Parks Commission

Parks Commission Minutes for April 17, 2014 Commissioners and Staff Present: Emily Boedecker, Lyn Munno, Kip Roberts, Bryan Pfeiffer, Cara Robechek, Alec and Geoff Beyer Public Present: Marilyn Mode, Danis Regal, Stephen Syz Minutes: March Minutes were reviewed. Changes to be made: Alec’s name to be corrected from Alex, and Arnie McMullen’s last name to be added. Motion to adopt minutes with these changes made by Cara, seconded by Lyn, approved by all. Future minute taking: There was a discussion of whether to continue with a minute taking roster or to elect a secretary. The decision was made to continue with a roster and to find someone other than a commissioner to cover large public meetings. Upcoming roster for minutes is May- Bryan, June-Lyn, July-Alec, August-Kip. City Council: There has been an ongoing concern that the Parks Commission and Parks Department are not being informed of Parks related issues as they come to City Council. Geoff and Emily will send a letter or request a meeting with Bill Fraser and John Hollar to request they engage with Parks Director/Commission for Park Related issues before they go to city council. Bryan will to keep an eye on what is happening with City Council and keep the Commission notified if action is required. Volunteer hours for house renovation: Alec has given the Parks Commission an accounting of volunteer hours put in on renovating the Park Caretaker House by Shannon, Simon and Linden. If they are each members of Onion River Exchange (ORE), Geoff will talk with the ORE coordinator to get them ORE hours in compensation. A thank you letter will be written by Lyn. There will also be a pot luck thank you party at the park house. Alec will present the commission with some dates to start this planning process. Carr Lot/1 Taylor update: A Visioning process will be starting in a couple of weeks. Geoff, Bryan, and Alec will stay engaged. We will try to collaborate with the conservation commission to strengthen the parks/conservation voice on this project. . Park Expansion Opportunities and Updates. Northern flank: Stephen Syz attended the meeting to ask whether the Parks Commission is interested in leading an exploration as to whether it might be possible to expand Hubbard Park northward through an easement or purchase. This is an area of high conservation value. It was clarified that very little city money has been needed for any conservation projects and this would this require a fundraising effort rather than any significant city funds. Lyn made a Motion: Park Commission recognizes land north of Hubbard Park as having value as a conservation corridor and would like Geoff to take exploratory action with the land owners in interest of possibly pursuing easements or fee-simple purchase.  Bryan seconded, All voted in favor Geoff to let the Parks Commission know when anything happens on properties in this area. Eastern flank: Geoff spoke with one land owner who sounds interested in selling a parcel of interest to add to Hubbard Park for Fair Market Value. Geoff will contact a second land owner. Then he will talk to Bill Fraser. If both land owners are interested, this would be followed by an assessment by an assessor chosen in agreement between city and land owners. Parks in the Street, June 21: This is an event being put on by Montpelier Alive. They will close off State Street for a public festival with a Park theme. The parks department did something for this last year and will plan to do so again. Alec was interested in being involved. 7. Park Road reclassification: Roads were not gated during mud season, but there was a sawhorse and signs asking people not to drive on the roads. This was mostly successful in protecting the road. There is now some doubt as to whether we need to change the classification to be allowed to close the gates in the future. If we change the classification the city will lose $1500 in road maintenance money from the state. Geoff will push to allow the gates to be closed on safety grounds. If this is not successful, we will try to change the classification of the road to be able to close the gates. Commissioners and Marilyn Mode agreed to continue to get signatures on petitions and to get them to Geoff by 4/22. Geoff will pick up the petitions from the City Clerks office and let us know how many more signatures we need. Blanchard Park: A proposal has been made to the city to create a larger parking lot cutting into Blanchard Park. Geoff will keep the Commission informed about this as new information becomes available. Park Visioning Process Progress check in  -Bryan: looked at New England Grassroots Environment Fund. Visioning process would qualify, but they are small grants. Next deadline is Sept 15, funding decision in mid- November. In the fall we could probably have access to an ecological planner grad student from UVM as part of our planning process.  Emily: Vermont Community Foundation has recently changed granting. Visioning process could be eligible for “Small and Inspiring” grants, but might not be competitive. Jim Donovan from Broadreach suggests at least do the community listening step right if funds are limited. Susan Clark writer about slow democracy gave some ideas on process and concurred with investment in a community listening process and do this well if we have limited funds.  Kip spoke with John Hollar who encouraged the plan to be a living document  Emily will look at the City Master Plan for the information about trails and parks and will inform the Commission of where to find the relevant information.  Geoff: Spoke with Jesse Baker who is open to having the planning office help with some grant writing or organizing, especially for city wide work.  We will give a more significant portion of the May meeting to discussing this. Emily will see if we might be able to meet with Jim Donovan for more information about how  to run this process before that meeting. If it is set up it will be will warned it as a special meeting. Park Updates:  Incident Reports: There have now been two reports of a dog resembling a “yellow lab” that bit two different individuals and drew blood. In the most recent incident the woman who was bitten was taken to the ER. We do not have enough information to identify the dog or the dog walker.  Mural proposal at Gateway Park: Carolyn Shapiro has proposed painting murals on bridge abutments in Gateway Park. Geoff will ask her to provide sketches of what this would look like. If after seeing the designs the Parks Commission approves the idea, the state, which owns the bridge, would also need to be consulted.  Second mural proposal: MHS senior class work day, wants to do a mural at bottom of the trail up to national life. This is of interest as part of promoting and raising awareness of that trail.  Caretaker Lease: Cara will send Geoff the finalized lease. It will go to city attorney, and it will get signed. Executive session: Bryan moved to go into exec session to discuss a personnel issue, Lyn seconded, all in favor. Bryan moved to go out of exec session, Lyn seconded all in favor Next meeting TUESDAY May 20 at 7pm at Police station. Following meetings will be: June 17, July 15, August 19, Sept. 16, Oct. 21, Nov. 18, Dec. 16. Meeting adjourned at 9:30 CJR