $5,000 gift was in her father's will, which the estate dealt with in August. Joseph Fernandes died Aug. 19, 2007, at age 84.

Yet, selectmen Vice Chairman Robert Kimball Jr. said, "there's nothing to upkeep at this point."

"I'm sure, someday, we might be able to go in there and do some work on it. But right now, we can't afford it," Kimball said.

Also complicating matters are wetlands issues that town officials discovered when exploring the site's use, he said.

The site currently has only a memorial plaque, which Joseph E. Fernandes purchased himself, Kimball said.

Joseph E. Fernandes founded Fernandes Super Markets in 1947, building it into a chain of 37 stores in Southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

He also chaired the Norton School Committee and the Norton Historical Commission, and served on the industrial commission. And, he was a member of the Norton Lions Club and the Norton Grange.