The Fall River Park Board held its regular meeting on Wednesday, February 2nd, 2022, at 5:15 PM. A significant portion of the meeting addressed the proposed renaming of Griffin Park, with citizen input from Mark Ciccaris, President of the Corky Row Club, advocating for the park to retain its name in honor of James T. Griffin, a World War II veteran. A letter from Chris Ann Tyrell echoed this sentiment, suggesting a memorial for Miguel Sanjorio within the park instead of a full renaming. The board decided to send a letter to the Planning Board, clarifying their previous motion for a memorial bench and not a park renaming.
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regular meeting of the former park board the park commissioners call this agenda order of business wednesday february 2nd 2022 at 5 15 pm at one government center council hearing rooms into water
0:35law pursuit into the open mind 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 or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible citizen input we have uh one person that signed up for
1:05citizen input and then we also had one correspondent that was sent then at 2 32 pm for the park board office and we have that we'll be right into the records it's 5 16. uh each person has three minutes first person is mock but i'm sorry that's what i have to do don't quali apologize roll call of commissioners jeffrey sylvia nick nefarious joseph de silva sorry about that also can i have uh
1:36attention to the flag for the pledge of allegiance pledge allegiance to the united states for which it stands
1:56thank you for that commissioner acceptance of the minutes from the january 5th 2022 meeting second commissioner uh farrius made the motion to accept commissioners uh regal seconded all in favor say aye aye aye citizen report first person on citizen input is mark charess jeff harris sorry 130 more street renaming of griffin pop please come up you have three minutes good evening and thank you uh my name is
2:38mark ciccaris i'm the president of the corki road club um in the corky room neighborhood of fall river um as far as the renaming of griffin park on the night if i have time i have just a clarification question but uh james t griffin air corp gunman um gave his life during world war ii fighting for our country from the corkiro neighborhood we hold a lot of functions there um it's an integral part of
3:07you know our community and um sort of our outdoor space as well you know we do feel the park should remain named as it is we don't feel that um mr griffin's service should go overlooked at the same time we understand and we are amicable to a dedication within the park whether it be some sort of tree memorial for the young man miguel sanjorio who passed away there tragically you know last spring
3:47but we we have no issues with the memorial um again a tree planting and i i'm not sure if they uh if the petition was to rename a basketball court obviously that's we have no issues with that but the renaming of the entire park we would like to see remain under um you know sergeant griffin's name and still have time so um yeah i just had a clarification if if it was to
4:10rename the whole park or if it was to just have a dedication um in there because it was just a little bit confusing i saw a couple of different um you know paperwork and so forth so i was just curious if this can we answer that again so on the november third meeting the proposal was to come for a basketball court we had said at that time that we believed that there was
4:34good the basketball court was uh a different option that it was proposal that there might be another person that had been named after so then they said we had gave them suggestions that we uh were in favor of doing a memorial bench with a little plaque absolutely in his name where a little where they made their little uh standstill memorial where he died or we could do a memorial tree right
4:58then they suggested about doing uh painting the fences orange and everything because of stop the gun violence and that but there was the motion that we said and then we said to work with the administration on the solution so our suggestion was the november third meeting that there'd be a memorial bench there that and i my specific uh thing was i know i opened up was the park was named after a world war ii
5:21veteran right okay well i appreciate that clarification i appreciate it thank you very much uh thank you uh we had a citizen input that was sent in at 2 32 pm today to the park board office ms smith i'm going to have mr smith read this into the record the letter reads dear park board commissioners unfortunately i am unable to attend the february second 2022 meeting but i am submitting below
5:53citizen input to be read into the record at the november third part board meeting the attached request was presented to rename griffin park to miguel san giorgio griffin park the board chair indicated that james grip james c griffin park was named after a veteran mr perry said the administration already has a request to need renamed the basketball court and or playground and perhaps they could put a
6:19bench or monument instead there were other options discussed that were not in the original request such as a monument a painting of griffin park fence orange and the park board motion to have the petitioners work with the administration to come to a solution the planning board has the renaming of griffin park to miguel san giorgio griffin park item on their agenda at the february 9th
6:43public hearing and the letters submitted to both the park and city council and planning board are attached there does not appear to be any changes to the proposals since the park board meeting where are the solutions the park board discussed since the original request was submitted to the board the petition has changed numerous times including an online petition that requests the name change to griffin
7:08cinderella park san giorgio park instead it has now come to my attention that the petition will be changed yet again back to the request that the playground name is changed this was rejected at the november 3rd meeting by the park board however none of these options are to be found on the planning board's agenda or the letter submitted by the petitioners the planning board should have a
7:30specific request on the agenda in writing for a public hearing to be transparent for this reason i request the park board take a roll call vote and send in writing exactly what their motion was and include the options discussed that they are in favor of prior to the february 9th meeting i welcome any discussion on the history of corky row and staff sergeant james t griffin's service when killed in action in world
7:56war ii the playground was originally named after him in 1945 at the end of world war ii sincerely chris ann tyrell uh fall river resident corkiro world war ii gold star family 153 martha street forward of a mass all right so citizen and putting all other sentences up hold citizen in for at 5 23 p.m new business item a notice of public hearing from the planning board a renaming of griffin park fort street
8:49so the board can go on record that they are submitting a letter yep uh as the chairman and the board i uh had unless uh smith uh draw up a letter and saw that we'll all be signing at the conclusion of this meeting that we'll be sending to the planning board for their meeting next wednesday tonight uh stating exactly how our votes were and what our discussions were of the november third meeting in our options
9:17was to put a memorial bench there not to rename that park any other questions from commissioners i'll make a motion to uh sponsor notice of the public during the acceptance on file i'll second that emotion commissioner silvia made that motion commissioner ferry a second all in favor say aye hi item bay approval of agreement with stock architect maplewood lighting project albert street
9:49babe ruth little league ball field baseball field
10:01so you guys are all aware this is uh the money the they were awarded to replace the white uh the baseball fair lights from the community convention uh preservation act right mr perry yes
10:25the game plan is if we award this this is going to try to get this done before the season this is required for us to get this project moving along and hopefully guess how everything comes across awesome it's a great project any commissioners have any questions concerns commissioner sylvia what was the total of the award from the ppa uh 34.99 yeah food chairs that's all i'm also
11:12i think if if there's something that we it's pertaining to that lighting issue that we need you can and the victim would be able to answer this example you'd have to go back to the cpa right
11:37yeah so the the money the funds that were allotted for the lighting project if any of them are not used that would need to be turned back if there's anything else to do with that project that would need to be done we'd have to go back to cpa and request that because it'd be a different scope of work in essence okay so that's how that would work it's not
11:57as though uh if it came down to 450 and there was some change left over that we could just take that money and address it to something else it needs to be specific to this particular project
12:29thank you any other questions or concerns permissions okay do i have a motion to accept this i make a motion to accept second okay commissioner ferris made a motion selected by commissioner sylvia all in favor say aye aye always have it item c approval of a medium sign on eastern avenue and before street for poor bishop joseph b of saint anthony's of the desert church it's on your packets guys latest is the sign
13:09what it looks like now and the sign they're proposing so the original sign is right there on a wooden l-shaped style sign a whole with the publisher they hang they're looking to put the new one is a granite they have that sign i think it looks nice professionally it's just a replacement yeah yeah something with that exists in there there's replacement and i think they'll uh i was speaking to um
14:04is
14:29holy ghost feast committee for the use of kennedy park for a 2022 great feast of the holy ghost to be held on august 24th through august 28th this is our annual event we know they didn't have it last year if you're covered so like this it's the same stuff they always ask um
15:04reservation day those that's that's the time we need to be able to get the park set up so yeah please reserve the production of kennedy park that is normally used for the fees from august 19th through august 31st correct okay so the fees just to put on record will be august 24th to the 28th and the setup from the 19th of august to the breakdown until august 31st put that on record i have a
15:32motion today i have a question to sylvia um i know this has been an annual event for many years and through the closed eyes it didn't take place my only question is um are they turning in to the clock office covered plan because right now we don't know where this is going um you know august is a long time away and i'm just concerned that we make baseball leagues last year turning
16:07corporate plans you know i believe anybody's using a product for this large-scale event should have some type of plan on file um not only to cover them but to also cover this board in the city so i would suggest i don't think it's unreasonable so i would suggest if that if that's the board's wishes then i would a motion to approve well with the requ a letter from the board being sent to
16:34the organization requesting a covered plan be put in place and and submitted to the board prior to the uh prior to the function work with the health department for all the protocols absolutely i mean i'm not i don't know where it's going none of us know where yeah i would just i would just say one thing um this event is in august so i would say you know in the letter i would say ask them to
16:56submit that plan by july um because the the protocols do change so if anything changes between now and august if they submit that that pro that covert plan now uh some of the criteria might change by that so as long as it's by august first um i think we'll get it my biggest concern is we all know how large this to gather that many people you know a woman you can find area
17:23and not have any plan um i mean i need a simple plan you're required to wear a mask if you're you know in the procession or some kind of example like that you know um and just put it on paper and submit it to us sorry i have no problem removing this and um again i just think that we should have some type of have them draw up some type of plan um
17:54to make this a safer event as possible because again we don't know where i know i don't don't know you know what's gonna happen tomorrow or any months from now and i think that's uh again not a unreasonable record so can i have any other questions for commissioners so could i have a motion to i will make that a fun little motion that we accept and grant permission and they need to turn in the corporate plan
18:23by july 31st uh to this board or to the office but i'd like to amend that motion to make sure that they contact the health department work with the healthcare and all safety protocols and then turn it into july to work with the city's health department on all programs so the health department you'll have to sign off if you want to add to the health department's location a covenant plan sign off
18:54we can add that to the health department section it's up to the board so i get that okay so second commissioner silva made that motion uh commissioner regional second all in favor say aye aye okay item e approval of the field permit requirement letter to be sent out to league's requests and fair permits
19:30so it's pretty much standard letter that we always send out it's just uh we're saying that we need all this back in asap to miss smith in the top office as i know some people are already submitting their losses on schedules and that we do not need that right now we need is just everything that we're asking for can the board make a motion that they submit it as a package rather than
19:54pieces i'll make a motion at this admit as a whole pack and turn it in as soon as possible the commission of actually any questions you can set an actual date deadline if you'd like much first qualified content commissioner sylvia it says you need losses um
20:34i lost a complete loss of me not by individual teams and i don't have a problem with them turning in you know we have 40 10 year olds um i don't think we need to know that that those 10 kids around the red sox these 10 kids are going to be on the yankees and that maybe if you want that put like team when they stop playing in april maybe they can you know do an actual
21:09team rocket division yeah exactly what your because it does stay on here they made questions listing names and addresses of all players and divisions clearly labeled so that would give their ages correct your division yeah i i i the reason why i bring that up because again as the chairman said this is kind of the standard that we've used for a long time and there seems to only be some kind of
21:43so let's clear it up right now before this goes out so nobody has an excuse you know when they have any 12 first pitch and they haven't met the requirements and they're not getting the permit so that's why i so you want to change it we can change the language no i don't want to change the language i just want to make it clear that you need a list of players in your league
22:05they don't have to be fought on individual teams at this time
22:23this all has to be done by watch for us okay so any other questions commissioners are you done commissioners no thank you mr radio do you have any questions okay so i have a motion to approve this letter and have a deadline of march first right i need some of the notions promotional commissioner paris seconded by commissioner ringo all in favor say hi hi i can't make motions guys jeffree right here all right
23:05item f presentation requests from the fabric arts festival a living wall and sculpture garden displayed at the kwikkeshan river trail i know we have some guests here so i'm going to have that come up yeah okay how are you just before they start i know uh this was coming uh myself and mr perry sat in on a zoo meeting with this organization and they gave us a little run down what
23:30they wanted to do so they wanted to come to a february meeting to tell us what their whole plan is and what they're going to do here okay hi good evening my name is patty rigo i reside at 25 ward street in fall river um i am here with greg peniston who is one of the lead artists well he is the lead artist on this project and i'm here to discuss two proposed projects that we
23:53have that would take place at the quicker shane river rail trail as part of fabric's fourth annual event scheduled for may 12th through the 14th i believe that you all received the packet that has some photographs so i don't i won't read verbatim but um basically what i'll do project one first um and we can answer any questions you have about that because they are slightly two different projects um we endeavored to
24:19establish what is called the living wall on the at the i-95 underpass between brooklyn park and rodman street entrances this would be in collaboration with a team of professional artists led by mr peniston who i introduced and we aim to create a living gallery of art that represents local graffiti artists the proposal follows successful models that exist in cambridge stoneham beverly and
24:43south kingston which we have some pictures below um so spaces like this allow established working artists and budding artists in the community to come and paint freely refining their craft while at the same time becoming stewards of these areas so while they you know it's kind of becomes like a code where this is this is now your work and you're this is part of your community they have their own
25:06community these artists and greg will speak to that a little bit more but um they will you know that will become their space and they will help to shepherd and make sure that the space is used wisely these previously neglected spaces turn into vibrant hubs for art making and collective expression and like i said earlier they become self-governing being washed over by the older generation of
25:27artists who frequent the locations and act as caretakers and i would like to thank those mentors as well to the other budding artists that are um that are coming and contributing to this continuous living wall um this and as i mentioned this project is one of two installations planned for the area would you prefer to ask questions about this one first okay is there anything that you'd like to add
25:49no i think that that's an accurate representation i'd like to just answer any questions that you all may have about it and hopefully move forward with it so i know guys this is the you know on the pass that goes from when you go on robin street going to 195 to the berlin park that's that area this wall has already been being tagged by anybody so what they're asking is their
26:12permission to do this living wall there and they will police it themselves because right now we would have to police it and have to keep cleaning it up and if they're going to do the work and do though i know when myself and mr perry had spoke with them uh it'd have to be uh what was that words uh experience that we'd have to come up with like it's got to be like appropriate appropriate
26:38message right appropriately themed probably a theme i mean the good thing is as part of the application that we put in with the department of transportation mass department of transportation they also have pretty stringent rules and guidelines about what can and cannot be represented and then we also plan on putting um you know not only spreading the word verbally but putting up a placard that
27:00kind of just describes in the respect that's required to make this a success all right any commissioners have any questions i'm glad you mentioned the state um is there certain so you may be able to answer certain commits or things they have to acquire from the state since that state property yeah state permission would actually absolutely need to be required and that'd be something that the fabric
27:31folks would would solicit the state for so it'd be their process to solicit the state for for permission to be able to do this project at that so not only would they have to follow whatever guidelines we put in place but the states as well so that would be the process that would be required wait yeah are you commissioner so uh so you would be going and putting up the designs here
27:55so yes the the way that it works is it's a pretty democratic process in in that we paint it for the festival uh both sides you know pretty much top to bottom after that groups of artists can use it for production pieces you know artwork that they would normally do in kingston or or somewhere else and it will recycle in that regard there's an event that usually takes place over labor day weekend that it
28:24would be uh used for also one at the end of august that my partner ross mariani would be heading up um so we have a number of artists that are involved in you know active or have expressed interest in actively using this space um painting it and keeping an eye on it so let me ask you a little
28:51they could um ideally we would not want that to happen um and if that did happen you know someone like myself or ross who is close by and checks on it frequently would make sure that that is either gone over or you know cleaned up as quick as possible we want the quality of work to be high enough that people enjoy looking at it without it just slipping into you know chaos
29:13just because some you know we have some kids yeah so i i mean if we look at what's there now existing uh you know there is a lot of inappropriate things there so now and and we have a group that's willing to police it themselves as we said um and and paint over something that may be inappropriate so um you know they made a commitment to do that i see no reason to
29:37think that they won't follow through with that uh so anything that we can do to change that uh area and and what what exists there now uh is a benefit for everybody and that and the echo mr perry's comments works with most of the street artists so they do have a perspective for him that like mr perry said the graffiti that's going up there now we can't control they can put whatever
30:02they'd like up there where we have to go there and take them out of that we're there he has that respect with them so they're probably going to more chances are they're going to listen to him and say don't they're not going to touch other people's artwork and everything so i think it's a win-win i think it's a good idea i probably should have mentioned that i do we were able to receive um letters of
30:27support from the flint neighborhood association and also from the mayor earlier today and i'm going to drop off copies with miss neighborhood smith too you know oh no when we had initially uh begun our process ross who's a member of the flint neighborhood we were initially looking at a larger tunnel that's a little bit further down so we had gone to the flint neighborhood association and spoke with them and they
30:56gave us support for that one you know hopefully in time we can just keep putting different artwork all the way down the path that's one success at a time for your permission though yeah we'd love to come and talk to you
31:21my calendar is pretty open right now um and then so the second project is um in addition to in addition to the living wall the team also proposes the installation of a sculpture garden which would be located just south of the same tunnel near the rodman street entrance to the quickest shan river rail trail this follows the successful and well received installation of the sculptural bench
31:43that's currently on the trail from the 2021 fabric edition um so working with lisbon based artist maria ana vashgru kosta the team proposes the installation of five tile covered sculptures and there's a rendering in gray below that are very site-specific artworks um and then i put you know we put a little something about who she is and i mean obviously we all know that portuguese tiles i mean that is
32:07extremely traditional but she certainly um renders her art in a completely new and fresh way which i think is wonderful to meld the old traditions and old ways of doing things with some new ideas the installation can invoke a small town and also function as small benches and tables for communal use so it really does take on the functional art functional art form the photo below is
32:32simply a representation of her work the sculptures proposed for fall river will be covered in blue and green monochromatic tiles on the shapes rendered here to kind of you know go along with the the nature um palette that's currently on the trail so it won't be um so brash where does the flint neighborhood stop on this where is this this rodman street here is that's ours that's that almond street entrance that
33:04belongs to niagara uh uh i'd have to look at the map to see whether it lay out over the years the neighborhood association areas have shifted from time to time as you well know um so i mean that that'd be something we could look at counselor um i mean i'm commissioner um but uh just curious uh is there any is there some feeling against the project oh just curious okay i can find
33:29that out for you yeah sure all right any questions from any commissioners about this proposal and i have a commissioner obviously what's there now graffiti-wise i believe the painting of the first project would hopefully put an end to that or limit it so obviously if you're going to be able to cure that problem organize projects i don't have a problem with the only problem i have with project number two is
34:09vandalism as we do in all our parks with the things that we put in obviously the police can't patrol everywhere and be you know guarding this so i i just want to understand um we don't have the funds to be repairing things like this on you know monthly or yearly basis um as long as your group understands that and willing to work with this board as far as depending on anything that may be vandalized um
34:44i don't have a problem with i i think it's you know something new something that those willing to try new things um i just don't think that uh you know it's unfortunate that we have to make groups aware or things like that nowadays um i know i totally understand i'm i'm actually really pleasantly surprised that how well that bench has fared and i mean i haven't been in a couple months
35:10of course but when last i went the only people who were vandalizing it were the birds but everybody else was fine and i'm really happy to see that and i sometimes i think you know i know people say well this is why we can't have nice things but sometimes the more nice things you have you know you start to realize you do deserve good things and let's take care of those things and the people who don't
35:29take care of them are the ones that get um you know changed and i think that was brought up uh part of the conversation in that meeting myself mr perry and uh mr bossier was part of that meeting as well yeah that was the thing was with the bench how long it would last uh and the same thing with these i think these are just made for the festival now they're not going to last forever
35:53as long as they yeah but they want to do this now and hopefully it lasts two years hopefully it lasts five years as an example i recall years ago that a citizen came in and wanted to put in a couple of blocks
36:24i want to tell people how to spend their money but as long as people are aware absolutely so i think um you know again something new something we've never tried before and as she said it could work out nobody could touch it yeah and it could last over years and get great use out of it and you know you gotta find something and you can also i'm sorry we also put
36:55in two million dollar play rounds and everything and they get vandalized within weeks so we'll turn it back to a little positivity here so um you know along those lines uh commissioner i i required if you remember with the bench that that be anchored in to some sort of concrete footing because my concern and unfortunately it is our job to think of these things could have been tipped over thrown into
37:17the river anything could have happened um so i required that and there hasn't been any vandalism to that bench um to be quite honest uh and miss smith can confirm this as far as the rail trail goes um outside of that one uh tunnel or the two tunnels there really hasn't been much vandalism i mean we do have trash and litter and and that's going to be anywhere um but outside of those two areas which we're
37:42trying to improve through this process that's really the only vandalism we see there so you know i i always think the worst on the back end because it will be the ones dealing with it um but it's encouraging that the folks that take advantage of the trail have been so respectful of it and i'll publicly thank them for that now absolutely all the people that go there really go there for
38:02a purpose and that's to enjoy why the trail was put there so you know it's one of those projects we spent a good amount of money from the state invested in as well uh and it's it's been a success so this is just improving that and uh i think that'll be a good thing just uh thinking back a little bit um you know the last meeting we had mr kenny was here for
38:24planning that you know with plans to expand the rail trail so the more things we have there may attract more people do it and get more use out of it and as you said hopefully people are not going to vandalize these things and and you know improve the quality of life in our city and that's my point is actually is just like you said the more people go there they're going to police it so we
38:51have more damage and they're going to weed out them with different injuries yep we'll take part i mean we definitely want it to be something that not only visitors can enjoy but that people in fall river can be proud of because there are so many people who don't even know how great that trail is and it's literally one of my favorite like secret things about fall river that shouldn't be so secret though
39:09i know i try to tell everybody well thank you so much for your time you're welcome uh to any other questions for commissioners sorry can i uh let me guess and i'll make a motion a couple of things i should say is uh the motion should read that they work with the state for their permission to whatever mass d.o.t says from the wall of the wall itself it gives them their commission they'll work with that yeah
39:40and everything yeah and then uh for the sculptures and everything uh we would want like mr perry said and get down on cement um
39:56when you go to the state and if they issue some type of commitment oh yes in this board get a copy of it absolutely sure um you know um patty and i will most likely be working on this together as well as the city's representative so once the artists and the group decide what that theme is i would say i'd ask them in our process to resubmit to the board what that is now i'm not
40:24saying that the the artists are going to be able to give you a rendering but at least the theme of what's going to go up so then the board could approve that as well so as it goes up and as it's changed we'll know what that's going to be okay oh we're doing tiles the second not project two project one for the painting on the on the bridge oh no i'm mirroring the uh the tile
40:46installation the background will be a larger tile mosaic painted tile mosaic and then there'll be artwork underneath that at the ground level uh in the tunnels yeah okay i'll get you a rendering gotcha okay excellent yeah if we could we could we could submit a rendering or you know just for your files and it'd be great and whatnot all right you have that motion commissioner ferris made the motion so
41:13uh commissioner sylvia's second all in favor say hi thank you thank you very much you guys have a good night good team
41:31hey item g uh cemetery items item one is opera day event at north park saturday april 30th 2022. mr piranha thank you on saturday april 30th which is a day after the actual arbor day the tree division and sri tree planting program would like to sponsor an arbor day event at north park in which we would um plant a few trees in the park and have some of our vendors that we work with come and table
42:09show off their equipment for example davey resource group who's our contracted arborist has agreed that they can send down some representatives to table and talk about forestry careers and demonstrate some tree climbing northeastern tree service our removal contractor also is willing to send down a truck to do just to kind of show off the equipment and get the city's young people interested in potential careers
42:41in the forestry industry we plan to reach out to bristol aggie who has a forestry program as well to let people in the city know that that's a program available to them and then we're also purchasing through a grant that the planting program received um a few hundred seedlings that will be given away to attendees to take home and plant trees on their property so that's the general idea um to
43:13commissioner sylvia's point we'll also uh make sure we submit a coveted plan as we get closer and work with the board of health on that front as well
43:28uh they'll either be from the tree farm or purchased um either by the division or through the grant for the north park improvements that we've done some previous tree plantings with i think motion advantage second mission of soviet made the motion up actually before we made any questions the commissioner okay commissioner silva made the motion to uh um uh approved item one of the day event at northcott on april 30th
44:01seconded by uh commission nefarious all in favor say aye item two final approval of the optimus engraven at oak grove cemetery expansion you have uh three packets plaza one plaza a plaza b in plaza c so each each plaza has a distinct theme the first plaza plaza a is for the armed surfaces so there's two obelisks per plaza so on the first obelisk is the army national guard united states army and
44:40the united states marine corps as well as the first for the dedication um right up there the people of fall river to those who served in our armed forces the second obelisk in that plaza is the air force navy and coast guard the second plaza plaza b is for people who serve as either elected officials or volunteers in government as well as those who work in public works so you'll see the three
45:26engravings for the first obelisk as well as the memorial dedication obelisk 4 is for our first responders so police fire and ems and then plaza c goes into those who have dedicated their lives to entrepreneurial ship science and engineering and in these particular obelisks we tried to find quotes a few quotes from people who are buried at oak grove cemetery so plaza c obelisk five louis howard
46:04latimer is buried at oak grove cemetery he's an african-american inventor who worked with thomas edison so we've found a quote and we would engrave that quote there um the other is corneli cornelia otis skinner who is an actress also buried at oak grove cemetery and the third is louis mchenry howe who was an advisor to fdr um and he is also buried at oak grove cemetery and fdr actually attended his funeral
46:34um so trying to tie in this the history of fall river and those buried at oak grove into the monuments um in the newer section so marrying the new part of the cemetery with the the whole history of the cemetery and the city item uh how is the black and white photos right of his funeral that's in yes we'll get in the office on the pitches yep so that's the uh the proposed engraving
47:02we are on schedule if we can get this approved tonight for an early spring a spring delivery of the obelisks any questions commissioners they come in the spring how long will it take to involve i think a couple of days at most i'm not quite sure how many pieces they're going to be shipped in um depends on the overall weight of the obelisks they're eight feet tall made of uh of granite coming from barrie vermont
47:35so i think the insulation will be pretty quick the foundations and the uh the tie-down rods are already installed at the cemetery so it's really just placing the obelisk when they arrive i know we've been kicking this along for many meetings and first i'd like to commend chris on his work on this and um i'll make a motion to improve i second that motion a second all in favor aye
48:04okay before we go on i just want to let you uh you know i know i've been talking to mr perry and toronto and everything i think this board mr perry mr piranha and everything deserve a round of applause for if you guys have been by that expansion it looks amazing amazing and it's not even completed yet the spring will be the grass and the trees and everything else and we're going in there but
48:30i know i've talked to mr perry and i've talked to the marinette since we had the sale of lots that we uh did i would love to do a groundbreaking not a groundbreaking but a ribbon cutting ceremony once the spring comes around on that because i think the taxpayers and everybody the community is going to love that expansion that's something for us to be proud of for the next 20 years
48:50that what we did this world accomplished and i want our commissioner here that's one big opponent for perpetual care i want you to be leading the charge to cut that ribbon because you did something good we'll get you the big scissors that they have upstairs the big ones all right uh item three i'm sorry do i have motion to approve uh the obligation motion commissioner sylvia seconded by
49:21commissioner farias all in favor say aye aye item three north burial updates mr toronto so north burial through cpc funding has been working on repairs to the gatehouse those repairs are pretty much at substantial completion they redid the stone facade repointing cleaning to a historic level the facade they did some repairs to the slate roof and recently they've installed the new gutters and downspouts
49:56on the building i don't know if anyone's been bi but they look really impressive they're um a bronze color uh they're not actual copper downspouts but um they're made to look like copper downspouts like they were originally so they look very striking when you drive by we just received recently some change orders from the consulting architect on the project on for some hardware installation so
50:24we're going to move forward with with executing that installing the hardware on the doors and the windows onto period looking hardware as far as the gate itself and the pillars that project is still ongoing we have part of the funding necessary to complete that project and we did receive an initial quote as to what that project cost based off of that quote we are going to have to go to a public bid
50:57to satisfy the procurement regulations so we will work with the architect on the project as well as the purchasing department to move that process forward and once we're able to drill down the final price we'll look at different avenues to close the gap in any funding shortfalls that might be there now i had a couple of questions uh did you put new windows in my building too they did put new windows um
51:27when i spoke with the architect they put in um their shatter resistant windows they're not completely shatterproof but it's not just a pure glass that's easy to break so they did invest in making sure that those windows will hold up to the environment do we have a new door on there too yes the new the door the existing door was uh repaired okay now you said that i know commissioner
51:54silvia had uh mentioned it in a previous with the maplewood lights uh cpa you said it was change all this we have the funds for this part of that money they originally had or did we have to so come up with more funds the change orders was the first change order the hardware the hardware yeah right so the first change order uh for this project would be uh for the hardware and the
52:17installation of that hardware that amounts to uh 573406 now that would be a request that we would come back to this board for perpetual care use there is a little over a hundred thousand in that perpetual care for north burial at this point uh and i think this is something that needs to be done uh it's of his historic significance uh and and the work needs to be done right so this
52:42isn't you just your average hardware that you would have on a house today this is something particular and has to be installed and put in the right way so it sticks to that historic uh preservation so we'll be coming back before the board to ask for a change or a change order for uh to cover that from perpetual care uh and then the um the second one will go out of school we'll
53:03go out to bid uh look the the wall i feel if we've done all this work for the welcome house um i think the wall needs to be repaired and we need to get that done but i think we should solicit uh some possible better pricing and see if we can't shave down that cost and then at that point we'll see whether those bids come back and we'll see what kind of funding
53:26options are available possibly cpa cpc or some other source if we can identify one uh the other thing is do we have any use for that gatehouse afterwards um so i know we were talking if we ever put cameras down and maybe having the camera system mounted in there well is there any use for that so um the funding was for the exterior of the building so the interior has not been touched
53:53um it is in i can only imagine uh mr chairman that uh the interior of that uh that project would be significantly more than what you have here so basically what we're doing is is adding an aesthetic to the outside of the building so that when folks drive by north burial they visit north barrel they'll get a sense of of what it actually looked like uh you know when it was operating as a functioning cemetery
54:20we do still do burials there but very infrequently but it's just to get that along the same lines of historic preservation so the interior of the building is something we could look at years down the road uh right now i don't think it's feasible to even think that we would be able to tackle that yeah so but the outside and the work that they've done is terrific and and we'll take it from there i know
54:44one of my things is uh it looks amazing i that's why i told mr piranha i wanted to update because it's on my way to my office every day uh so i do check up on the work to see how everything's going and what's coming how it's coming out the wall definitely the gate you know definitely a project that needs it done but i know i've mentioned to mr pirano in the future
55:08i would love to see that them chain-link fences come down and really make it look historical just with the raw iron fences back from the normal way if we're going to talk about history let's go back to make it look like really history yeah so i mean that's something you could actually maybe um piggyback on the request for funds if you'd like to redo the the interior of that building so you
55:32know but again down the road as we move forward um those are all things that i i think you can really look at and i agree uh that that chain link fence takes away from that historical look um but uh something we can talk about in the future certainly all right on that gate video they haven't find the gates to go to uh yeah we the gates we have the gates yes
55:57we do yes we do absolutely so they'd be the original gates that were there originally yeah yeah because i was talking when i was talking to um the engineer down in it was trying to figure it out if we had him yes we do okay great thank you i'm speaking on the gates are they gonna need to be repaired absolutely absolutely that would be part of that project okay thank you sir yes sir any other commissioners
56:28so i had a motion to approve uh north burial updates okay thank you second uh commissioner sylvia made the motion second by commissioner rego all in favor say hi item for updates of supply chain issues columbia at home grove cemetery is this uh this is part of the expansion so i wanted to give an update um supply chain issues have hit us as well in our expansion endeavor we initially through our general contractor
57:03were able to get columbarium procured through a certain vendor they have run into significant issues acquiring the granite shipping the grant to their facility and putting together the columbaria they're looking at some significant cost increases and not being able to give us a delivery date within the year of 2022 thinking early 23 at best so i've been working with our general contractor to find another supplier
57:32we got quotes back uh i think yesterday actually so we are vetting those quotes and still waiting on a few other vendors to come back uh the initial um at the first glance of those uh proposals doesn't look like we're going to have to um incur any increased costs there's still going to be a delay we're looking somewhere between three and four months from the sign from sign off of the final design so we're probably
58:03looking late summer for delivery on the niche feature um to the to the expansion we're ninety percent about ninety percent there with the full project um and this will be the last part this will be the uh the last part of the project that will be delivered um and installed so i just wanted to make the board aware our initial contract um was to have everything done in the spring um but
58:36for because of unforeseen circumstances um it's going to be a little longer i just saw the information for uh the commissioners the column ariels are the four column areas but i think we are approved to install two and then as the years go on we'll install the other uh two or one at a time as we go but um i know when i saw mr huron was telling me the update about it
59:03uh we do still have a lot of room up at the top behind the office for colin mario so if so it's not like we can't do any column burials at the roof because we do have a lot of space though at the one that's located behind the office you have any uh questions commissioners have a motion to accept this information permission assault we made that motion second second by commissioner fires all in favor say hi
59:35item 557 bush street tree removal roots are lifting up the sidewalk we had this uh letter submitted to fogboy i am writing this letter because we have a tree outside my house that the roots have grown and is lifting and busting up the sidewall i personally have tripped up on it and i am 65 years old i have seen i have seen other people trip on it too could you please have some either fix
1:00:14the problem or remove the tree the address is 57 bush street for the mass i would appreciate it if you can bring this letter up to the next board hearing thank you so much i will wait for your response from you if you need if you indeed receive my letter j rogers so the tree um was assessed at a fair condition rating and a moderate risk just pretty much every relatively healthy tree in the city
1:00:54so it's not one that i would recommend for removal unless the sidewalks can't be repaired without its removal so in working with mr perry and the sidewalk crew if if we can remove the panels and install a new sidewalk there without disturbing the tree then i would think that's the preferred course if that's not possible because of the roots uh the root system and working around it then then i would
1:01:19suggest we do remove it to fix the safety concern there how large of a tree it's a norway maple so it's the standard fall river street tree um so it's not huge but it's not small either probably 24 inches in diameter at breast height uh we haven't checked on the sidewalk yet to see if we could we repair the sidewalk around it but we can certainly do that uh it's that's a that's a
1:01:52non-issue um but what we would be looking for today is is emotion in the mains of um you know if the sidewalk cannot be repaired uh that the tree be allowed to come down um but if we determine that we can repair the sidewalk around it leave the tree and repair those sidewalks so my staff and myself will make that call as far as the sidewalks around the tree but
1:02:15as chris said um you know a healthy tree isn't something we want to take down so if we can fix that sidewalk if it's at all possible that would be the goal around the tree so that it eliminates the trip hazard and saves the tree that would be the goal what causes the roots to come up because the tree wasn't theory so along the lines of that we now plant specific
1:02:40species of trees that are you know conducive with surviving in a sidewalk years ago trees were planted i mean we've had oak trees uh maple these maple trees are big trees when you plant it it's smaller it looks beautiful it looks beautiful for 15 years and then after 20 25 years that root system just continues to grow and eventually pops the sidewalks up the thought process years
1:03:07ago wasn't to say hey 25 years from now how big is this root system going to be but over the years due to these types of problems that has come into the to the thinking of it so nowadays what we do is we make sure that the tree is specific not only for sidewalks but if you have overhead wires there are certain species of trees that only grow to a certain
1:03:26height so that we know that the tree won't hit the wires and create another problem so we're more proactive with that now than ever so these trees as they come down and or are replaced um or the sidewalks are repaired you know that that's the that's what we do the the norway maples particularly those were popular in the 40s and 50s they were a great street tree because they can grow pretty much anywhere they
1:03:51can grow in a crack in a sidewalk they're very salt tolerant so they do well in winter conditions with salting the roads so far is not the only one experiencing these problems it's it's a larger problem in the 40s and 50s they planted these things everywhere um you can't plant them anymore because now they're considered an invasive species so um we won't have that particular problem with this this type of tree
1:04:18has come down the roots go into the sewer system um two questions bush street jesus same area that we had the stinky berry trees yes yeah yeah definitely not if we can fix the problem i wouldn't because i really don't want to be taking down more trees in that area if we don't need to uh the only suggestion i would make is until obviously we just had a blizzard so the sidewalks are probably covered in slowing
1:04:50uh in that area uh and your guys are not going to be able to assess that anytime soon not too much springtime no i don't think so i think we would be able to assess it within the next week with the rain and the and the warm temperatures tomorrow we might even be able to look at it tomorrow well just a visual check of it would be something that would allow us to know that answer
1:05:10once we see how much room we have so basically we need to make sure that we have 88 compliance 36 inches to allow for wheelchair access if we can box that tree and frame around it and pour concrete around that frame and keep that tree pit there and still maintain 36 inches for ada compliance then we can repair it it's basically a room thing how much room do we have and can we keep the ada
1:05:34compliance well my question is you can do that type of work at this point these kind of temperatures now oh no the work would be scheduled down the road but the approval today would allow us to determine when we can schedule that um you know and go from there my only honestly justin is until you can actually perform this work and that i would call on that area off so i would have rather have someone walk
1:06:00in the street along the tree then i would hesitate to force people into the street what i would say is we can certainly spray paint orange um the orange or fluorescent green the area of the sidewalk that is uplifting the law is we need to make every reasonable attempt to make a a hazardous situation um safe and or make the public aware that it exists um 65 years old certainly could you put a
1:06:32cold patch or is it too late it all depends on how that cold patch would stick i mean if it's if it's a crack a big crack we could put it in there um but if we don't have anything for it to bind to on the back side of it it'll just make a mess and you have cold patch there we'll do whatever we we can to make sure it's safe just put that out
1:06:49there yeah yeah and i mean honestly if we're going to replace it and we know we're going to replace it i could look at trying to pull the squares that are popping up and then put some some some some cold patch a little bit of asphalt sidewalk for now uh and then we that'll make it easier for us when we do go to replace it thank you i think the motion that uh
1:07:09because of the condition of the tree we keep the tree and have severe and mr toronto evaluate the sidewalk and have their food do whatever necessary repairs as a not a permanent fix for now but concerned about it and we're doing what we can with the conditions that we have weather-wise and then do the necessary repairs if they cannot repair the problem to remove the tray thank you yeah yeah yeah
1:07:51we can't have any problem there yeah but that's fine we got to make it right we'll need the approval
1:08:09made that motion commissioner fiery uh rego secondary all in favor say aye aye thank you item h review information submitted by form of a national baseball league and their attorney
1:08:33good evening um my name's chris 20 bardsley street fellow from massachusetts uh nick bernier attorney uh milken boulevard i know at the previous meeting uh there was paperwork that was asked for um we originally had come for a work on the uh fields and then there was questions about the name change or of the league and the legality of the name um so i've been working uh with mr bernier to get that resolved um
1:09:18we have a new iein for flower national baseball i it was also the question of having a solicitation certificate which because they are viewing it as a new entity because of the name change and the new ein i had to submit to the massachusetts attorney general as a new nonprofit so they said um and i before that to ms smith that it can take several weeks until they reach out to me i'm not able
1:09:52to obtain a solicitation certificate because they're the ones who provide the account number to apply for that so once they've gotten to that point and they've reached out to me then i can file for a solicitation certificate um i did obtain the insurance for the league covering um all players and florida that as well with the city um on there as well so i can just say that uh there was a uh
1:10:261023 ez basically a non-profit application filed with the irs on november 3rd i checked the status update today the irs is processing right now applications submitted back in november there is a bit of a lag but i am relatively optimistic they'll receive a determination letter by the start of the season and i believe that's required before the solicitation of the state correct we had to at least send something in
1:10:54showing that that was in the works
1:11:11obviously you submitted paperwork it's in front of us there um showing that you've gone through the process and we understand that you know government the wheels of government sometimes doesn't move fast and um you know i'm glad to see that you're in the process with the name and getting uh you know that things in order with that new name change the only concern i had when i went through this packet was
1:11:41i at the last meeting asked for an opinion from corporation council and i believe mr weining we all agree that we'll work together you'll work with your attorney to work with corporation council to determine whether the um aau status is under one umbrella um when i went through this first my initial reaction was it's been a month and we have i don't see anything unless mr can correct me
1:12:19anything from corporation council um we've had issues recovery to come from the past with our request and i would still stand by what i said and emotionally made the last minute i would like corporation council to clarify whether it has to be two separate entities or can it be one two different organizations under one league name or however you want to put it that's my concern um my concern is not denying any
1:12:57field work that needs to be done or or limited keep playing my concern is that you're covered and i'm not a lawyer so i don't know and this sport is covered and the city's covered so because we all know um when people change both the directors and and people come and go through the weeks sometimes things happen um and i'm not accusing anybody of anything i'm just making it clear that sometimes
1:13:35when you think you have this and then you find out you don't and now you have issues um people think they're paying for one thing money was spent over here i'm just trying to cover everybody's faces and that's why i want a legal opinion from corporation council i have no problem with voting on this but i still want that legal opinion from corporation council to cover this board and to cover you
1:14:05that's simple and i know you did tony guardian yeah i would say that attorney ramsey proactively reached out to me he called me and uh we discussed uh he his concern what he told me is his cancer his concern for the city was the insurance issue um and the liability for the city of people uh of children using the parks um so i reached out to mr vining and he you know he obtained the insurance that
1:14:30you see in your packet uh it does cover the city i believe it covers the city for both organizations i i believe that was his main concern i can't speak as far as a legal opinion from turning ramsey but uh i do believe we've at least covered the insurance aspect of it before we could send the documents that you're looking for from attorney ramsey we needed all the documents that are being presented here tonight so
1:14:53there's no way that attorney ramsey could tell us if the hitmen were covered under the policy of the fall river national until we got the documentation that is being submitted so now we have that information but imagine we can forward it to the attorney but this attorney can render his opinion as to whether he believes the hitman and then we'll have the corporation councils that's what i want i want the two
1:15:21attorneys to discuss it and if they agree fine they don't agree why don't we agree and again to cover everybody's basis towards recent one more baseball for us because the simple fact is like i just mentioned if if i'm paying x amount of dollars for my son to be on a hitman and the season starts and things go on and money's being spent for the other part of it well that's not what i paid for
1:15:54so invite yourself so people need to know if it's under one umbrella so to speak or if they're two separate financial entities that's all i'm concerned about okay i'm not concerned about if they're gonna they want to spend their money on fixing the fuel whatever fine i'm all i'm all in support fixing fields but i don't want to you know halfway through the season in july or something and this one was full of people
1:16:25complaining because they paid for this and didn't get that and it went to somewhere else if if it's one group and they decide how to spend their money that's fine but i think if we're going through all this paperwork with the state and getting ein numbers and you're gonna have to file taxes and things like that let's cross our t's and dot our so everything that comes in is file will
1:16:51be filed under the follower national baseball inc that ein number we do do a monthly total with a breakdown anything related to aau it is all in one account it is able to be clearly seen what goes to what aau purchases whether it be equipment field um practice facilities is used just for that um so even in the insurance part i further looked at it and with aau as long as you have insurance from a league
1:17:22and you're able to show proof of insurance that is not a problem so for instance on the insurance we project a number of children in an age range and that is how it's broken down i put it that way so it has more than enough to cover anyone related to fall over national baseball under any type of a name here and i can save at least from a league i mean i
1:17:47don't know anything about the aau or baseball regulations because i can hit a baseball bat as well as i can dunk if you've seen me not very well um so um but i would say you do not need a separate non-profit just to have a separate non-profit it's this is more than one nonprofit's more than enough for them to run a couple different leagues um but obviously he's using best practices he is accounting
1:18:13for everything and i i don't think that'll be a concern i don't think it was that you have a separate non-profit i think it was if the hitmen could be on the liability of the small kids well the insurance actually breaks it down for 12 and under and then 13 to 15.
1:18:28so whether it's regular season um 13 to 15 or whether it's in aau 13-15 it does not it's the same than what you gave us um yes because it has um on the paper that i sent you um it has are you covered sports baseball 12 and under baseball 13 to 15 with the city of fellow ever listed as well oh yeah okay oh yeah i said i see it
1:18:55and we have no one that is older than that they're after they actually go up to 14 but yes but you no longer have 18 because last year that's correct we decided that was it was too difficult so okay all right i had a question too this slide says have been a liability this is for the feel improvements the company yes that is true insurance for that correct so this one is for the leads yes
1:19:19that's my only question here broken down general reliability and then uh medical payments and everything what is the automobile non-owned auto autos is that like a bus to travel or something like that that's how it comes um from the insurance because i'm asking like who would be traveling other than the au team nobody i mean i would say you know commissioner that that could include and if attorney um bernie feels
1:19:49them wrong uh you know you have dorigo uh construction come on the field they'll have insurance but this policy would also cover us if he happened to hit a pole and knock it over um when you hit the dugout this is this is the real this policy no i get that what i'm saying is dorigo will have their own policy this strengthens our position to be covered under liability so if
1:20:11somebody was to a member of the league was to drive their car on to to unload equipment for a game and then they backed into a pole or a bench you know that could be covered under this policy as well yeah i'm not sure if that also might cover like an uber to the for somebody you know an away game or something but i don't have a problem with this okay any other questions concerns from commissioners
1:20:36if i may commission i mean uh mr park i would just add a caveat that um going forward um the league and attorney bernier just that the board and ms smith are included in any correspondence with the ag's office attorney rumsey or any of that any therefore just so that you know this meeting i i'm i'm very encouraged considering the history this is good work and i think they're
1:21:03doing the right thing uh so but just in that vein of communication i think the board and ms smith needs to be included in any correspondence with the ag's office and or attorney ramsey so that way you're real time getting updates as to how the process is moving along because at some point the league will be here before us for their permit and at that point you'll have to decide
1:21:25um if you'd like to give them the permit uh without all of the paperwork in place because there is a chance that maybe the the attorney general or the solicitation the certificate of solicitation isn't in yet but i think if you know along that line we see that this is all in the works and everything is being done the right way i think there wouldn't be an issue that'll help you make the decision
1:21:49to issue a permit even if all of the paperwork isn't in place maybe just because of the lag time with the state so that would say just communication is key and i think we've made positive strides and i just want to keep it that way absolutely i agree with you this meeting has been the history and everything back and forth you know the name calling stuffed on social media now it's not
1:22:12fair to the rest of us commissioners and that to be berated and everything by different people on social media but also we're getting attacked by other leagues that they're playing by the rules and certain people are not and so we have to hold these rules to apply it wasn't us that set up these rules it was prior boards we're only implementing the rules and then we're getting berated so
1:22:39if we all are on the same page i have no problem and i'm sure every other commissioner has no problem with that and i think that that point would strengthen your position with the other leagues to your point um you know it's not about keeping the kids off the field if if this group can show the board in the city and miss smith that they are doing the things the right way but it's
1:22:59just a technicality with time from the ag's office then i think that'll go a long way to showing them that you guys are doing the right thing as well believe me i wish i would in this day and age with technology now i would love to have 30 teams again yeah yeah do we know if we're ever going to have that again but no i know we're trying to do the best absolutely again absolutely agreed
1:23:22just to clarify one thing i i had 14 emails between myself and back and forth with the aeg's office i i'm guessing you don't want 14 emails back and forth just the end result and if you have any questions today i would i would suggest and i would request that all correspondence between the league and the ag's office according to this what is required here is is where cc'd and including yeah so it's it's
1:23:53and the 14 emails that were sent we don't need those i wouldn't say it's the board's purview but i'd say going forward every correspondence needs to be to be luckily the irs is not as chatty yeah so all right all right so for the field improvements
1:24:20um i think i think the league um and the fields need to the field's definitely going to need work just like all the other leagues you know if you have a league that's going to take responsibility and is actually going to improve the field i think maybe we need to start looking at working with this particular league as long as again this is going to show what where we're at today from where we're at
1:24:46a few meetings back is showing that progress is being made things are being corrected so i think in that again that vein of cooperation and communication um i think it's time to maybe move forward and put the past in the past uh and let the league begin their their field improvements uh and give them an opportunity to show that they're going to stick to their word and that they're
1:25:08going to follow through with whatever improvement they may start um and the only people who are going to benefit are the kids that are going to use the field uh and the city as well uh with the improvements that are made so i i think it's time for us to in my opinion my humble opinion i think we can start to to give uh some permission to get this field these fields where they need to be
1:25:29so that when we the teams are ready to play the fields are ready to go uh and and we just monitor that and again any correspondence between dorigo construction and the league it's just communicated with us the board and ms smith and then that way we can see progress as it goes along and if the board feels at any point and i know commissioner uh mr chair i know you'll be watching it uh so
1:25:54if you happen to see that you're going by uh dumont and some of it's not going along as well as you might think or not as quickly as possible we can request that the league come in and answer to the board's questions so i would say i think it's time to to get these fields where they need to be for these kids and move forward are you prioritizing chris um yes the the the two
1:26:18yes the dumont field two is the main priority and then lafayette is that the middle field correct and and to that too um i i see that the the cost of these particular repairs are much less than what we were talking about before before ms smith and myself especially uh our concern our biggest concern was the money that we would have to kick in if the repairs were not completed uh this
1:26:40is a much smaller proposal uh where if god forbid something was to happen it'd be a lot easier for us to find the funds to to try to finish up what isn't done so i'm a little more comfortable with that as well as part of my thinking and my other number two is uh not to be the dead horse but we just got done putting benches down at columbus and everything
1:27:04and repurposing benches for the dog park and everything the only thing that needs to be done in columbus now is a playground and and we're starting to do that so as money starts to free up there might be improvements that we can do at dumas and thousands in years to come and everything so because money's getting freed up from other parks i mean i know the one thing that the one
1:27:25biggest op not obstacle the thing is that the backstop at lafayette is kind of coming apart so we're trying to tie that as best but i know that i think may fall under preservation like i know that that was talk so so we're not even touching that but that's the only thing i know of that could be myself mr perrium and mrs smith have been talking about kennedy one and lafayette proposing
1:27:49getting done maybe this year or something so uh i'm sorry what was that kennedy yeah getting what senior field backstory back stopping exact uh my only thing is like i have no problem like i said let's do the fields that we think we need in that i just wanted to make sure and put on record that uh when it comes to rosters and everything in the future like i know last year you only had
1:28:17probably 10 players per team in that um we have other leagues that knee feels desperately because they're a lot bigger and everything i just want to make sure that even though you're investing in these fields if i need to give a permit to another league there's not going to be a problem correct i mean you use do mine let's be a partnership right i mean i mean we had maple coming down and
1:28:40practicing in our fields this time and is you know some of the times we would switch practice throughout the field it wasn't you know wasn't an issue so we've always had issues whether it be baseball soccer basketball we have more in the past we've always had way too many teams and not enough facilities but the board has always worked out to be fair and equitable everybody's scheduled i mean dismissal
1:29:09i'm sure miss smith could find her time better used than her office making schedules for weeks to make sure everybody gets as close to the same amount of time as possible in the results and she does a human job there especially with the soccer that's just out of control i personally know it's her favorite time of year you know we again if everybody works together and that's all we've ever asked is to follow the
1:29:41rules and yeah and work with us and again i agree with mr berry we've hopefully taken the right steps um let's move on and it's not only just baseball leagues it's we've been getting requests from the high schools that they're doing renovations they need fields for soccer fields tennis courts so schools non-chat uh charities or all the organizations and everything i wanted stuff to use stuff now someone wants to
1:30:14use a pot for a fundraiser or a cancer survivor we need the space so if we need to use something i just want to make sure that the leak is going to have that cooperation with this board absolutely yeah i mean and yes that's not a problem you know especially if we know ahead of time you know to be able to adjust to a different field or you know reschedule the practice that's you know
1:30:36please notify us don't prior to any work so we won't be surprised to follow watch again communication any correspondence is related actually one thing to i'll say that or just question when you the communication do you want to be cc just you or and the park board for anything board and misspells
1:31:02i know in the past as mr berry said the amount of money that you wanted to spend was a lot more than what's here today it's still a substantial amount here today that money you have to raise and my concern is if you're gonna if you spend this kind of money is there any kind of maintenance plan like your own kids like a lot of your their volunteers says work on the fields
1:31:31and to help help this board help the city because we just don't have the manpower anymore like we used to so you know everybody wants to play at fenway park when you get fenway park now you want to play yankee stadium you know so my one of my concerns would be is that are you going to have some kind of maintenance from me volunteers maybe to donate you know an hour or a couple hours a week
1:31:56to do like cosmetic stuff i'm not saying you know you got a guy that works in the league he's gotta back up him down and start digging you know holes and stuff i'm talking about waking fields and things like that because if you're going to spend this kind of money be honest with you know i've been involved in baseball for a long time you're going to spend this kind of money
1:32:19and from wear and tear in a year or two you're going to be spending this money again without me so correct me if i'm wrong commissioner i think what commissioner sylvia is is saying is um you know there are other leagues that require their uh members their coaches uh even their players at certain points
1:32:48i think what he's saying is have you had any thoughts or discussions about possibly putting a something like that in place for your league yes um we do have it we've added um that the coaches are responsible for you know upkeep breaking after the game or after a practice so make sure that you know weeds are kept at a minimum weeds are pulled up things aren't left to grow
1:33:11um i mean we have several people on the board who um spent last year you know working on the fields you know between lining between edging raking i mean working on the third field itself um that's definitely something that we're putting in as we go like i know that you know we're referring to that there are some leagues where there is a a volunteer or fee mandate both in the city and other leagues as well um
1:33:41i don't think we're we are definitely pushing that at a coach manager level and if it's something that the person is not physically able to do than having a parent teammate have them you know maintain the fields as well because that third field when it was put in
1:34:17it's like what it was a shame to see that happen because it was a brand new field and there was a there was all volunteer work i mean at one point i think we had probably there was easily 70 or 80 volunteer hours put in just a on the field that field last year to recondition it and change the size the depth of it as well if not even more so and that was from somebody
1:34:42who's volunteering in an organization to raise money and work hard to raise money to do these kind of projects and and then just let it go so i think i think i think yeah we we could go over and over and over again on that point but again like i said to the chair and i'm sure yourself as well at this point after everything that we've gone through to get to where we
1:35:07are today i don't think there's there's gonna be a lot of eyes on this particular project so if anything goes astray i'm sure one of the view responsible commissioners will bring that up so and then we'll just address it right away and if we address it right away i think that sells a lot of that one more question just i think it was last week we had that major rain i went by the highway
1:35:28half them fields were flooded is there anything to improve the drainage there or something because you're going to invest that kind of money that's flooded like that it looks like a river yeah when we grade it that will help um and part of it that when we looked into it part of the issue is that within a certain amount of feet from the highway that is state property so that
1:35:50factors into it as being an issue is we're working and part of the reason why the cost is going to is substantially lower is we're working on the playing field not working not worrying about you know putting in irrigation systems 200 feet away you know in the outfield we're working on getting the field level and playable so it's able to drain more efficiently there's also a pumping station over
1:36:14there that pumping station malfunctions that field floods yeah that's what i was just wanting because i'm like they're gonna invest this kind of money it's like and that was some serious rain i mean yeah that was some serious rain we don't get that all the time i'm not sure if front of regular problems yeah kenny parker's example in the softball field that happened at cupolo and
1:36:46last week right and even the other fields to see the launch field that we just talked about and in the literally field everything everything goes to that corner it fits that way and and you know when it's done like that you got to replace the third baseline because you feel good it happens that's the only thing absolutely you need a motion in a second yep yep so the motion in a second for the improvements
1:37:20and um to accept the paperwork that we have right now and also uh no i'd like him to submit if he could okay submit it as you would all together with your like with the letter just like each other league even though you've given me these piece meal i like to go back through all my meals so if you can submit it as a package i would appreciate it absolutely and in that package
1:37:44if there is a lack of the certificate of solicitation include the printed out emails with the attorney general's office so in place of the solicitation certificate those can be placed in your packet to show that yes this piece is missing but we have these communications included in the packet that show that it is in the process you can label like what you have as an application this is our
1:38:07document showing corporation entity so this way i mean i'm not used to getting applications i'm used to getting the final document from the ag's office or whatever so this way i'll know what is constituting what particular piece of the puzzle that we're absolutely i can put it on there and name it that way as well so there's yeah and from my own personal self from my own personal opinion chris i just so it you
1:38:32know just so after the meeting is over maybe some people watch this and say wow you know they're requiring a whole bunch of stuff i think at the end of the day we're working together now and this is great uh so it's just along the lines of showing that you know the continued trust going forward is going to be built it's not anything more or less than we require from anybody else as a matter of fact
1:38:56we're allowing or the board may allow uh the field permits even without certain certificates or requirements to to the chairman's point that other leagues may say hey we had to submit everything on point the league and the board are working together to get you to a good point i just want to make sure everybody involved and who's watching knows that what we're doing as far as requiring this and requiring that is all
1:39:19just along those lines of building that trust and that relationship back to a good point so going forward this is this this process is a lot easier for everybody involved absolutely yep that's right along those lines
1:39:52you know in the past i mean in the future now all you have to do is renew it absolutely good stuff one application and pay the fee and it's done good stuff yeah um so again it's unfortunate that it worked out that way and well again i won't speak for anybody else but i like the courses without eye i had one more question i think i already know my answer i know the answer
1:40:23but i just wanted to make sure we have other leagues here that you've seen in other meetings your liability covers the whole league not we don't worry about other teams having their own insurance and everything right no i mean we can't because we've had leads that say although the coach and the players have their own decisions oh no no i mean like we can't control if we're playing against somebody else what
1:40:45their insurance is but your league is everybody that's in early is covered under this one liar correct so we don't go after individual coaches and players in that to pay for damages or anything else no i know what you're referring to no not at all anything that goes through i just want to yes yes okay okay correct everything is what is he talking one lead person under everything who's on the job right now
1:41:17it's been a long storm my friend that's been a long time i just want to get to my last agenda item i'm dying to get some sleep all right so the ocean was made that mr smith required that he turn all paperwork in when he's ready uh together not winning to get them together yeah sorry march first time together like mr perry said uh all correspondents everything worked together uh with mr smith and also uh
1:41:46with the popcorn um the approval of the fields and everything do i have that motion i'll make a motion for the approval of the field i'll second that motion okay and is that concluding all of everything else that's included yeah okay all right commissioner silvia made that motion seconded by commissioner farias all in favor say hi hi please notify us prior cheers
1:42:18thank you i appreciate that i mean thank you i don't know where you built a stone yeah thank you
1:42:38okay item i north park skating pond proposed renovations to skating area and pond sk state grant so mr perry is going to speak on this uh last week as you guys know we had it was last i believe last july yeah last july state representative fiola had uh secured 125 thousand dollars without bot uh to do some work and everything so now that money has to be spent by june 30th of this year uh
1:43:18and then we also have another 225 i believe 210 210 for more she secured for the so we'll be coming with uh they'll be coming with the project for that in the future but this 125 000 has to be spent so i know mr perry i'm going to turn over the floor to him and he'll explain about this so very simply as the chair said state rep fiola was gracious enough to
1:43:47solicit the state for funds for north park improvements the first round of funding that she was able to secure was 125 000 as as mr chairman said uh and identified for that to be spent on is the skating part um i'm not sure if anybody's seen skating pond that kennedy and what we did uh miss smith worked very hard with her staff to get that full get people skating on that for the
1:44:13first time in several years uh so we'd like to see the same at north and in that vein uh we'd like to to put out an rfp a request for proposals to have companies you know give us some ideas on what we can do with 125 000 in that area and it's basically just an approval from this board to say that's what we're going to be looking to spend the money on
1:44:37that you agree that that's a good and worthwhile project and for us to be able to get that moving so that we can make sure we hit that june 30th deadline the 210 000 the second round of funding them um state rep had secured just uh to give you uh an idea of what the thought process is and and what the intent the actual intent for that 210 is is to um
1:45:01put in place one of the amenities that was in the report um nancy help me out martha lyons yes thank you her report of north park and that would be for a sloped graded um natural grass terraced seating area uh just above with us exactly where the the concrete stairs were taken out so that would be down the road there's no end date on that money yet but this money is what we're here to
1:45:28focus on tonight uh and i'm just looking for the approval to go out for an rfp to get that proposal together i'll make a motion and we grant permission for obtaining rsv for the uh scanning and not is there any questions from any commissioners so commissioner silvia made that motion commissioner regal seconded it all in favor saying hi all right commissioner inquiries any questions i don't know
1:46:05i think we should all sing kumbaya because this was this is a very encourage a very encouraging meeting thank uh we had a crazy snowstorm and a little fire uh this time i'd like to thank the florida fire department for the police department public works for the ems and the emergency special service for a job well done the cemetery cemetery everybody dispatches everybody that's involved first responders it was a great
1:46:41i don't know how they saved all that whole neighborhood but it was a great job well done by the city of florida and i'd like to thank all you special people that were out there that i don't know i seen it it's the beard now it sticks to my uh from here to all of you thank you thank you absolutely absolutely all right i just want to say commissioner silvia mr probably already
1:47:08said it but i like boy it was nice to see you getting a candy bar again i remember it brought back memories as a kid falling down a lot it was much deeper then yeah and look there's no no small task uh it's you know and miss smith was the one who spearheaded you know actually was proactive about reaching out and and seeing if it was you know if something
1:47:32we wanted to do and then she followed up and made sure it happened so thank you to ms smith for that as well i'm sure the kids enjoyed it you all enjoyed seeing again and that's what we need to do continue to get these amenities going in these parks and make these improvements so that they're using them and and everybody sees the value of what we have done and what we're pushing to
1:47:49continue to do so thank you speaking of that i want to echo this it's just funny how everything went i had just had this conversation it was the last meeting commissioner regal was here and she asked why don't we decorate kennedy park and then i brought it right to mr ken on mr perry's attention and this is schmidt's intention i'm like you know commissioner regal was absolutely right
1:48:14why don't we do i know it's manpower sometimes but why don't we when up the street our sister city taunton has the whole top and green decorated with manges and menorahs and everything i'm like everybody has their different rules in that but i don't see why we wouldn't we couldn't do something like that around that skating pond lights just make it festival and it doesn't have to be
1:48:38religious and everything else just make it festival and i had said i would love to see that skating pond everything all doing and i only mentioned this to mary superior mr about three days later i'm getting a call from city council pereira that the group that did the halloween bash at the beach would end up being here in the plaza wants to do an event of decorating kennedy park
1:49:04and doing hot chocolates and skating and everything so when i talked to miss smith about this and that that that proposal we were talking and i gave it a green light i said yeah why don't we fill this thing up and if you're going to council with perot's facebook page you'll see her house ice skating out there thanking the parkour thinking that's not her oh i'm sorry i thought that was true i apologize but anyways
1:49:31it's uh somebody ice skating everything and uh saying thank you to the popcorn thank you to mrs smith and apocalypse
1:49:47thank you any other commission requires me commissioner we haven't seen you in a couple of months any concerns or anything um is your phone on vibrate i know i thought it was on the dating show or something i don't know i'm waiting for the other shoe to drop now this has been too cordial this meeting all right enough of this enough of this can somebody can somebody yell at somebody to adjourn a second uh
1:50:17motion to adjourn commission of silvia the second invite commissioner all in favor say hi hallelujah