===PAGE 1=== Lunenburg Park Commission Meeting Minutes January 25, 2021 Page of 31 Town of Lunenburg Park Commission Karin Menard, Chair 978.582.4160 David Passios, Vice Chair 520 Chase Road Susanna Jewell, Secretary Lunenburg, MA 01462 Chris Sullivan, Member Ana Lockwood, Member Park Commission January 25, 2021 Meeting Minutes 1.Karin called meeting to order at 7pm. Attendance: Karin Menard, Susanna Jewell, Dave Passios, Ana Lockwood, Chris Sullivan, Recreation Director Kayla Wright. 2.Discussion with Lunenburg Skate Park group regarding the pros and cons of building a skate park within Marshall Park and potential decision/vote on supporting a park and park size at this location. Griffin Caiozzo and Chris Roy did a presentation about why the Skate Park group feels that the Town of Lunenburg needs a skate park, how they got here to this point and the current status of their work. Karin asked the group to talk about the pros and cons of Marshall Park and added that this was the only property that the Park Commission has any control over out of the locations that Griffin and Chris mentioned. Karin said that a pro that she sees is that this is a piece of property that the Commission currently has control over so there is no other group involved in the governance of this property if a skate park did go in at Marshall Park. Chris added that the Commission is in the beginning process of laying out a Marshall Park master plan and this piece could fit in nicely and be visible and not tucked away. Ana Lockwood said she doesn’t agree with all of the cons that the skate group presented. She said there are two access points to Marshall Park - one off Mass Ave and one off of Chestnut - and the Town is working on getting funds for building more sidewalks. She also said that the previous skate park location may not have been ideal but with the amount of acreage we have to work with we can come up with a better location. She thought the previous park had high use for awhile but had no care and maintenance. She cited the new playground at Wallis Park as an example of not using history to determine the future. She said she didn’t think the cons, in the way the Skate Park group presented them, were necessarily deal breakers. She what said she hoped to gain from this conversation was what it would take for the Skate Park group to say that Marshall Parkwas a good option but if Marshall Park isn’t a place they would consider she didn’t think there was much more to discuss. Aiden Moore said they are open to our suggestions but they think the original location is still the best but that a good park could still be built at Marshall depending on the location within Marshall Park. Aiden said that they would be concerned about the lack of visibility at Marshall Park. Dave Passios mentioned that his concern with the TCP location, which he also brought up at Capital Planning, is that there has been discussion about a small parking area for the Senior Center and part of the TCP property may be needed to complete that. He also didn’t think that aesthetically it would be a good location for it if TCP becomes town offices. Dave said that there are two locations at Marshall that he thinks would be very visible locations from the street at Marshall - where the old bathroom used to be is very visible from Chestnut Street and that the old growth trees in that are are already gone and also along the entrance driveway to the right as you are driving in from 2A. He also thought a pull station for emergencies may be a good addition to deal with emergency responses. Dave said that because this location is already a Park more grant funding may be available than if they went forward with the TCP location. Susanna said she really likes the idea of putting it in around the entrance area and asked Dave if he had taken a look at the size of the area. Dave said that he hadn’t but would like to get a better idea from the Skate Park group what the overall size ===PAGE 2=== Lunenburg Park Commission Meeting Minutes January 25, 2021 Page of 32 was that they would need above and beyond the concrete skate area. Ana said that she had done some quick measurements and there was easily 10,000 square feet in the area next to the entrance. Chris said that he would be in favor of reopening discussions on the size of the park as he has some concerns about the size of the park that the Park Commission previously voted to support which predates his tenure on the commission. Susanna says she cares more about a skate board park being well integrated into Marshall Park and looking like it belongs there more than the actual square footage is. Dave said he thought we need to first decide if we want to put this in the Park and that size and what we want to see included should be an ongoing conversation. Griffin Caiozzo raised a few issues with a Marshall Park location - safety of children walking down Mass Ave to Marshall Park from school and concerns about leaves getting onto the skatepark surface causing safety issues and increased maintenance. Karin said if a skate park goes in at this location that she doesn’t believe it would be the intention of the current Park Commission to throw it in there and never look at it again that its going to to be maintained to the best of their ability and its going to be utilized and overseen so it wouldn’t see the same fate as the old park. She said she does have concerns on size but she does agree with Susanna that aesthetically it needs to fit the area but still has hesitation in supporting a park of a larger size that is going to be built as a destination. Karin said we are a community of 12,000 people and when we look at the size everything that has been shared with the commission and we have researched on our own, a skate spot is an appropriate size. Phil Moore clarified that the boys position on the safety of Marshall Park was given to them by the former Police Chief and other groups when originally evaluating sites. He also said that it was wonderful to see collaboration between the two groups and a positive conversation. Peter Beardmore wanted to share a little history that he thought would be important in the discussion. He said back in 2004 there were a group of kids who were skating on Memorial Drive area and there were a lot of complaints. He said that when the first skate park in at Marshall one of the concerns expressed was that skaters wouldn’t use it because it was too far away from where skaters were at the end of the school day. Peter expressed concern that the change of location is because of objections coming from people who will work or spend a lot of time at what is expected to become Town Hall and those at the Eagle House property and that he doesn’t think that anyone has a claim to that property more than anyone else. He said that before the rug is pulled out on them for the location at the center of town there should be a discussion with all the stake holders to see if something can be worked out. Karin chimed in that she has not heard anything from Town Hall or the Senior Center and that original decision that Parks made almost a year ago not to support that location was done independently. She also said that the piece of land by TCP is not owned by the Park Commission and its not their land to give so the only thing in her opinion that the Park Commission could do is to decide on whether to support or not to support and that is what the Park Commission did. She also said the vote by the Park Commission that Parks has no interest in maintaining or supporting a skate park on that property was not a vote saying not to build at that location. Ana added that there was nothing sneaky going on and that this board is interested in pursuing a skate park at Marshall Park. Peter added that at the end of the day there was property that was pledged to the skate park group and they have raised money all with that property in mind and the expectation that the skate park if built would be accessible to the student and the kids that it is intended to service. He said that the concerns that the student members of the skate park have are the same concerns that he has especially around transportation and he doesn’t think kids will be motivated to travel 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile to Marshall Park and that some of the opportunity of this project may be lost if its moved down there. He also said he doesn’t think there has been enough discussion with the stake holders about the TCP property. Ana said that we can only discuss things from the Park Commission side and we as a commission had a previous vote to not support the TCP location and that what is now in front the Commission is whether to support a skate park at Marshall Park and that our vote does not change what the skate group does and they can continue to pursue the original location. Karin let Peter know that he could reach out to any of the Park Commissioners to further discuss and that she doesn’t disagree with many of his points around the original location. She also said that the original choice of property never involved Parks in the discussion so it is a situation where one group made a decision without another knowing. She said that she believes a skate park could still go in there and believes it could be overseen by another group and that it wasn’t the goal of the Park Commission to try and strong arm anyone to move to a location that they don’t want to be in. Chris added that he has now seen the direction Marshall Park is going and feels this is a project that would fit in well there. Griffin asked if there was anything they could do to put the TCP location land under the Park Commission. Karin ===PAGE 3=== Lunenburg Park Commission Meeting Minutes January 25, 2021 Page of 33 said that her understanding is that a piece of property could be moved from one group to another by a vote at Town meeting. Griffin asked if they could start the project now at TCP and then bring it to town meeting. Karin said we weren’t there to tell them what to do and that they could pursue that avenue if they wanted too. Phil asked if the Park Commission wants to be a collaborator on this project if it went in at Marshall Park. Karin said that the the feeling of the previous park commission was that we were in support of a skate park if it went in on a piece of property that was in the care, custody and control of the commission and if we can get everyone on the same page and support a skate park at Marshall that we would be a partner in this. She said the Park Commission wouldn’t do all the leg work as we have only a part time employee but that we would support the endeavors. Dave added that Parks will do everything possible to make it the greatest Skate Park it can be if it goes in at Marshall Park. Griffin asked where the Skate Park falls in terms of priority. Ana answered by saying having a group who advocating for a park makes it a priority. Susanna suggested that we not move forward with the park until we know for sure that they want to go in there as it becomes a very important part. Ana motioned and Susanna seconded for the Park Commission to support the building of skate park within Marshall Park. Dave said he wanted to make it very clear that this was just a vote to support a skate park within the boundaries at Marshall Park and does not take location and size into consideration. Chris said he was concerned about the size and that if we were only looking to support a 5,000 square foot skate park with this motion that he didn’t think is what the skate group wanted. Ana said she thought the discussion on size could be separate discussion. Dave thought it could be done at a future meeting. Anthony added that he didn’t think enough information was provided during the meeting to make a decision. Roll call vote Ana - yes Dave - yes Susanna - yes Chris - yes Karin - yes Karin summarized with the boys that they have support from the Park Commission for a skate park within the boundaries of Marshall Park and she emphasized there is still work to be done both with the commission and as their individual group. Karin also asked the group to let the commission know if they don’t want to move forward at the Marshall Park location. Susanna asked the skate group to forward the presentation they shared tonight to the group. 3.Other Business a. Other business matters that may legally come before the board not known at the time of posting b. Correspondence, Announcements and Public and Board Comment Dave asked that the revolving fund be put on the agenda for the next meeting. 4. Next meeting - February 12, 2021 @ 6:30pm 5. Susanna motioned and Chris seconded to adjourn at 8:50. Roll Call Vote: Susanna - yes Chris - yes Ana - yes Dave - yes Karin - yes