HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - OS - 11/13/2018 Open Space & Recreation Committee
Meeting Minutes of November 13, 2018
6:33 - Call to order
Members Present - Peter Pescatore, Chuck Peterson, Deirdre Riley, Dustyn Mascia, Eric
Eisenhauer, Jeff Hartwell, Tom Callahan.
Motion to approve the Minutes of 10/30/18 meeting made by Chuck, 2nd by Tom.
Approved 4-0 with 3 abstentions.
Grant sub-committee, no activity to report.
Bylaw Sub-committee, brief discussion about the scope for the committee to review the
zoning and town bylaws to assess compatibility with the OSRP goals and seek to amend as
needed.
Harbor Planning Committee liaison, Chuck will act as liaison to the committee to work to
achieve OSRP harbor related action items.
250th Celebration Committee - Peter asked for a member to be liaison to the committee
but had no volunteers.
Tom made the point that the first action item for the goal to "Make protection of open
space and the character of the town a priority", develop and maintain a list of open space
and upload this as a GIS Layer, was the foundation for most of the committee's work. After
discussion Eric identified the known sources for the information being the Assessor's
Office, Jeff Somers, the Conservation Agent and the CCT. There may be overlap and
different formats from these groups that will need to be sorted out to arrive at a file that
could be uploaded to the GIS System. Peter thought that Katie was already researching
some of this and we would discuss at the next meeting.
Eric reported that the Toll Brothers Development was preparing to transfer left over
unusable tracts of their development to the town under the control of the Conservation
Committee. Eric noted that the parcels should be inspected before transfer to the town.
The committee agreed that it should make a report of its progress toward achieving the
OSRP Action Items at the Annual Town Meeting in the Spring.
The committee began a discussion of how it should prioritize the plan's action items by
acknowledging that we had already created 2 sub-committee's to work on the long range
goals of updating bylaws and identifying grant money to support the action items as long
term ongoing efforts.
Open Space & Recreation Committee
Meeting Minutes of November 13, 2018
After a lengthy discussion it was agreed that the committee should focus on 3 action items
that were achievable by the late Spring to support the report to the Annual Town Meeting.
Handicap accessible use at public parks was discussed as a priority and the committee
decided that we should do some research as to the legal requirements and the funding
required to update. Peter will discuss how to coordinate ongoing efforts with the Town
Manager and report back at the next meeting.
Deirdre will research available ADA grants for access. CPC funds are a possibility.
The three OSRP Action Items chosen for current projects are:
Under Objective 2- Protect the Natural Environment
Support the development of an organic lawn/turf management plan for all town owned
properties and encourage the banning of toxic herbicide use in environmentally sensitive
areas.
Raise awareness of Earth Day, April 22, by coordinating a town wide program in 2019
Under Objective 3 - Improve Recreational Opportunities
Create digital files of Wheelwright and Great Brewster Parks walking trails, name the
trails, mark the trails and upload the files to the Committee's Town Website Page.
A motion to approve the selected action items to be worked on was made by Tom and
moved by Eric. The motion was approved 7-0.
The committee wants to have DPW representatives at the next meeting to discuss organic
turf management and toxic herbicide usage. Peter will coordinate.
Having no other business a motion to adjourn was made by Eric, Chuck 2nd. The motion
was approved 7-0
The meeting was adjourned at 7:23 PM
Respectfully submitted,
Peter Pescatore