===PAGE 1=== Park Commission meeting minutes March 29, 2021 page of 41 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 Monday, March 29, 2021 MINUTES 1.Dave Passios called the meeting to order at 6:36pm. Present: Dave Passios, Chris Sullivan, Ana Lockwood Absent: Karin Menard, Susanna Jewell 2.Chris motioned and Ana seconded to accept the minutes of February 12, 2021 and March 1, 2021 Roll Call Vote Chris - yes Ana - yes Dave - yes 3.Recreation Director / DPW Director updates - Dave said he would make a point to invite the DPW director to one of our next meetings and also said he has been forwarding any emails that we receive that he is not copied on. Ana suggested that we have a list of things we would like to discuss with Rob when he is present at our next meeting. Chris read Kayla’s updates that the commission received earlier in the day into the record. The email is as follows: The Spring & Summer brochure is out. Spring program registration for residents is currently open, non-resident registration begin on Wednesday. Summer registration will begin in April. A list of tasks/projects for the clean up days would greatly be appreciated, so I can update the website for sign ups. So far I have the following list based off the survey feedback: Marshall Park - Trash clean up, brush clean up, basketball clean up, path to basketball court clean up/make more visible,  Veteran Parks - trash clean up and brush clean up Town Beach - trash clean up along fence, weeding Park maintenance was put out to bid, I do not have an official date of when the bids are/were due back. The contract begins on July 1. Marshal Park master Plan- I still only have updated lists from Chris & Susanna, and now Karin from the original list of Marshall so it has not yet been updated. I will continue to update based off Karins e-mail today.  Field Policy - I don't believe we ever revisited the adult organization rate for fields, if we did and I missed it please let me know. The Phillis will be submitting a request for this season and I'd like to be able to give them a fee (whether it be the same as last year or new structure).  ===PAGE 2=== Park Commission meeting minutes March 29, 2021 page of 42 Beach rental policy - if there are any further changes on the policy after tonight's meeting please let me know. I am working on a separate policy for birthday party rentals of the facility.  Beach - interviews were conducted last week & more scheduled for this week. Will have names of intended hires within the next two weeks. Still able to hire additional candidates after this if needed. Tentative dates for open to the public June 20- September 12. Looking to hold another lifeguard class early May, will be hosting a WSI (water safety instructor) class, waiting on instructor availability. Water safety instructor is important certification for teaching swim lessons. 4.Beach Rental Policy - discussion and vote - no discussion or vote as document had not been forwarded. 5.Earth Day Clean Up - Chris said that he sees this as a week long endeavor and people can help when they are available. He said that most of his responses have been coming from groups of people - Boys and Girls Club, Girl Scouts, Project 351 and the Skate Park group. He said that Smokestack Roasters and Salvation Army had stepped forward offering to help and Chris was working on the details. He said he did not get a lot of suggestions for new ideas for cleanup but he does have a good base of ideas. Chris said he had gone down to the beach to see what needed to be done there and also the pond side of Marshall. Dave said that the dog pound side needed to be raked out as there are a lot of acorns. Chris said there was a concern raised about the potential for needles in the basketball area at Marshall so we would need to be mindful of that. He also said he needed to coordinate with Rob on trash and leaf removal. Dave suggested that Chris show the list of potential project be shown to Rob so he can approve it all and make arrangements for pick up of debris. 6.Maintenance policy discussion/vote - Chris said that he and Ana have some more discussion to do and they need to go back to DPW to establish some realistic expectations and how things get tracked. Ana agreed that there are things that need to be discussed with the DPW Director and what we set as a policy can match what he already does. Ana said that one of the things that is difficult right now is that we don’t know how things are currently being done. Dave said that planting a seed now that they are fully staffed that there might be someone familiar enough with the Park properties that could do this and take it off of the directors plate. Chris suggested that monthly reports would be beneficial and thought any major issues that came up we could be notified of via email just to keep us in the loop. Ana thought that in regards to the policy that knowing the process is important so that the proper timeline can be used. Chris asked if he and Ana could have a zoom meeting with Rob and Dave said they could. 7.Marshall Park - master planning discussion including Skate Park - Chris mentioned that Karin had previously walked through Marshall Park with the head of the skate group and he did as well at a separate time and that the location that seems to be of potential interest to them is the area coming in through the Mass Ave side that has the wooded area and it would give some visibility from the road. Ana asked if the expression of interest in that area meant that they were definitely looking at Marshall. Chris said he didn’t think they took an official stance on it but they did seem interest. Dave said that that area would require some tree removal and was curious to know why they weren’t interested in the Chestnut Street side. Dave read the email that Karin had sent to him prior to the meeting. The email read as follows: Goal: to improve Mashall Park to create a space for multi age activity and community events. I want to stress that not everything needs to be covered in the Master Plan - rules for use, signage for parking on Chestnut Street, fence repairs - those can all be something done now. Thoughts when going through the original list: Track / Walking Path - this would be at the top of my list. Connecting it to Main Street area would be a huge plus even if that meant one way in/one way out by Marshall Pond. Court - determine what can be salvaged, open up for visibility ===PAGE 3=== Park Commission meeting minutes March 29, 2021 page of 43 Field space - I think there are a few in the ideas section that could be combined for the same goal - multipurpose field, open space/non designated space, reducing baseball fields/making them more adjustable. With seemingly dwindling numbers on the baseball side, and baseball really being the only field space the Park Commission has, I think consideration needs to be given on reducing the number of baseball fields we have. Unlike a baseball field, a rectangular field can be used for multiple sports activities - soccer, field hockey, lacrosse, football etc., but can also be used as open space when not in use. Parking - guidance by someone who knows parking would be beneficial so parking flow and safety would be taken into account. Skate Park - Anthony and I spent some time down at Marshall a few weeks ago. In my mind the location that stands out is the wooded area straight ahead when you pull in from Mass Ave. Pavilion - this would be a great addition to Marshall. It would allow hosting of programming, rental for use by individuals and cover from storms during sporting events. As I think of other ideas the first thing that comes to mind is: What will be used and what will draw people here. While on vacation I have looked at local parks and their usage quite a few times. While exercise circuits have been unused, sand volleyball courts, walking paths and rectangular fields were hopping. As we look at the future, I'd urge everyone to think about creating a community space that will be used - think of what other towns have that are popular, look at what they have that are not used, and start to reimagine Marshall. Community engagement - I think it is time for the commission to determine how we want to go about this as I think it is important for a variety of reasons. Should it be a survey? An open forum? Something else? If the consensus is a survey, I'd be happy to work with someone to get a preliminary one started that we can fine tune as a group at our next meeting. Dave said that he was interested in inviting the general public to meet at Marshall Park to just do a walk around so that they can see what Marshall Park offers now and what it could look like in the future. Chris said he likes the idea of both of a survey and a walk through and offered to help Karin with a survey that would be open ended but also have some structure to show that the commission has done some work behind the scenes. Dave agreed that we need to develop a park that people will want to come and use. Chris liked her mention of the volley ball court and may be of interest to the public. Ana wanted to know how, when we talk about multi purpose fields, we we will take into consideration the needs of the school and that some planning needs to be done as the school still uses the 90’ diamond. Dave said that the school district had been involved with some discussion in the past and that they had been looking at the possibility of putting fields on their campus. Ana asked if there was a way to keep the 90’ diamond as part of a multi-use field. Dave said by having a rectangular field is expands the usage season and that as soon as you put base lines onto a field a large section of the field unusable for anything except baseball. Chris said that he thought the commission would be respectful of the school needs but if the fields are moved to the school grounds it opens up more opportunity. He said that there is a significant need for more multi purpose fields in this town and its part of our task to figure it out in a timely manner. Ana pointed out that we have a field that is already built and could we figure out a way to make it multi use. She doesn’t want to shuffle fields from one place to another. Chris mentioned that there was still some fencing that need to be fixed. Dave said that there are also issues with broken hinges on gates and there really needs to be cataloged and all done at the same time. Chris said he had thought about a dog park and thought that leashed dogs allowed on the trails may alleviate that need. Dave thought if we had another small piece of property in town that a stand alone dog park could work well. Chris also thought the fitness circuit could possibly be tied into the trails. Parking he said remains an issue especially on the Chestnut side. Dave thought with the right parking engineering you could get 15-20 cars in there off the main area and could work if it was enforced. Chris thought a playground area, maybe something different, would be beneficial. He also suggested bike racks be added if this is to be a destination park. He pointed out that accessibility would need to be looked at as well. Dave said a concession stand would need to be brought into compliance. Chris offered to help Karin out with a survey. 8.Other Business a. Other business matters that may legally come before the board not known at the time of posting - none b. Correspondence, Announcements and Public and Board Comment - none 9.Set next meeting date - April 28, 2021 ===PAGE 4=== Park Commission meeting minutes March 29, 2021 page of 44 10. Chris motioned and Ana seconded to adjourn at 8:04pm. Roll Call V ote Chris - yes Ana - yes Dave - yes