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Home My WebLink About2022-06-13-REC-min-attLexington RECREATION & COMMUNITY P R O G R A M .5 Town of Lexington Recreation and Community Programs Melissa Battite, CPRP Tel: 781-698-4800 Director of Recreation and Community Programs Fax: 781-861-2747 Recreation & Community Programs June 2022 Report News & Updates • Lexington times — article highlighted the Financial Aid & Scholarship Program https://Iexingtontimesmagazine.com/ (pages 56-57) • Thank you to CEL (Community Endowment of Lexington) for awarding a grant to be used in the upcoming 2022-2023 school year. This grant is to fund teen events in town and will be overseen by Thomas Romano as well as the Youth Advisory Board. The grant was for a total of $3,750. A ceremony will be held on June 14tH • Staff News: o Kate DeAngelis selected for the National Recreation and Park Association Young Professional Fellowship 2022 — one of three professionals selected to attend the NRPA annual conference for free this fall and participate in a variety of networking experiences in addition to professional development opportunities. Congrats to Kate! o Summer trainings have been taking place and will continue for the rest of the month. There have been Leadership Staff, Aquatics, and Inclusion trainings. o Hayato Tsurumaki was a presenter at the MRPA Aquatic Leadership Academy on June 1St in Weston, MA. He presented on professionalism, teamwork, and staff retention. There were 44 participants attending the session with some people from NH and East Longmeadow in attendance! • Save the Dates: o Draft of Town Comprehensive Plan — public meeting/work sessions: Wednesday, June 29 — Sustainability & Resiliency Open Space & Recreation Historic Resources • Wednesday, July 13 — Housing Economic Vitality www.Iexingtonma.gov/recreation recdept@lexingtonma.gov 39 MARRETT ROAD, LEXINGTON, MA 02421 (office) 1625 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE, LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02420 (mail) Marketing • Wednesday, August 3 — Diversity & Inclusion Executive Summary Introduction o Open Space & Recreation Plan (OSRP) update public meeting —Thursday, June 23rd at 7:30pm o Our Constant Contact database continues to grow, currently there are 13,704 individual contacts. o The Select Board voted the Proclamation as recommended for July Parks & Recreation Month in Lexington. The department will celebrate and promote our wonderful parks and recreation system all month! Budget & Capital o The Town Manager's Financial Working Group met on May 10th. The next meeting will take place in late June. • FY2020 Capital: o Old Reservoir Bathhouse— DPF continues to work on the design and it is anticipated that the project will go out to bid in the coming months. FY2022 Capital: o Pine Meadows Golf Drainage Project for holes 1 & 2 continues. The final delineation memo on the wetland areas has been received and will be reviewed with Conservation and DPW for next steps. o The bid opening for the Pine Meadows Clubhouse Drainage Improvement Project was held on Thursday, June 2nd and the contract is in the process of being awarded. o The playground replacement at Rindge Park has been completed and the ribbon cutting ceremony was held on Thursday, June 2,d o The installation of the sidewalk and patio at the LCC has been completed and the outdoor fitness equipment will be installed in the near future. o Muzzey Field Renovation — staff have been discussing with DPW the timeframe for this project which will include a renovation of the field. More details to come in the weeks ahead. • FY2023 Capital: o Kinneens Playground Replacement —The design for the new playground will be finalized this fall and the installation is anticipated to be completed in Spring 2023. o Lincoln Park Master Plan is anticipated to begin in early Summer. o Hard Court Resurfacing — Gallagher/Farias Courts ■ The next community meeting will be scheduled for sometime this summer. The design will be finalized this year and construction will take place in 2023. o Golf plans— holding off on the 2nd hole portion of this project until the drainage design is finalized o Center Recreation Restrooms & DPW building — discussions with DPF are underway and identifying the timeline for the procurement process will be finalized in the coming weeks. This project is tentatively scheduled to begin during the summer. Parks, Fields, & Playgrounds • Hard Court Surfaces: o Through a grant received from the Dana Home Foundation, windscreens have been purchased for the Clarke and Adams Courts in an attempt to enhance the experience for pickleball players at these locations. The windscreens are in the process of being installed at Clarke and they will be installed at Adams in mid- July once that order has been received. o The Department continues to participate in the USTA Executive Ambassador Program. This opportunity has provided the department to a variety of information and is celebrating June as Tennis Month! There are several resources that will be included in the upcoming considerations for the construction scheduled at the Center Recreation Courts. • Center Recreation Complex: o The new scoreboard at the Center #1 Baseball Field was installed recently. o There have been concerns expressed over the past few weeks about usage of the batting cage next to Center #4 (Fitzgerald Field). Staff are currently reviewing the operating procedures for comparable amenities around town and will meet with Lexington Little League (LLL) and United Cricket League (UCL) to discuss this issue. • Facilities, Permits & Memberships: o The summer field schedule has been finalized. o The field permit holder working group has started discussing what changes will be implemented for the fall season. More details on this in the months ahead. o The Irving H. Mabee Town Pool Complex opened for the summer on Saturday, June 4th and the first week of the season has gone well. o Due to limited availability of staff during the preseason, the Old Reservoir will open for the season on Saturday, June 25tH o The pool complex opened up on June 4th and operating on a daily basis. Since we are in the preseason the hours are limited during the week from 3:30-8:45pm with weekends being open from 10am-8:45pm. ■ Pool membership numbers are currently up to 978! o The Old Reservoir opening has been delayed to June 25th due to the current lifeguard shortage. The pool facility is the priority and has helped with keeping it open. • Lincoln Park: o Staff are working with a food truck (Beantown Weenies) about the possibility of being at Lincoln Park throughout the week. • Pine Meadows Golf Course o The course continues to see a high level of play during the week and weekends. Heat Index Policy is almost finalized. Just waiting to hear any feedback from the Health Department and members of the Sports Advisory Council before bringing it to the Recreation Committee for any questions and approval to implement. Therapeutic Recreation o 52 unique participants are scheduled to receive inclusion services for summer programs o Collaborating with Burlington Recreation and Billerica Recreation to host an inclusion training for direct service staff and leadership staff June Stn o Second session of inclYOUsion sports soccer began 6/4 ■ 17 unique participants Recreation Division Programming: • The summer 3 -on -3 basketball league will begin this week. There are 100 participants in this program. o The program was expanded due to high demand for the boys league. There were not enough girls to run a league, but some of the girls will be participating with the boys! The spring NFL Flag Football League season will end on Sunday, June 19tH Summer camps and clinics, tennis programs, and swim lessons will begin on Monday, June 27th Operations: Community Center Division Programming: • The May USCF Chess tournament went well with 25 participants. A June tournament will be taking place with the same or more participants. • All spring program finished their last session the week of June 6th, summer program are starting up in 2 weeks. • Don't forget to keep walking and log those steps at walkmachallenge.com Operations: • A new display has been installed in the Community Center display cases. "East Lexington Trees Tell Our History will be on display until August 151. Stop by and take the tour! Bike Parks have features and structures for recreation and the development of cycling skills • Bike parks vary in scope from small footprint dirt pump tracks built with volunteer labor to professionally built skills parks incorporating a variety of materials and features There are N 35 public and 23 private bike parks throughout New England The closest public bike parks are in Chelmsford, Allston and Acton - Arlington (Hills' Hill) and Medford (Carr Park) are in early stages of planning for a bike park • Bike Parks are fun! • Bike parks support the development of bike handling and balance skills in a progressive, safe environment • Biking is a sanctioned and growing sport deserving of dedicated recreational space • The rapidly growing New England Youth Cycling has over 750 racers and more than 28 teams • Skills -based cycling disciplines including BMX and Mountain Biking are Olympic sports and have professional race circuits • Skills development in a safe, progressive environment opens technical off-road riding to a broader audience • There has been a recent, large growth of private lift assisted bike parks - this drives interest in accessible and safe skills development • A public park on sanctioned recreation land will mitigate unsanctioned "rogue" trail building on conservation land • A centrally located bike park should encourage kids to ride their bikes to school • The bike parks on the next slides provide good examples of the range of funding, budgets and scopes for the construction of bike parks • Acton Pump Track —Acton, MA • Keene Bike Park — Keene, NH • Smith Field Pump Track — Allston, MA A common thread is that each of these parks is on public land and sanctioned or developed by the local government The Acton Pump Track is a dirt track built with a small budget and volunteer labor Project Lead: Nathan Kleinschmidt who organized for his Eagle Scout Project Budget: $5100 private funding via a Go Fund Me campaign Builder: Volunteers including a local Bobcat operator and members of the Gnargonauts youth mountain bike team Construction Date: April 2021 More Information: Acton Pump Track s a&-'- Keene Bike Parkllllf;� 0 s P Jnr 3 tJ2 1 k. iY -- �i�:...,,R y ��,s .i, Ali M■ 1' a All iLF "• s *� Y,�-- ' .tS .gam°. Fro The Smith Field Pump Track is an asphalt track built with a larger budget and an international company specializing in pump tracks and bike parks Project Lead: Catherine Baker -Eclipse, Boston Parks and Recreation Budget: $350,000 capital funding for design, site prep and pump track Builder: Velosolutions Construction Date: 2019 More Information: Smith Field Our working group developed and reviewed a list of 9 locations that have potential for a bike park None of these locations is classified as conservation land We down -selected these sites to focus on the 5 most promising locations and Will Conroy from Powderhorn Trails visited these 5 with Mike O'Connor on May 20 Most Potential Flight Yard/Kineen's Park Diamond School Old Reservoir Webb St./Laconia St. Municipal Land Harrington School Less Potential — Do not recommend further consideration Clarke School — inadequate grade and space Lincoln Park — any available space is spoken for or in use Baskin Park — poor drainage and location next to 128 Freemont Street open space/Pine Meadows Golf— no single good location PPWr --r" . a i € i Flight Yard at 61 ' Burlington St. and w„p � Kineen's Park ` Distance to Lexington High - School —1.8 miles Parking would be - " encouraged at Diamond CC School — 0.3 miles by bike _ �dt Owners of 61 Burlington 0 + J-� I.z St. are amenable to ss donating back portion of property with existing bike " r° AL - park to town to become extension of Kineen's Park w- IWO Final scope would includex aum track located p p within Kineen's Park all -a ' Diamond School green space Distance to Lexington High School —1.6 miles Parking at Diamond or Fiske Schools Dirt track would blend into mature tree canopy near Diamond School and would not interfere with current Across Lexington paths Z�/ice 70-zz \ V� N :M EASEME T N 7 .5. 910 70-z �O ZQ O!!, S 004 ,e �, za' 70-3058 Old Reservoir adjacent to Bridge School Distance to Lexington High School — 0.8 miles Parking at Marrett Road and at Bridge School Dirt track would blend into mature tree canopy parallel to fence and asphalt path 3: 33-125 1 W 42.438006,-71,246119 Municipal property off of Webb and Laconia Streets Distance to Lexington High School — 1.5 miles Parking is challenging but property is on the Across Lexington trail system and adjacent to Lower Vinebrook Multiple high-quality locations for dirt bike parks on this property iY Harrington School — open space behind school administrative buildings Distance to Lexington High School — 2.9 miles Ideal location would take advantage of trees on edge of open space This site is the least accessible for kids riding bikes to the park A MP OOA 0 MAPLE . i Socializing with Town of Lexington Staff • Met with heads of recreation, conservation and public works • Working to include bike park in next open space plan • June 13 presentation to recreation committee • June 14 meeting with Dr Hackett and facilities staff Bike Park working group • Current group of 11— working to expand • Will include youth and broad stakeholder representation • 75 responses to survey Develop plan with options for scope, evaluation metrics, potential sites, etc. • Considered 9 sites on municipal or recreation land • Down selected to 5 most promising of initial 9 • $1,200 approved by Friends of Lexington Bikeway for Powderhorn Trails to evaluate sites and create conceptual plan - • Powderhorn Trails met with Mike O'Connor on May 20 — we're waiting for Will Conroy's written assessment and plan • Use Powderhorn Trails conceptual plan to build support • Identify potential funding sources including grants Benchmark other projects throughout New England • Visit completed and in progress bike parks to learn more about the various development and operational models