Parks & Rec Minutes

Date:

April 11^th, 2023

Commissioners Present:

 Ed Sterling, Greg Kabachinski, Mary Miskin, Erika Mond, Lauren LaRosa & Lisa Shepple, coordinator

Next Meeting:

May 9^th, 2023

Agenda Item

Action

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8.

Review Easter Egg hunt at Town Common

Estimated 250 people attended. 95 children at the craft table to paint a jar. Bunny Ears coloring very successful, 75 to 100 children did it. 5000 plastic eggs laid out with a candy treat inside. Next year have the little ones in the amphitheater. Avoid placing eggs by the Main St. area where people walk in.  Ed was pleased that people were good about parking, and, were very attentive to cleaning up trash, and returning eggs. We appreciated the Easter Bunny.

May 20^th private birthday party at Forbush Soccer Field.

Lisa received a request from a soccer coach to have a private birthday “soccer” party at the field. BYSA has no issues. It will be held in the mid afternoon following the games on the little kids field.

Continue Request to have our Commission join MRPA recreation consortium

Lis   Lisa, Ed and Erika attended an MRPA regional meeting hosted by Clinton P&R Dept. It was well attended and allowed the various towns to share ideas and information. Ed feels strongly that Bolton should join the MRPA. Lisa is to find out what the annual membership fee is, and, what the annual MRPA conference costs are.

Discussion about Community Garden status.

Lynn Dischler called Ed about the status of the community garden at the “Old Horse Ring” field.  Ed checked with the Town Planner, who said the 580 Main St. project is approved and he understands work will begin in about 4 to 5 weeks. Ed relayed that to Lynn, and recommended that before fencing and signage goes up preventing access, that the gardeners should remove any trash, so it can be picked up by DPW. Right now there’s no alternative place for a new community garden. Lynn has notified the gardeners.

Discussion about newspaper ad to promote Summer Programs

There’s a town wide mailing for the warrant. Lisa suggested that we could have a small ad in the paper to promote our Summer programs. Given the income we see from our Summer program, it makes sense to do something to promote it beyond just social media. Ed moved to place a quarter page ad for $150. It was also suggested by Lauren to have a reminder/table at Baseball Opening Day event.

Discussion about Persons Park beach and new dock

Ed stated that the current dock at Persons Park beach has never been approved and needs approval by the Conservation Commission (CC). Apparently a Chapter 91 hearing is needed to install a new dock. The current dock was removed for the winter, and Ed requested that DPW remove it and dispose it appropriately. A new dock will require a design to present to the CC as part of an Notice of Intent (NOI) submission to them. Mary obtained several quotes for “T” and “L” shaped docks which would have little impact on the shortline of the pond. The “T” dock quote was $23,000 and the “L” dock quote was $15,000. Ed stated there is no money in our budget for that right now. He recommended we try to find the water depth where the end of a potential dock would be placed

Discussion about Persons Park well and septic system removal

Ed stated that the cottage site is now cleaned up following the training burn. The garage was demolished by machinery, and non-burnable items were taken away. Now the well and septic system need to be decommissioned and/or removed. We will need to contact the Nashoba Board of Health to begin that process. The Building Inspector apparently is able to perform the well closure once approved.  As a follow up to the plan agreed upon by our Commission and the Historical Commission (HC), there was a requirement to preserve the memorial plaque, and display it, along with another significant memorial to the Persons family gift. Bob Busch of HC attended our meeting, and discussed that the HC voted to have a memorial stone bench pair created and paid for by them, to be placed near the site of the old cottage.  Bob asked for our approval to place the benches at the overlook to the lake. Ed reminded everyone that we plan to have the septic mound removed, and asked that Bob take that into consideration so that machinery will have room to maneuver and not damage the benches. Bob agreed with that. Ed moved that we approve the placement of the memorial benches near the old foundation. Bob and Ed will arrange a site visit, members will be notified if they wish to attend.

Coordinator Report:

Continued Discuss Commissioner roles in 2023.

Due to the loss of two commissioners.  We will wait until our new commissioners are elected.

Discuss Commissioner position still open.

We will need to fill that with someone willing to attend our meetings regularly. A person was mentioned but they could not devote the time

Skating Rink at the Common - deconstruction

The skating rink at the Common was shut down by removing the 2 layers of plastic liners that held the water. Those liners are stored in our CONEX at the Transfer Station. This new 2 layer system with the sandbags worked very well with no leakage and along with not getting used much because of non wintery weather. The protective sandbags are all stacked on the edge of the Common for the season. Erika believes we should pay for clean pool water next winter, as the water given to us was very dirty. Charges and amounts of water were discussed. 5000 gallons should be adequate. This might be one half truck load.  More information is needed on the cost for next year if we go that route.

8:18 PM – Moved and seconded to close this meeting.

Approved Unanimously

No vote until costs available

No Approval needed

Approved Unanimously

No approval needed

No Approval needed

Meeting ended at 8:18 PM

9.

Next Meeting:  May 9th, 2023, Tuesday, 7:00 pm

Initials

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