Parks Commission

Parks Commission Draft Minutes Meeting 9/13/12 City Manager’s Conference Room Present: Lyn Munno, Emily Boedecker, Kip Roberts, Cara Robechek, Geoff Beyer House at Hubbard Park Geoff is planning to move out of the house in the park by March 15. There will need to be coverage evening/overnight and weekend responsibilities by someone who is onsite. The Parks Commission feels that this responsibility should be covered by having an on-site, part-time employee who is compensated with free rent (and/or a salary). Geoff will set up a meeting for himself, Lyn, and Kip with Bill Fraser before the Oct Parks committee meeting to discuss this need, the budget implications, and ideas for implementation. We hope to be able to draft a description of this position by end of Oct and to post it soon after. Emily will circulate a similar volunteer job description that the Nature Conservancy currently has posted to the Commission for comparison. Property near stump dump There is a property coming onto the market by the stump dump that is of interest to the parks. Conserving some of this property would accomplish many parks goals including contributing to a wildlife corridor towards Hunger Mountain, and protecting wild space in Montpelier. Stephen Syz has offered to help the Parks to plan and organize this project. Lyn will talk with Aaron to see if he is willing to work with her to explore feasibility. Dog Survey The commission discussed ways of disseminating a dog survey. Concerns included a discussion of how much we are willing to pay for printing costs (and whether or not we are comfortable printing thousands of copies from an environmental perspective). We decided that despite Carolyn Grodinsky’s kind offer to help find advertising to pay part of the costs of a survey if we chose to have it as an insert in the Bridge, that we prefer to use a primarily electronic strategy to gather this information with paper copies available as well (but not put into a newspaper). Motion: We will focus distribution of the dog survey electronically. Paper copies will be placed in at least three locations in town. We will submit press releases to the three papers and let people know about the survey. All in favor. Emily will draft press release, Geoff and others will edit it. Playgrounds in Montpelier Cara has heard a lot of complaints from pre-school parents about Montpelier not having enough playgrounds when school is in session. Playgrounds in Montpelier have historically been overseen by the Recreation Department. Cara will recommend that the parents get in touch with the Recreation Department with their concerns. Budgeting for next year We will need to discuss the implication of removing the income currently coming in from rent of the house. We would also like to explore adding additional funds in labor to have the Park Overnight/Weekend Caretaker working more hours during the summer. July Minutes Motion to approve July’s minutes as amended: approved. Open meeting law requirements Minutes must be posted 5 days after a meeting: Minute takers need to post minutes to the commission within 3 days and then everyone will review and Lyn will post to city. We can receive information over e-mail, but cannot make any decisions over e-mail because all meetings must be posted. Any meeting must have 24 hours of warning. (Including subcommittee meetings). Enchanted forest Probably won’t happen this year due to lack of volunteer labor. Next meeting Thurs Oct 18. Might change because of Moonlight Madness that same evening. Any changes will be warned. Minutes submitted by Cara Robechek