Parks Commission

Montpelier Parks Commission Meeting 5/23/13 Commissioners Present: Emily Boedecker, Aaron Brondyke, Lyn Munno, Cara Robechek, Kip Roberts, and Staff: Geoff Beyer. Call to order at 7:36pm Minutes: Emily moved to approve minutes from April meeting and Lyn seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved. Lyn moved to approve minutes from the site walk and Kip seconded. All approved. Cliff Street Landowners: Representing the Cliff Street landowners who have been in discussion with the Commission and Geoff regarding boundary issues pertaining to land adjacent to Hubbard Park, Ben Huffman stated that his group’s surveyor would re-set the pin soon on the corner of their land abutting Hubbard Park. There was discussion regarding what documents needed to be drawn up and signed by the city and the commissioners. Mr. Huffman stated that he saw the process moving forward in three steps: Step 1: Have the pin set by the group’s surveyor. Step 2: the bill from the surveyor goes to Geoff. Step 3: the city pays the bill and subsequently the landowners sign a document that allows the city to have a trail that goes across their land with revocable permission. Ben suggested that a meeting be set up with the city attorney, Bill Frazier, Geoff, Ben and the parties from his side to draw up and sign a document that is the agreement to allow the perimeter loop on their land. Adherence to open meeting laws: Cara clarified that the commission has been in compliance with open meeting laws as to the adherence of rules dictating the timely submission of meeting minutes (within 5 business days). Cara clarified that it is also the commission’s desire to have meeting minutes available on the parks website. Question from a citizen in attendance: Where do the minutes get submitted? “To Sandy Pitonyak and Bill Fraser” was the answer. Proposed smoking ban in Parks Kim Martin and Marcus Haas from New Directions petitioned the Commission to ban smoking in the city’s parks. Kim gave a brief history of her group’s efforts to limit smoking in public areas. Kim pointed out the dangers of 2nd hand smoke and the dangers to people, especially children. It was noted by Kim that Barre very recently banned smoking in its parks. $100 for the 1st offense and $200 for 2nd were the fines settled on by Barre. While Kim reported that there have been very few tickets issued in Barre, it’s unclear as to whether park users have adhered to the ban or if law enforcement has not prioritized citing offenders. Kim pointed out that there are smoke-free beaches in Maine and California. 250 colleges are smoke-free nationwide, though it was noted that VT institutions of higher education have not been as quick to ban smoking on their campuses. Kim’s understanding is that we as a body cannot ban smoking, but the City Council will have to approve the ban ultimately. The Rec Dept is considering banning smoking in rec parks (again—it would have to be approved by the city council), but looked to the Parks Commission for approval of the proposal as well before it would be brought before the council. There was discussion regarding a potential smoking ban affecting parks employees and Department of Labor placement workers. A citizen in attendance pointed out the fire risk of discarded cigarette butts. Geoff pointed out that no one on park staff currently smokes, however historically a significant number of the job trainees from the Department of Labor do smoke. Geoff feels it is possible that some Department of Labor job trainees might not work in the park if there were a smoking ban. Geoff proposed testing out designating a couple spots where Dept of Labor workers and the public would be allowed to smoke, then eventually phasing out those spots. Emily suggested that Geoff talk with the Dept of Labor staff to see if any other placements have banned smoking and how that’s affected placement rates. Lyn and others agreed that they’d like to see smoking banned in the park but recognize this issue with the Department of Labor trainees. Public input: a few folks were in agreement that they really hadn’t seen many people smoke in Hubbard. Kim pointed out that in pocket parks and at the ball fields folks probably don’t want to sit next to someone smoking (nor should kids at the baseball games). The commission with Lyn’s recommendation agreed to allow Geoff to contact the Dept of Labor before any decisions or recommendations (to City Council) are made. Emily cautioned too much smoking ban signage in the parks would affect the natural experience. Mountain biking in Hubbard Park: Cara pointed out that Geoff and the Commission completed a site walk a week or so ago with Tim Flynn, a Montpelier Area Mountain Bike Association board member and representative of a group interested in introducing more mountain biking to Hubbard Park. Two different proposals regarding a mountain bike loop came out of that site walk: Tim proposed a perimeter loop in Hubbard that utilized some existing footpath trails when necessary and Geoff proposed the possibility of contacting adjacent land owners in certain areas of the park to potentially create a circumferential trail for skiing and biking that would limit potentially negative shared-use interactions. Geoff had gotten the names of most land owners, but not all, and had not contact most of them as of yet. Geoff stated that he would attempt to contact these landowners again as soon as possible. Members of the public expressed their concern with the speed, silence of bikes approaching other trail- users and current trails being shared. Members of the public and commissioners agreed that maps of both the proposals are needed before any informed decisions could be made. A member of the public questioned where points of access to Hubbard would be located for the circ trail. A citizen in attendance who lives on Hubbard Park Drive cautioned that the street is already very clogged with parking (from other park users) and there are limited sight lines. A member of the public pointed out that parking is a serious issue that needs to be addressed very soon regardless of potentially adding more mountain bikers into the trail user mix in Hubbard. Dog Policy Committee Update: Larry Sherwin, Lynn Mcnamara, Susan Ritz, Wendy Harrell, Ben Huffman, Dave Pelletier, and Jim Eikenberry have been selected to be a part of this committee, but a meeting that works for all committee members has not been agreed upon. Another attempt will be made on Friday. Dog Waste Committee: Lyn stated that the dog waste committee has had two meetings. Recommendation: a limited number of waste drop areas. Composting dog waste was explored as an idea. Ithica, NY is a model that has been investigated. Compostable dog waste plastic bags were discussed, but if that can’t happen right away the group will recommend biodegradable bags. Lyn contacted Todd Law at Public Works and he is passing on the name of the subcontractor who picks up waste in the downtown trash bins. The Montpelier Rec dept is already collecting dog waste at the rec fields and Lyn suggested working with them regarding North Branch Park, but the rec dept doesn’t have any more capacity. Dog waste and water quality was discussed and Lyn A citizen member of the waste committee mentioned taking the dog waste issued city-wide. Lyn stated that she approached John Hollar about whether the city would want to be involved in the dog waste clean-up effort. Hopefully someone from the newly formed Pedestrian Committee as part of City Council will work with the Dog Waste Working Group. Lyn stated her belief and others on the committee that there was a sense that we are all one city and need to deal with this across all lines. Caretaker interview process: Cara explained the process to people in attendance: 8 phone interviews with Geoff were conducted and five applicants interviewed by the hiring committee (Geoff, Aaron, Cara and Kip) have been done thus far. Lyn suggested and Cara agreed that our interviewees need to be kept in the loop about the process and the timeline. Budget: Geoff said we need to move along with some projects before we lose the allocated funds. There was a frog pond dredging discussion, and that project will likely be done in the summer of 2014. Park updates:  Blanchard: there are some inappropriate structures that need to be removed and wet areas that need to be ameliorated if we want children to be able to use the park  Grant for working with folks from the Dept of Labor acquired!  Geoff does have an extra Americorps members for the summer, though no one has been hired yet  The busy season will be mid-June through August. o International Volunteers for Peace: July 8th o The week after IVP, is VYCC (July 28th for two weeks beyond) o Mid-August: Dept of Labor and VYCC ends  A citizen in the audience expressed concern about potholes in the park road. The city grades the road, which needs to happen soon. Geoff has contacted the city about this. Meeting adjourned at 8:56pm Next meeting: There are two conflicts for meeting on the regular 3rd Thursday in June. Meeting date will be warned and in the paper as June 17th.