00:00:00,880 S1: I will open the meeting. This is the Open Space and Recreation Committee meeting for July 7th. That is 6 p.m. plus. That's a virtual meeting. And, uh, present on the committee are Ernest Daschle, Tom Starr, Lou Randazzo, Günther Anger and anyone else from the committee. 00:00:26,600 S2: Is Bianca here? 00:00:28,280 S1: I don't believe she yet. She was the one that we, um. 00:00:36,079 S1: And so, um, let me then call on others that are on the line just to say, uh, who you are. And, uh, you're interested in the meeting this evening? I'll call on Joanne. 00:00:52,719 S2: Joanne, you're on mute. 00:00:55,600 S1: It could be Robert or Joanne. David Miller. Thank you David. 00:01:01,859 S3: Good evening everybody. David Miller I am a resident of the boulders. I'm interested in your discussion about Pingree Park. 00:01:09,579 S1: Very good. Okay. And Phil Fontaine. Hi. 00:01:13,299 S4: My name is Phil Fountain. I'm also interested in the Pingree Park in general and the future plans for that. 00:01:20,700 S1: Okay. Very good. And Dan Beckman. 00:01:24,859 S5: Yes. Dan Beckman, 205 Main Street. I'm going to butter to Pingree Park and interested in that discussion. 00:01:30,459 S1: Okay. Very good. Um, just a couple of orders of business to get us started. Um, we are going to do our meeting minutes first as we kind of put some of those off, but I think we can move through that very quickly. Uh, and then we'll go over the, um, Higginson Park recommendations and signage and then talk in terms of the Pingree Park tennis court area. Uh, we will have a hard stop at 630 because there is a select board meeting, and I understand that also representatives of the boulders have requested to speak at that. So Kate and I wanted to go down to that call our meeting as well. So, um, and we have a new member of the committee. Um, and first, I'd like to just acknowledge that Mary Beth Tang has decided no longer to continue on the Open Space and Recreation Committee. So thank we thank her for her, um, many years of service and input that she's had. She has been especially helpful. So, um, Kate, would you just review who our new member will, uh, is. And she was going to pick up her kids at 530 and hopefully make the meeting by six, so we expect her to join shortly. 00:02:50,189 S2: Yes. Our new member is Bianca Hansen. We welcome her and we're glad to have her on the team. 00:02:56,870 S1: Okay. Uh, again, thanks, everybody for joining. Um, let's go ahead. Kate, if you need to put up the, uh, minutes and again, uh, I have been, uh, reviewing those and Kate said she's included many of my edits. So I think in some of the respects some of these are ready. So let's go through them one at a time. 00:03:16,569 S2: Yes. The first one is for November 5th. 00:03:22,330 S1: And when members of the committee feel they have had adequate time, you may make a motion. 00:03:49,129 S1: Skip on down to where we have an additional business. There you go. Thank you. 00:04:21,949 S1: All right. Do we have a motion to approve these minutes? 00:04:31,350 S1: Yeah, this is quite some time ago, so I think we need to get them posted. Yeah. 00:04:38,029 S1: Tom, do you. Would you make a motion, Tom? We have Tom Skinner's not on yet. Not yet. Yeah. Okay. Tom Starr, can you make a motion? 00:04:46,029 S6: I make a motion to approve the minutes. 00:04:49,389 S1: Okay. Seconded. Thank you. Gunther. And I'll go first. Ashley says I approve. Gunther. 00:04:58,329 S7: Lou says I. Gunther says I and Tom. 00:05:05,730 S1: Okay. Very good. Uh, let's take a look at the meeting minutes for February 4th. 00:05:13,209 S1: And again, we can go down, so that's good. Thank you. 00:05:50,850 S1: Going down. Thank you. 00:06:08,579 S1: Then I'll go in reverse order this time. Do we have a motion to approve these minutes? Gunther? 00:06:16,339 S7: Yes, I approve. 00:06:19,740 S7: Two seconds. 00:06:21,740 S1: Very good. Uh, let's go with Tom first. 00:06:25,660 S6: Yes, approve. 00:06:27,339 S1: Okay. Lou. 00:06:30,379 S7: Yes. 00:06:31,459 S1: And. Gunther. 00:06:35,459 S1: Okay. So. And Ernest says hi. Those meetings are approved. Last one. This will be, uh, March 4th. 00:07:00,839 S1: So if in the future these are posted and we have our, uh, meeting announcements and give you an opportunity to rip through them. But I think our secretary was Mary Beth. So, yeah, she's no longer in the group, so we'll need to address that in our future meeting. 00:07:26,839 S1: When others are ready. 00:07:42,879 S1: Lou, would you make the motion? 00:07:45,439 S7: Lou makes a motion to accept those minutes. Gunther approves. 00:07:52,240 S1: Gunther seconds, and Tom approve. Okay. Gunther and Lou and Ernest approved. So let's go ahead. Proceed. Thanks, everyone, for your patience. Those have been backed up. And as you can see with the last meeting in March, we've had a few meetings now that we did not have a quorum. So in that respect, um, you know, we need to continue to keep things moving along. Uh, in the meantime, I did make a presentation to the select board, uh, at a previous meeting of theirs, uh, where we reviewed, uh, some of the signage recommendations. Um, and a question about whether we were calling things West Wenham Park or Higginson Park and with some input from the select board. I think the recommendation is to go with Higginson Park, uh, as it is consistent with the names of the facilities similar to Reynolds Farms and Pingree Park, as you see. And then the one comment that we received from the Select board was that they preferred the signs that had the green circle inside the blue circle. So it would be a similar image as the Higginson Park that you see on the lower line, but with the green circle inside the blue around the tree. So I guess what we would need to do is move forward with a motion to. 00:09:26,320 S2: We don't even need to motion. 00:09:27,399 S1: The motion. It's just basically comments and questions from the committee members. And, Tom, I think there was also a question of size being at 13 versus 15in. 00:09:38,919 S2: Yeah, I was thinking, Tom, maybe, maybe we could do one more printout together before we actually do it. 00:09:44,759 S6: That sounds like a good idea. 00:09:45,960 S2: Do a 1512, and then we can go to the park and check it out. Right. Um, and then the other thing that we mentioned was we don't want to lose the name West Wenham Park because people associate the park with that as well as Higginson. So Tom in earnest had the idea of putting West Wenham Playground in the signage. So either way, both names are represented. 00:10:11,899 S6: So it seemed like a good little detail. Yeah. 00:10:17,340 S1: I'm sorry. The Higginson Park would be the symbol sign, but you would say it's something like West Wenham Playground at Higginson Park. Yeah. And that could be somehow contained on the kiosk. It wouldn't be within the same disc, would it? Yeah, it would be. 00:10:36,139 S6: We're showing it here in the same disc, but it doesn't have to be that way. But we already have the word Wenham in the disc, so we kind of worked around that. If you look carefully and it's a little small on the screen, but it. 00:11:01,549 S2: I see it's a clever way that Tom came up with to include everything instead of this is what it would look like without that. So just added. 00:11:12,149 S1: Very good. 00:11:12,870 S2: Yeah. 00:11:14,549 S6: Good. Yeah. So the other signs would just say when I'm in the same size, and we just had those two lines of type to this to the Higgins and then super. 00:11:25,549 S1: Okay. I think that is good. We've got some input from the committee, input from the select board. And I think we have a plan to move forward. 00:11:34,909 S7: Yep. 00:11:35,909 S1: We have also received um, some suggestions for uh, other amenities at the Higginson Park. They, uh, we had a Lori McMahon. Lori McMahon who had suggested quite a few things that would almost be along the lines of Friends of Higginson Park and the West Women Playground. Things along the lines of the porta potty, which she was able to fundraise and placed at the facility so that a great addition, and that has now been something that can be budgeted into a future year so that fundraising wouldn't be necessary. Other ideas included things like a rack for locking up bicycles, and also then swing sets and other amenities, trash and other things. I think we're going to table this discussion for when Laurie can attend, and provide us with some more information about her ideas. I will say that some of this can be funded through our landscaping type. Um, and maintenance budget that we do put in there, but other items are not. It's more kind of a matter of which bucket the money would be coming from, and we may actually have to go and ask for an override of some nature for the small amounts that things. But some of these things I think the committee would be in favor of, and some of the things like maybe even the swing set, we may have not included on purpose. So we'll have more discussion in our next meeting when Lori can attend. And we can look at those a little bit deeper. So I know that several people on this call are interested in the discussion for the Pingree Park tennis court. I will say that in a previous, uh, select board meeting, um, I did present some of the concepts that we, um, had discussed in the past that included tennis courts, pickleball, skateboard park Skate park. Of other things. And related that because we had not had a quorum and several meetings recently that we were a little bit behind on, perhaps the charge that the um, Select board had given to the committee to go ahead and look into what would be a feasible use for this facility. Um, and also in the meantime, we have received several communications, uh, some from the boulders from Robert French, hella, I believe, as well as copies of the letters that Mike Lucey had sent to the Select board and the Open Space and Recreation Committee. Um, also, we've received interest from one of the people, I mean, some of the people on the phone. Um, and then, uh, was it Dennis? Um, uh, current, um, uh, regarding tennis court, use and other things. So, um, what I related to the select board when we talked before was that we felt as a committee, we needed to get good community input and maybe even broaden the number of ideas for what we would put forward. And we had talked about having some type of an event which now that at summer, we probably need to schedule for first of fall and that event, we would want to advertise such that we'd have notified all of the neighbors and advertise it enough into the community that we'd be able to get a pretty broad level of input for that. So, uh, with that said, that's kind of my update. I'd like to invite whomever would like to speak, uh, just to give us some input from those that are present on this call. And as I say, uh, Kate and I are going to go down at like 630 plus to be part of this next select board meeting. So I know Dan, you are aiming neighbor, if you have some, um, uh, thing you'd like to say to the committee, and then I'll kind of go around the, uh, screen from what I see for attendance. 00:16:06,600 S5: Yeah, I guess I would just note, um, you know, I'd be very supportive of kind of redoing the tennis courts as tennis courts. Um, I think it's a great it's a great purpose. Um, um, and then I did note, uh, in the minutes you were reviewing, there was, um, some mention I gave about the property line. Um, and it's not quite intuitive based on the layout of the courts. Um, I've become a little more familiar with the zoning rules as a result of a recent shed that I installed, that I had to be very mindful of the setback requirements from the property line. And I would observe that the tennis courts, uh, if they were to be built today, um, you know, are within the setback area. They're not sort of 15ft away from the property line as I think would be required. So, um, you know, existing use is fine, but if you were to do something more, um, intensive or alter the use, uh, I think I just want to be very alert to the setback requirements to make sure that those are, um, respected. And, um, I'd also note that, you know, the property line between my property and the park has not always been fully respected, um, as evidenced by the playground, uh, encroaching onto my land a couple of feet. So, um, I'm happy to share some pictures with the committee, if that would be helpful. Uh, to, to understand, um, you know, the property line and how close the tennis courts are, and you know, where the where the surveyors steak ended up inside the, uh, the playground, uh, fence. Uh, just, you know, the playground is not an issue. The tennis courts are not an issue. But if you try to turn it into something else. I would certainly want to make sure we have proper setbacks. 00:17:49,910 S1: And Dan, just so I understand, the tennis courts as they're currently constructed, are within a 15 foot setback from where your revised property line, because I understand that property extended at one point in there and some of it was gifted to the town. 00:18:07,269 S5: Yeah, I mean, all of the tennis courts sit on the land that was gifted to the town from a prior owner of 205 Main Street. Right. So that was 1976, I think Desiree Goldsmith gave that gave the back acre of the property. And then, um, yeah, that the courts would be closer than 15ft to that property line. Um, which I think is the, the, the normal setback. Um, you know, based on the current zoning rules, I don't I'm not saying that they're that it's that it's a problem today. But if you were to change the use, I just want to, you know, make sure that we're doing a fresh survey and setting them back appropriately. 00:18:49,210 S1: Very good. Thanks very much, Dan. Uh, Phil, uh, I just wanted to go around and let others speak. Uh, you had joined the meeting. Do you have anything to, uh, bring to the committee's attention? 00:19:01,250 S4: Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for the time. I've been working closely with Matt Smith, who's also on the call, but I think he's. 00:19:06,250 S2: Phil, I'm sorry to interrupt you. Can you just state your name and address, please? 00:19:09,690 S4: Oh, sure. Phil fountain to Whipple road. I'm. I'm actually in Hamilton, but I've been working with, um, Matt Smith, who's one of them. Resident, um, who is picking up his kids. He's on the call, so I'm speaking for him at the moment. Um, I wanted to we wanted to throw out an alternative idea for the courts, uh, being a a caged in, um, uh, soccer or football field. They have a lot of these in Europe. It's they're pretty popular over there. They're everywhere. Um, offered by, you know, local municipalities and clubs also in South America. Um, you could also mix this up, right? You could have a tennis court, you could have one of these in a basketball court. And we have we're working on some concepts to share. Um, they're a bit more put together than some of the, you know, snippets from the web, but, um, I think it'd be, uh, a really cool place for kids to, you know, go play some soccer, play some football. It's dedicated. There's there's there's goals, it's safe, you know, enclose. You could also create some sort of, uh, environment where you could have birthday parties, things like that. Um, so just throwing that out there. 00:20:29,670 S1: Okay. Um, thank you very much, Phil, for joining. Um, you mentioned you were working with Matt. I see I have Matt Smith on the call. Matt, are you there and able to go off mute? 00:20:47,210 S1: Didn't see someone. All right. No. If Matt's not able to get off mute. Can you hear me? Please go ahead. 00:20:54,049 S8: Please. Oh, hi. Thanks. 00:20:55,289 S2: Your address. Matt? 00:20:56,650 S8: Yep. Uh, 35 Lazzaro Weiner. 00:20:59,730 S2: Thank you. 00:21:00,930 S8: Yeah. And just, um, thanks for all the work you guys do. And thanks for the opportunity to speak at this meeting. I really appreciate it. Um, so as I follow the discussion, I know there's a lot of considerations in place. Uh, noise, property lines, things like that. But I guess my biggest hope for this project would be that we wouldn't just replace one recreational activity with another. So tennis for racquetball or just redo tennis, that we really introduce a concept of one recreation or, um, a sports commons, a place where kids can go. Uh, teens, families, residents of all ages can go and do different types of activities. Um, it's a nice space. I think it was. It's 120 by 240ft. If I'm right, um, I did put together a conceptual layout. I emailed that over. Um, again, not a final plan. Um, the measurements are not precise, but it's more of just an idea visual of what could be. Um, like Phil said, one feature I'm especially excited about is enclosed mini soccer. Um, it's becoming a big thing around the world. Um, FIFA has built a lot of these, uh, enclosed mini pitches in host nations. Um, so actually in Boston, they're building a bunch of them right now. Um, it would be great for Wenham to hop on board. Something like that. Um, but basically it's it creates a safe, high energy space, uh, where the ball stays in play. Kids are constantly engaged. Um, and pickup games happen, and I see that as a real detriment, um, to kids this age. I mean, there isn't as many pickup games. Everything's organized. So how great would it be to create a space where kids can just naturally ride their bikes, um, and go and just do pickup games? Um, more than anything, you know, I hope we can create a place where, um, you know, family, friends, kids can play without needing to be organized. And I'm hopeful, you know, we can develop a plan that serves the wider community. Um, and. Yeah. So what's what's shown? There is just a concept. Again, not not a final idea, but just a visual of what could be. 00:23:24,200 S1: Okay. Thank you very much, Matt. Um, I want to give, uh, David an opportunity because he's one of the residents close by. David. 00:23:36,440 S3: Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. Thanks for what you're doing. Um. 00:23:40,779 S2: David, just state your address, please. Sorry. 00:23:43,500 S3: Oh, sorry. 12 Wallace Drive and Wynnum. 00:23:47,140 S1: Thank you. 00:23:47,539 S3: Um, we may not be as close as Dan to the Penrith Park, but we're within 100ft of the tennis courts. And, um, I won't make many comments. I would just say we, of course, submitted a letter to the select board, which will be discussed in a few minutes and copied you guys on that same letter as well. That letter spoke to our opposition to the idea of pickleball, or a skate park sited in this area, and our willingness to participate in conversations as to what would work. Um, so I'll leave it at that. But, um, and look forward to my colleagues discussing, uh, in further detail in just a few minutes of the Select board meeting. 00:24:27,660 S1: All right. Very good. Well thank you. I think what's what's interesting is, you know, some of these are new ideas that were not discussed with the select board before and certainly, you know, all of these have some various levels of interest and impact. So I think, um, we're in a process. Uh, and I think it's frustrating that it doesn't move fast, or maybe that sometimes it, it moves fast enough. But, um, I think I will be working with Kate and through the town administrator to, you know, identify a process where we feel like people have been heard. Uh, and that we solicit, uh, good ideas and get enough community input that give us some confidence that we're moving in a direction that would be supported by the town. Because I think when we talk any of this, we're going to be talking money. And when we talk money, we're probably looking to the Community Preservation Act that we've all been contributing to on our tax dollars and see how we can get something done. But I think we all agree that what is there is somewhat of an embarrassment to the town in terms of the tennis courts that are present. Uh, I did, you know, I know that there's also been a lot of, um, input coming into the committee that we need to weigh seriously. So thanks, everybody, for giving us, uh, your input. And I think we need to move on to any other business not in reasonably anticipated by the chair. Uh, but anyone have anything else they would like to bring up to the committee? 00:26:13,009 S1: Then let us, as the committee discussed, next meetings. Uh, Kate, did you have a date as the second week of August possible? 00:26:21,289 S2: Um, I could do the 11th. 00:26:26,809 S1: Which is a Tuesday night. 00:26:28,210 S2: And you say? Yep, maybe do the 11th. 00:26:33,809 S2: And I can do anytime, Ron. 00:26:36,130 S1: Uh, Tom. 00:26:38,029 S6: I think I can do that. 00:26:40,509 S1: It seems okay. Second meeting. 00:26:43,190 S7: August. August 11th. Sounds good to me. 00:26:46,269 S2: Great. 00:26:47,829 S1: All right. Good. And we'll put it on our calendars and we'll be. 00:26:51,509 S2: We want to do 6 p.m.. Is that good for everybody? Yeah. Okay. 00:26:54,710 S1: And let's press for. We'll press for a quorum so that we can get some business, because I think we'll be looking towards planning a community event. 00:27:03,950 S7: Right. 00:27:07,190 S1: Anything else? 00:27:11,150 S1: Well, then we have a motion to close. The meeting. 00:27:16,470 S7: Room. Makes a motion to close the meeting. 00:27:18,670 S6: Second. 00:27:19,710 S7: Second. Third. 00:27:21,509 S1: Ernest. There's fourth. And did we have Bianca by chance? No. Didn't they? 00:27:26,750 S2: Didn't mention I will email. 00:27:27,789 S1: Okay. So we'll meet our new member in our next meeting. Thank you, everyone, for helping us. Thank you. In a concise manner.