===PAGE 1=== Karin Menard, Chair 978.582.4160 David Passios, Vice Chair 520 Chase Road Susanna Jewell, Secretary Lunenburg, MA 01462 Christopher Sullivan, Member PARKS COMMISSION Meeting Minutes Monday, January 11, 2021 6:30pm 1.Karin called the meeting to order at 630 pm. In attendance were Karin Menard, Dave Passios, Susanna Jewell, Kayla Wright, Chris Sullivan, and Ana Lockwood. 2. Chris motioned and Dave seconded a motion to approve minutes from Nov 9th and Dec 1st : Dave yes Chris yes Ana yes Karin yes (Susanna had tech issues here) 3.Rec Director, Kayla Wright, Updates: ! Winter programs are opened. Skating rink ordered. Fire dept will fill it. DPW will help assemble it. 4.Non Departmental Beach Usage Discussion and Policy Creation: ! Kayla has researched several other towns policies to help come up with ways to approach our policy creation. Most had policies where the applicant had to be a beach pass holder. several required that everyone attending the event had to get day passes. All had requirements that a life guard be on duty, some with additional charges for that life guard/s. Karin highlighted some of the issues that we have had in the past. Beach rental requests have gone through the town manager, not parks. Rentals are often requested for Sundays or times when the beach is not open and she has had to go down to let the renters in. Policy needs to be created so that it is clear what our expectations are. Chris asked about lifeguards- suggested that we should require a separate lifeguard for events, even if the beach is open and staffed. Ana suggested having that in a flat fee, instead of parsing out a separate lifeguard fee. Susanna clarified that we should always require a lifeguard, even if people aren’t going into the water. Karin and Kayla suggested a two week out rental request, to allow time to schedule lifeguards. Karin expressed an interest in making sure that Parks properties ===PAGE 2=== are usable and an asset to the town. Kayla will work on getting pricing/policy to us for next meeting. Chris asked if there are additional costs incurred from rentals, ie trash, electricity, etc. Kayla will base the fee to include all of that. All renters will need to have a Certificate of Liability. Jared Bowser, guest and lifeguard at the town beach, was present for this discussion. He advised to not have too many events at once, given the size of the beach. Karin asked Jared about Sunday events and extra lifeguard work. He thought that would not be a problem. Dave commented that he agreed that there should be a designated lifeguard for all rentals. He requested that there be some language added to the policy for other town departments that might want to rent the lakefront for an event. 5.Hunting on Parks Properties and Vote: ! Parks commission has been asked by Conservation Commission to decide if we will allow hunting on Parks properties. Karin asked the commission if anyone had any strong feelings either way. Chris suggested we say no to all hunting, with any weapons, on Parks properties. Ana added to clarify that this should include bow and arrow, not just guns, and not just for hunting but also for target practicing,etc. Chris finessed the point to say “outside of an official park program”-leaving space for an archery class to be held at Marshall Park, for instance. All in agreement. Policy discussion-Karin suggested we say “No Hunting or discharging of firearms or weapons on properties that come under the care and control of Parks commission, unless sanctioned by the recreation department.” Trapping will be added at our next meeting. 6.Marshall Track: ! The track might not be workable until late spring given the water table/drainage there. Dave proposing to revitalize the cinder track at Marshall by removing the organic matter off of the surface of the track, tilling the cinder, and compacting it. He has a volunteer to help with this. Dave hasn’t had the chance to talk to the DPW director about it yet but he will follow up. Dave wants us to think about the No Dogs policy in Marshall Park-would like us to consider allowing dogs on the track but not anywhere else in the park. 7. Spring 2021 Volunteer Clean Up Days ! Dave is thinking that park users and others could come up with a list of things that we as a community could do to tidy up some Parks properties. Little League has done something like this in the past. Karin likes the idea. Chris suggested an Earth Day, April 22, kick-off. Dave suggested we start somewhere other that Marshall in late April, as Marshall has a high water table. Karin had a discussion with Conservation Commission recently about trail creation over at our newly acquired Northfield Rd property. Chris suggested that we emphisize the clean up days as “family” oriented so as not to dissuade anyone. 8. Discussion on Park Properties improvements and planning including continued discussion about Marshall Park Master Plan. ===PAGE 3=== ! Capital planning ranked this project 13/22. Therefore we will not make the cut for funding for this year. Aside from that, we need to move forward in planning. Karin reviewed the list generated by the parks commission and complied by Kayla. Marshall  Park  Priori,es   1.Track 2.Mul,-­‐purpose  court  –  Basketball,  pickleball,  tennis 3.Access  to  pond 4.Parking/repair  fencing  in  exis,ng  areas 5.Picnic  area/pavilion Marshall  Park  ideas: 1.Nature  Trail/Walking  trails  –  connect  to  town  center 2.Mul,-­‐purpose  field 3.Fitness  circuit/area 4.Reduce  baseball  fields/make  them  more  adjustable 5.Open  space/non-­‐designated  space 6.Skatepark 7.Pocket  park  at  Marshall  Pond 8.Disc  golf 9.Tot  lot/trike  path 10.Public  restrooms  (where  able  to  connect  to  town  sewer) 11.Park  maintenance  building 12.Fully  compliant  concession  stand 13.Signage  –  Chestnut  street  side 14.Improve  parking  on  Chestnut  street  side 15.Accessibility  throughout 16.Visibility  to  courts 17.Dog  Park 18.Bleacher  areas  for  li]le  league  field 19.New  Playground  equipment 20.Fencing  around  playground  area ===PAGE 4=== 21.Gardens Chris said that there seems to be a consensus on the commission that if there is a skateboard park in town then it should be in Marshall park. He would like to see a dog park area there too. Dave mentioned a seasonal skate rink on a paved area, otherwise used in the other seasons. Chris asked about skating on the actual pond. Dave responded that it is less reliable in terms of safety. Dave brought up horseshoe pits. Karin brought up the Little league and was wondering what their needs are, given theri reduced numbers. We could possibly gain some space at Marshall that way. Karin requested that we consolidate and clarify this list. Susanna suggested that the list could easily be consolidated without losing any of the content because several of the points were redundant. Karin wants to be sure to include seniors in our planning of the park. Dave suggested a picnic table near the town pound on the pond. Ana pointed out that there are several things on our list that should be part of standard maintenance of the park. Susanna suggested that referring to benches beside the pond as a “pocket park” is the wrong approach as it may make it sound like a bigger deal than it is-purchasing and installing picnic tables or benches is not building a park. Kayla agreed-maybe leave that type of thing off of the master plan wish list as it is something we could just buy and install separately. Karin requesting that we remove the items that don’t belong on the list and get it to Kayla before the next meeting. Dave requesting that we get a complete and total survey done professionally as soon as possible. Karin reminding the commission about our upcoming meeting w the Skateboard Park. Dave asked the commission-do we want to get something on the warrant for May-for consulting help or a survey of Marshall? Warrant for submission closes March 15. We will revisit in our February meeting. 9.Discussion about creation of Parks Policy and Procedures related to maintenance and general use Karin: It’s time to be proactive instead of reactive. What priorities do we want to focus on? Lets work on policy in chunks instead of trying to do it all at once. Susanna suggested we go park by park to think about what each parks issues are. Ana suggested we approach it piece by piece and build a policy over time. Karin is thinking to start with maintenance. Procedure on how organizations need to report things to the Parks commission that need our attention. Examples are broken fences, trash, mowing. Karin will put it on our next agenda to discuss maintenance policy. 10.Revolving account ! The warrant article discussed last meeting was not the final word on the revolving fund. Karen Brouchue caught the mistake when she watched our last meeting. The Beach exclusion was removed two years after the one we discussed. All of the money that is coming in now is rightfully ours. Dave-are we under the best kind of revolving account that we could be under? Dave is concerned that we would be limited on what we could use the money for. Spending down under $30k v not having to. Karin not against changing to a different form. Susanna not feeling informed enough to discuss it right now. Will do homework for next meeting. Karin will add it to the next agenda. ===PAGE 5=== 11.Open Space Representation- ! Chris was thinking about volunteering, but declined. Ana volunteered. Karin nominated her, Dave seconded. Roll call vote and all in favor. 12. Next meeting is January 25 with the Skateboard Park. In preparation for the meeting Karin asked commission to think of where within the park we could picture the Skateboard Park. Dave recommended using Google Earth Pro to look at Skatepark placement. 13.February meeting-Susanna requested a Thursday or Friday. Feb 12. 630 pm. 14.Motion to adjourn by Chris 8:33, seconded by Susanna. Roll Call Vote: Susanna yes Dave yes Ana yes Chris yes Karin yes !!