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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000-09-20-REC-min Town of Lexington Recreation Committee Sandra Shaw, Chairman Tel: (781) 862-0500 x262 Pamela Varrin, Vice Chairman Fax: (781) 863-2350 Frederick DeAngelis Donald A. Chisholm Richard L. Neumeier RECREATION COMMITTEE MEETING SEPTEMBER 20, 2000 Members Present: Sandra Shaw, Pam Varrin, Dick Neumeier, Rick DeAngelis Staff Present: Karen Simmons, Brian Gilbert, Matt Casparius Others Present: Buzz Gillis, Jack Cunha, Bob McConnell AGENDA: 1. The minutes from June 21 and July 12, 2000 were approved. 2. Buzz Gillis, LHS Girls Tennis Buzz Gillis came before the committee to seek approval to have a sign created and placed at the Center Playground. For the first time in 24 years, the LHS Girls Tennis Team has won the State Division 1 Championship. His request for the sign is a way of acknowledging this title for the team, and also for the Town. He wants to place the sign on Worthen Road where the fence ends and meets the entrance to the Town Pool parking lot. He suggested this location so that the sign could be seen from the road and because it is also in an area where there really wouldn’t be any children running around. Initially Buzz requested the size of the sign to be 24 x 48 inches long and made of aluminum, with the following description: “Home of the Lexington High School Girls Tennis Team Division 1 2000 State Champions.” The signs would be the same gauge metal as the ones recently purchased by the Recreation Department. Karen recommended doubling the gauge of the sign. She is not happy with the quality of the signs that the Recreation Department recently purchased and feels that Buzz should request traffic quality signs that meet State highway specs. Rick has concerns that no one would see the sign at that location. He also feels that this could set a precedent if we grant this request to Buzz, then other winning sports teams might request the same thing. However, the committee did not feel that it would become an issue. Rick also felt that Buzz needed to check on whether or not the installation of this sign would meet the specifications of the Town sign bylaws. 1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE • LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02420 2 In considering Buzz’s request, the Recreation Committee approved an 18 x 24 inch sign with the following wording: “LHS Girls Tennis Division 1 State Champs 2000”, which would be placed on the corner of Worthen Road where the fence ends at the entrance to the Town Pool parking lot. The Recreation Committee approval is contingent upon obtaining the approval of the appropriate zoning bylaws and the Board of Selectmen. No funding was requested. 3. Capital Budget- 5 year Karen is beginning to work on FY02 capital projects. She is schedule to submit her budget in three weeks. Her question to the committee is whether or not we should keep to the current schedule that was drawn up last year or do we have any critical projects that should be moved ahead of the projected schedule. Amory Engineering, P.C. has been hired to look at the upper pond and retaining wall at Pine Meadows. They need to do borings next to the wall. Karen doesn’t have a recommendation for the committee right now since the scope of the project will depend on what is found during the study on the wall. Dick Lakutis has been hired as the Landscape Architect for the projected improvements at Pine Meadows. The parking issue is critical, but again how soon improvements can be made on the lot will depend on the amount of work needed on the retaining wall. When we do fix the parking lot, we will also need a larger maintenance building. Currently some strd equipment for the course is being stored up in the woods between the 1 and 3 holes, as well as at 201 Bedford Street. Looking at FY02, we are hoping that we will be able to obtain finances from the Lincoln Park Fitness Sub-Committee to build a playground at Lincoln Park. $50,000 will be requested. In a previous meeting Don Chisholm was comfortable presenting this to the Lincoln Park Sub- Committee. Dick Neumeier is concerned that although Playground Improvements continue to be put into the requested Capital Improvement programs, which should be paid for by the tax levy, the funds are not being approved, and this year the improvements at Sutherland are now being funded by the Enterprise Fund. He fells that we should be going to the Finance Committee to lobby harder for Playground Improvements to be approved. Dick also feels that tax dollars should be set aside in a maintenance fund for the neighborhood tot lots. Pam feels that it is theoretically possible to address the Selectmen to make them aware of the dire upgrades that are needed at some of the playgrounds. Karen would like to clarify to the committee that when a swing needs to be replaced, it is purchased by Recreation and installed by the Parks Department. The money in question under the capital projects is for building a new playground or adding new play structures. Standard maintenance comes out of the Recreation operating budget. The Town has a history of supporting Recreation. However, as a committee we are still going to have to advocate for the improvements that we want to see made. The capital discussion was tabled until next month’s meeting. 3 4. Marvin Park Karen has been working with Jerry Moloney who is building a development near Marvin Park, and he has been very cooperative. He will be providing us with a public benefit by creating an accessible pathway to Marvin Park, as well as re-paving the basketball court and adding drainage to the athletic field. Karen has been contacted by Steve Hamilton, who is a developing a parcel of land on Morris Street. He will move the guardrail along the handicapped access path that cuts into his property at this own expense. Apparently a gate and a sign are located at the end of the current road and he would like DPW to move them. Karen said that she would like to the see the contractor move them with the approval of the Park Superintendent. At the time of the meeting neither Karen nor Brian was sure exactly where the sign was placed. Karen was also trying to persuade Hamilton to build a small picnic pavilion as a public benefit, but he said no. He has no intention of doing a project for us. He will be creating three parking spots at the end of the road and intends to pave the entire road. Karen will continue to monitor this with the Planning Board. 5. Recreation Report Matt Casparius recently attended the National Playground Safety Institute sponsored by the National Recreation & Park Association and has become certified as a Playground Safety Inspector. th The Annual Town Employee Golf Tournament will be held on Friday, September 29. We have a much higher turnout for the event this year with 56 players registered. Looking at the summer as a whole, despite repeated rainy days it was a pretty good summer over all. Registrations for Youth and Teen programs, Sports Clinics, Youth and Adult Tennis, Camps and Adult programs were all up somewhat this summer compared to last year. Attendance at the Town Pool was down by approximately 6500 visitors, and at the Old Res by approximately 1300 visitors. Space issues are still a major concern. Lately it has been pretty much a day-by-day basis with space requests. For example, the School Department was interested in having more after school programs, particularly for middle school children. Matt set up a Cardio-Kickboxing class for that age group and received a verbal okay to use the gym at Diamond Middle School. Then a week and a half before the class was to begin, Matt was informed that the space was under construction and unavailable. The school was unable to assist us with another location and as a result the program had to be canceled. This is disappointing because we had 16 teenagers registered for this new program. We have also been informed that our Evening Drop-in Gym th program might not be able to start as scheduled on October 30. Rick suggested contacting Joe Berlandi at the Masons to see if he can help us out with any space. Evaluations- Matt sent out program evaluations to all participants in our summer programs and of the responses received, 92% rated the quality of our programs as good or better. Pine Meadows- Calendar year our revenues are down 9%, although looking at the fiscal year we are down only about 3% (or approximately $20,000) form last year. 4 Karen wanted to thank Pam Varrin for assisting Cheryl Ozolins with the Old Res boardwalk project. We should be ready to order the materials soon and it will be installed in the spring. Skate Park- Bob McConnell and Jack Cunha of the Skateboard/Inline Park Committee presented an update on the skate park development. A hole was dug three weeks ago by MDR Construction, who was originally supposed to return in a week to put in the gravel. Unfortunately the deal with the gravel company fell through, and they now want $12 per yard for the gravel instead of the original quote of $3 per yard. Yesterday they were able to find another company willing to sell for $7.25 per yard. They are looking to go back to Perkins, the original company, to see if they can talk them down any farther. The Skate Park Committee has decided that they will raid their treasury if necessary in order to get this project finished. Money is starting to come in, although they have not yet followed up for funds from the larger companies in town. F & S will be pouring the concrete as well as setting the forms and re-bar. It will take two pours with a minimum of 180 yards of concrete (18 truck loads). Tom Noble will start building temporary ramps for the park. They have not been able to get a gutter for the drainage system yet. The builder didn’t like the original design, so the committee is looking at a concrete gutter now. They are hoping to have the gravel for next week and a temporary park finished in the next few weeks, assuming that things don’t get held up any further. Brian still has some concerns about the maintenance issues and things being cleaned. Jack mentioned that the kids are very committed to keeping the park clean. Another $50,000 is needed to complete the project as originally approved. 6. Parks Report The Town received a number of applications for the position of Parks Superintendent. The committee interviewed four applicants, and two of those were outstanding candidates. The Town has hired David Pinsonneault, who was the top choice. He holds a B.S. degree in Forestry, and currently is the Superintendent in South Kingston RI. He has been working in a smaller system than we have in Lexington, but has done everything that the job requires. He will start nd October 2, and there will be some sort of welcome party for him at some point. Pool Rehab- The pool filter septa units are scheduled to be recovered and will be shipped out today or tomorrow. Dick Lakutis has been hired as the landscape architect to plan and oversee the construction of shade pavilions at the pool. Old Res- The design for the boardwalk does not have to be bid out publicly now due to changes in the procurement laws. This will be installed in March/April. $1.7 million facility improvements- One company, Geller Sport, has submitted a letter of interest. They had an impressive presentation and will now submit a proposal. Initially the track and bleacher projects were going to be separate, but it has been decided that it would be easier to keep them as one project. Karen and Brian are working on getting the geo-technical reports from Clarke, and hopefully will have the information next week. 5 Harrington- Brian has no information about anything going on at Harrington School. We need to get a commitment from the School Committee for what is planned at that location. The School Committee has said that they should have the approval of the sitings for October. th Pine Meadows- Brian went before the Conservation Committee on September 19 and they have given us the approval to move forward on the pond/retaining wall project by issuing an order of conditions. It should take about two weeks. We have not yet received the contract from Lawhorn Irrigation. We did receive approval for emergency conditions to conduct borings on th the retaining wall. On Saturday, September 16 Karen and Don Chisholm did a walk through at Pine Meadows with the Conservation Commission and answered questions from the members of the Commission. Also present were Joshua Swerling of Amory Engineer, P.C., to answer questions regarding the retaining wall and upper pond, and Bob Kuriger of W.E. Kuriger Associates, the wetlands delineator. Other business- We have recently been presented with a dilemma regarding water bills for irrigation. Karen has looked over the meeting minutes from the past few years and found that no formal vote was ever taken as to who would pay for the water bills at Adams. From the past meeting minutes, Karen reported that it was stated that LYS would pay, and other times it looked like Recreation would be responsible for payment. Dick feels that it is the Town’s responsibility to have a maintenance fund to pay for the water bills. Brian and Karen are going to meet with Dick Thuma of LYS next week to discuss the issue. Karen also wanted to clarify the committee’s understanding of the issue. It is the committee’s understanding from when this was first brought up that LYS would pay for the water at Muzzey. Rick feels that we should ask the Water Department for an abatement or at least a cut in their profits. The issue of irrigation should be put on a future agenda. The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 p.m. NEXT MEETING: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2000 7:30 P.M. ROOM G –15