The Fall River Park Board Commissioners held a regular meeting on December 1st, 2021, at 5:15 PM. The board began by accepting the minutes from their November 3rd, 2021 meeting. A significant portion of the meeting was dedicated to presenting certificates of appreciation to employees from the Cemetery, Tree, and Park Departments for their exceptional work during the October 27, 2021 storm, which caused over 90 downed trees city-wide. Chairman Joseph De Silva and Commissioner Jeffrey Solio specifically praised Mr. Pirano, Chris, and the DCM park staff for their collaborative efforts. Several new business items were discussed. A request from the Federal Little League for batting cages at Kennedy Park was deferred, with the board requesting a detailed diagram and concept for a future meeting. Concerns regarding the dog park on Locust Street/Quashnet Street were addressed, highlighting issues with human behavior, fence damage, and unauthorized furniture. The board decided to place these concerns on file while staff develop a punch list for improvements, including relocating benches from Columbus Park. A tree removal request at 248 Frost Street was referred to the city arborist for assessment, with immediate removal approved if deemed a safety hazard. The board also approved the city buying back a four-grave lot at Oak Grove Cemetery from the Demarco family for $2,500. Additionally, two Open Meeting Law complaints from Patrick Higgins were referred to the Corporation Council for review. The meeting concluded with Commissioner inquiries, an update on the status of new cemetery rates, and an announcement for the 37th annual Holiday Children's Parade at Kennedy Park on December 4th. Chairman De Silva extended holiday wishes to all attendees and citizens of Fall River before the meeting was unanimously adjourned.
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i call this regular meeting of the four river park board commissioners for december 1st 2021 at 5 15 pm at one government center council hearing room to order pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings more transmissions are being made whether perceived or
0:32unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible we'll call commissioners jeffrey solio helen rigo joseph de silva commissioner burns and commissioner nefarious and i here right yeah accepting some minutes from the november 3rd 2021 meeting motion to accept second commissioner regal made the motion to accept commissioner sylvia ii all in favor say aye aye citizen input was there in the citizen
1:25new business certificates of appreciation pop cemetery tree and dcm work is for the october storm at this time i know we uh made some uh couple about a month ago or something they believe commissioners that we voted on to do some certificates so our first certificates are going to be our uh workers that work for us if we all know uh in october mr piranha with the tree department and
1:54dcm park guys everything they all work throughout the night the next day i came by and seen ronnie and these guys at the parks and i we had a big uh treat fell down took out the power at the playground at kennedy also another one right at the top of kennedy i seen them work into that but they were out all night long they had over 90 trees down city wide and they worked collaboratively so i
2:18thought would be uh something nice to honor them of going above and beyond the call of duty good job so first i just want to echo your thoughts uh working as a dispatcher police department i called mr toronto and chris several times during that morning um to let them know where trees were down and blocking roads and and you know lines down and things like that and their response was unbelievable as
2:54you said mr chairman um we don't get storms off like that but when we do they rise to the occasion are you
3:10no matter when you go by if they're working they work very hard i think i'll pop back at work it's very hard they do they want to congratulate everyone military looks amazing right now so uh so on behalf of the four river park board we present the cemetery and tree department employees with sincere appreciation for your dedication to the department and to the citizens of the city of fall river during the october 27th
3:372021 storm dated december 1st given on this date 2021 signed by the chairman joseph de silva guys from the cemetery and true department go chris come on
4:00thank you very much thank you thank you very much very good thank you thank you thank you on behalf of the far river park board we present the park department employees with the sincere appreciation for the dedication to the department and to the citizens of fall river during the october 27 2021 storm giving this date to december 1st 2021 signed by the commissioner joseph chairman
4:51thank you thank you and i know mr perry's not here and some of his guys from dcm i will be presenting this to them uh in the future at their location thank you thank you gentlemen all right item b request from the federal little league installation of batting cages at kennedy park middle street
5:33just your name good evening john botello 86 woodland street president from federal little league um they had some cages that was going to be donated to the league 70 feet long 15 feet wide and 12 feet high our plans are to put the cages there and then have it fenced in afterwards something like maplewood has um i think us taking care of our park the way we do we'll speak for itself the way
6:02we take care of this um nothing is is given to us yet this is plans that you know i go in front of you guys for permission for everything we do and that's what i'm here to seek tonight um if you need me to come in front of you guys with further plans i can do that with something drawn up where it looks a little better than what i'm just
6:21telling you right now i can do that also maybe the january meeting do you know who's going to be installing um it'll be the league that's going to put him in as far as the fencing we will have that done professionally unprofessionally right so yeah i would definitely want to see like some kind of diagram and everything i'm not sure about the other commissioners like diagram whereabouts
6:41and everything that uh about in the area that you want to use it's going to be attached to our little league field on the we'll make sure that we have ronnie nancy and uh mr perry there right to make sure we look at the area over there okay all right all right um while i'm here too i got one question most of the dimensions 15 by you know what the height 12 feet high jeff
7:05probably be higher after this fencing around it are you awesome um but before mr perry took over um i came in front of this board it was ken pachico who was the dcm director and um our league was he told all leagues not just mine um that we would have one more round of them coming to the park to re re-point our lights and any bulbs that were out would be replaced this now
7:43i mean if we use the lights now it's it becomes a hazard to the kids i mean you can't track a fly ball in the outfield anymore we do have leagues that come down and play and they enjoy playing under the lights you know i mean i'm not here to throw anybody under the bar so i get anybody in trouble you know it's just something that you know i want to bring up tonight
8:04all right we'll see what we can do uh take another advisement uh commission is only commissioners have any concerns or questions so you do you don't want the lights on when you play that's what we want we want to use the lights but the way that they are now not pointing in the right directions they're not really safe for us so you're asking for the help to point them in the right direction right
8:34but i guess he was saying we're going to have to talk to mr pyre yeah to see what's going on because we had made that rule i guess when mr uh pacheco was here that once the ameresco wouldn't be done again and i guess it was done at another park recently so they're asking so we have to take it under advisement uh commissioner so if you have anything no okay
9:00all right all right thank you so you just saw if you want to get that stuff right yeah we have something going on on paper yeah from january okay thank you thank you all right item c letters of concerns for the dog park locust since quick ashant street i put this on i had uh nancy put this on the agenda because we've been getting a lot of different concerns uh complaints i know
9:32commissioner sylvia with his other job had some calls from being a dispatcher with concerns of uh somebody there that sent a letter in her citizen input last time i've been by there a few times i know i had mr costa go by and uh remove uh items that do not belong to the park department that someone put uh plastic lawn furniture there for them to sit in the dog park and and
9:58some of them were jagged and broken pieces and that which are not there that's a lawsuit waiting to happen uh i know uh i talked to mr perry and that in the future what we're gonna end up doing is uh the benches that are getting replaced at columbus park i had talked to uh mr perry about it the good ones that are in good shape from columbus are going to get relocated up to the dog park
10:25so they can have better see more seating there uh once uh the work starts at columbus with the new uh refurbished uh new installation of our benches that uh community development's bringing forth but there's uh i know some of the concerns uh that um we have had is uh the way people's behavior with their dogs other people are complaining that uh it's outsiders or is it people that are local that are complaining their
10:59cigarette butts all over the place and there's a lot of concerns you guys all have your packets and everything uh i know there's a the middle section that divides the fence is all lifting up so i talked to mr perry about seeing if we either we could put some wood or he was talking about maybe putting uh a cable wire that it doesn't lift up but i think we're gonna have to check
11:20out that fence because that fence is already bent up i think you have to put that wire is once the fence is installed when it's straight once it's bent like that i don't think you can do anything with it so that way it divides the player on but i told mr smith too is maybe uh check to see if the signs and rules and regulations of proper you can't blame the dogs you have to blame
11:42the people that the dog owners and that that need to pick up after themselves pick up their cigarette butts watch their dogs attacking someone else's dog or a friendly dog and that you know it's called being responsible so that's the only concerns i had i don't know what you guys want to do if we just want to put a punch list together and see what they can do up there but
12:10that set defense needs more than a cable okay that cent defense needs like um like you would have at the bottom of kennedy park where the kids sled where the bench is the two by ten because when what happens even with that cable the dogs want to dig under it and when they want to dig under it they want one side to the other and people are putting stones there pieces of wood they put
12:36everything there yeah i personally think that you're going to need to put a strip replace that fence put a strip of concrete because the dogs are not going to want to run on that concrete they're running dog to dog big dog to little dog so you're gonna have to tear that fence out you're gonna have to put a strip of at least maybe two foot of concrete where the dogs are not gonna
12:58run and then that fence will not curl because they're digging under the fence and they won't dig there and you'll be able to maintain that straight line what i can do is i can speak with john we can put together a punch list that's going to probably cost you know a decent amount of money but maybe we can get it through cda i think that that neighborhood is income eligible so
13:21that's a work in progress like we said this is letting the board know that these are the situations we have the dogs are not smoking and the dogs are not bringing chairs that's the human yes and there's not much we're going to be able to do about that because i'm sure the police depart they tell us that they call the police department so i'm sure the police department is being notified for that we can't
13:44you know we're not going to be able to go there and maintain disputes so to speak but what we have to do is recycle those benches from columbus that's going to work and i think maybe pricing out that center-stripping offense we also have a lot of times problems with the gates because they don't want to separate their dog they keep that gate open they force it open with something else and hold the locks open so
14:11i think we're going to have to just revisit that entire park at one point but the board has that information with them i can sit with john um and see what we can um come up with with our improvements and i know there was one new letter that came in uh if you guys would see there's a resident from the bali street area that i guess to stay away from everybody
14:33she goes down to the lower part that's not considered dog park and wanted to see if we could put a bench in there i wouldn't recommend that it's not fenced in properly it's wide open dogs can run over the street and that not only that you start doing improvements down there what's going to take that she's not going to have that peace and quantility just by herself now the rest
14:54of them are going to come down there we're not just going to keep adding dog park more space than the dog park i think there's more than efficient it's just people who need to be held accountable and be responsible with their vets i mean like everything else it comes down to money and you know maintenance and manpower and materials and um as far as complaints to the police department the complaints were about the
15:20dog park condition the comp the complaint was the party was threatened by another person um a person was from another city that was threatened um and you know again like like you said the problem is the people not the dogs you know people threatening each other and because one dog wants to play with the other one and one's big one small you know it's not a thing that this sport
15:57i don't want to say should be concerned with but you know we should be concerned with our parks whether they're dog parks or or people parks but you know the condition of them dogs dig holes things happen right but they they're leaving the holes that what they should do is when their dog is done digging the hole take their foot and fill the hole oh i just i agree so then that
16:21person sees that and it leads to the broken window syndrome this one didn't fill their hole this one didn't fill their hole so it's unfortunate that we were even having this kind of discussion because it was put there to be something good and unfortunately we're having a lot of concerns but i think again people don't do what they're supposed to do people let their dogs run in other parks in baseball fields
16:47where it's posted that this is not a dog park it's a baseball field kids play on it and they don't pick up after the dog so it obviously it's not a dog problem um but you know i agreed you know some maintenance maybe some uh some funds where they're gonna come from i think this board along with mr perry and ms smith should you know have to try and figure this out
17:15like i said going back to exactly what you said i remember when the dog pot was put in it was mostly put in to do that dogs are not allowed in the city parks it's posted everywhere especially not allowed in the cemetery i worked at the cemetery and i remember this in mcniel they're facing graves and people are just walking and letting them i said how many times i had to go home to change clothes
17:40from cutting were you whacking her anything it's not allowed but like i said it's not the dog's fault it's the owner of the dog be responsible again it's a public park and you know it's for the public to use but the original complaint was from a party that doesn't pay tax in the city doesn't even live in the city i don't know if new bedford has a dog park or not for whatever reason she came forward
18:09with her dog it's not it's just not far it's not just new bedford there's been you know i've heard it on uh local radio former select people from town next next uh right across the river telling their residents to come over to our dog park because they don't want to put a dog back in well we're not going to be responsible for everybody else that's unfortunate so do we want to just place the
18:37information yes place it on file and see what you guys can work in a place on file okay uh commissioner sylvia made the motion to place on file second second by commissioner rego all in favor say aye hi thank you can i ask a question did we take any motion on uh the batting cages for him to resubmit oh i'm sorry let's go back to that thank you item c can i have a
19:01motion to place uh uh for uh item c to come back with uh a drawing and concept and everything vitamin b item b i'm sorry yeah i mean which is the batting cage yes the banana yes and he can address the other issue with mr perry but we just need to vote on that item b can i have a motion
19:34welcome commissioner harris thank you sorry i'm late that's okay all right um item d former national baseball league certificate of solicitation and commits correspondence uh i know you all received uh correspondence paperwork and then we received something earlier today i'm making them uh can i get a motion that we're just gonna place this on file for the time being uh and revisit this in the future we'll
20:05just put it on file put on file okay uh commissioner farias made the motion to place on file second by commissioner rigo all in favor say aye all right thank you enemy tree removal request for at 248 frost street lift and tree roots mr pirano so there is some uh scarring at the base of the tree where it rubs up against the uh the curbing that does indicate it's moved it has survived significant wind storms um
20:42if the board agrees i'd like to have our arborist take a look at this she wasn't able to make it before the meeting in between the time we got the request in this meeting but she's coming next next week so if we can get permission to remove based off of her assessment i think that's the best way to handle this request i have one question before anybody uh now i know i got the email and the
21:08complaint from the individual that lived here stay in uh instead had a video on it but we didn't see that video uh but uh if this is a live tree it seems that it's deemed that the obverse seems it's deemed that it's unsafe it has to be removed that are we replacing the string if we decide to take it down we have we have some grant funding available to do some street treat planting um
21:34and the street tree planting committee does have some available so we can work with a homeowner about replanting in front of their home as a condition of the removal i think typically we don't put any conditions on removals if it's deemed a safety hazard okay i just don't want to stop making it a president it's because i know last month me and we had somebody here that with the batteries and we're taking down
21:58live trees and we said we'll replace them with a better species of tree right that they can deal with i just don't want to start making a precedence that we're taking down live trees everywhere just because someone doesn't want a tree yeah and that's why i would like to have the uh arborist take a look at it i went and took a look at it um again there is some scarring on the the base of the
22:19tree near the um near the curbing but that was after that significant wind storm where we lost 100 trees and that would remain standing so i think we should get a professional arborist to take that's right any uh commissioners have any questions or concerns you can't move because they move the significance i don't know how significant i mean trays trees rather do sway in the wind that's how they don't fall down so
22:53the email stated that they had a video that it was completely if they're not like the whole ground in that though no exactly and like i said we don't see a video where i'm seeing a black and white photo
23:13i i make a motion that we await the obvious recommendations or do you want it to be based on the recommendation of the obverse they can be removed thinks it should be removed i believe christian comes in next meeting tells that you don't want it removed before the month i'm just saying if because that it would be necessary to do that yeah so i think that's how you should make just a motion that if the others
23:47seems dangerous that it should be removed immediately comes back we we do it immediately if not then you know mr pomona can be brought back to this board at the next meeting yes have a second second this made the motion commissioner rito seconded it all in favor say aye aye item f request for the city to buy back a grave site lot on red cedar ave oak grove cemetery prospect street yes
24:28so um the demarco family is asking to sell back their grave to us it's a four grave lot they purchased in 2008 uh 2009 rather for the total of 2 500 um they're relocating out of state and no longer have a need for the grave similar situation to the last one we did we would refund what they've purchased what they paid and then resell at our current rates
25:13one question commission i'm sorry uh the the cost to buy it back with that money available in your budget uh the last grade we we purchased back we took from the sale of lot and fund so it doesn't impact our operation budget um and then when we go to sell the lot again that money would be replenished through the new sale okay i have no problem with that commissioner evil made the motion for
25:41mission affairs second it all in favor say hi thank you okay item g open meet and law complaint from patrick higgins dated on november 3rd 2021 uh not listing enough specific specific excuse me specific yes specifically thank you tony on the posted agenda item uh you have a motion to place on uh to center corporation council make a motion please the senate corporation council senate all right second
26:21commissioner faris made the motion sent to corporation second by commissioner eagle all in favor say aye aye aye item h open meeting law complaint from patrick higgins dated november 30th make a motion senator oh let me read the whole thing for us please november 30th board not addressing a previous open meeting law complaint dated november 3rd 2021 within the 14 business days deadline
26:48of november 22nd 2021. to have a motion to send the corporation household make a motion senator second by a motion made by commissioner faris the center corporation seconded by commissioner rigo all in favor say hi hi this guy don't even live in the city yeah we're not going to bring that up all right uh commission inquiries uh mr it's piranha bad i know uh recently our last meeting that
27:24we voted to uh send to uh the ordinance committee the uh new rates for the cemetery in the future i know i watched the open uh excuse me audience committee they were all in favor of it uh how did it do last night at that council meeting i didn't watch the council last year i know i'm not sure i know
27:58any other commissioner inquiries any other commission inquiries no okay so one thing i want to say is everybody don't forget this saturday it's kicking off at kennedy park one o'clock it's the 37th annual holiday children's parade uh put on by uh grateful real recreation i wish everybody out there have a good time and enjoy yourself since everybody's been cooped up for the last year and a half uh the other thing
28:33to the staff that's here and everybody in for commissioners in it i want to wish everyone a happy holiday safe holidays season with your families and that and also so this is citizens of florida happy holidays and happy new year to you to have a motion to adjourn most people second second uh commit excuse me commissioner made the motion to adjourn seconded by commissioner sylvia all in favor say aye