6.4.2025 Park Board

Call this meeting, the regular meeting of the park board of commissioners to order. Today is Wednesday, June 4th. We are in the city uh hall. What are we in the council? No, we're in the meeting. What is this room called? Council meeting room. The city council meeting room. The hearing room.

That was the word I was looking for. The hearing room. Whatever you want to call it. 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 media.

Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unpersceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible.

Roll call. Uh Nick Cecilio present.

Victor Fario present. Amber Burns. Helen Vgo BJ McDonald there. No citizens input.

No. Uh so the next item is the acceptance of the minutes from the April 2nd and the May 7th regular park board meeting. Motion to accept. Second.

Motion to accept made by Commissioner Rigo, second by Commissioner Burns. All in favor? I. Motion carries. New business. Item A is a letter from the mayor's office uh regarding a request for Father Travas Park for their Fall River Family Festival. The event is to take place on Saturday, June 21st from 1 to 5 and they're going to set up between 11 and 1. Motion to accept. Second. Motion to

accept made by Commissioner Riggo, second by Commissioner Burns. All in favor? I. Motion carries.

Item B is a letter from Mark Conrad request for Griffin Park for their annual community day event. It's on also on June 21st from 10 to 5:00 with a rain date of 6:28. They are also addition uh requesting repair on the cracks of the basketball court and more wood chips under the swings and the neighborhood association would like to paint the white columns that surround the park.

Well, uh I can address that. Um we filled the wood chips in the playground area already. That's done. It it took quite a quite a bit. Tomorrow I'm meeting a paving contractor to go over two of the courts of two of the three courts for a mill and overlay to get pricing on a milling and overlay on two courts and resurfacing. Uh we painted half the columns. The other half of the

columns will be painted tomorrow. So we're twothirds of the way done and uh the milling overlay is going to take a little while. That won't be done for at least a couple months. But when it's done, two brand new courts, the third court that's toward the um John Street, uh Fifth Street down the other side, that court's in the best shape of them.

Also, two new courts going in there.

Okay, I make a motion to approve.

Second. Second. Motion to approve by Commissioner Burns, second by Commissioner Fries. All in favor? I.

Motion carries.

Uh then item C is a letter from Samantha Barbosa from the mayor's office requesting Kennedy Park for a mural unveiling ceremony on July 19th from 10:30 to 11:30.

We've already approved the mural. This has been on there for a long time. So I make a motion to approve. Second.

Second. Motion to approve by Commissioner Burns, second by Commissioner Cecilio. All in favor? I.

Motion carries.

Item D is a letter from Kevin Griffin regarding Morton Middle School and using North Park for their field day on Monday, June 16th from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

with the rain date being the next day, the 17th. Motion to accept. Second.

Motion to approve by Commissioner Riggo, second by Commissioner Burns. All in favor? I. Motion carries.

Uh, item E is a letter from Cheryl Gallagher regarding a request for tree removal outside of 181 Crawford Street.

Um, I guess the only question I have is have you been able to look at it? Yes, I want Can you just come down, Chris? Yes.

So,

Chris Martin, City of Fora Tree Department. Thank you. Um, yes, I looked at the Crawford Street and I didn't when I first initially looked at it, the tree wasn't all that bad. Um, and then I got a call from the homeowner stating that he had had problems with the tree growing into the pipe and whatnot and he had to have a company go in. And so I told him that

the best way to go about it was to send in all the information there. There's a bill that he paid uh ready or roar Correct.

Um, so it's not a problem with the tree above ground. The problem is the tree below ground, the roots. And he's, if you look through some of the pictures there, you can see the roots that are encroaching in his yard. They're up on the surface.

And the company stated that that was caused the roots getting into his pipe.

So, the only real fix to it that I can see is to remove the tree at this point.

Um, unless you guys have another thought as to No, so they already mediated all the roots to his pipe. Correct. Yeah. So, pulling it is not going to cause any further damage. It Well, we we're not going to actually pull it. We'll remove the tree, grind the stump below the surface, and then Yeah. I won't um they can repair the sidewalk at that point.

Yeah, I mean I think it makes sense.

Yeah, you don't want it ruining the guys, you know, pipes and then that becomes an issue for the city too if you have to replace the whatever line it is going into the house.

Make a motion to uh remove the tree.

Second. Okay. So, motion to approve is made by Commissioner Faras, second by Commissioner Burns. All in favor? I. I.

All right. Thank you. Okay. Very good.

Thank you.

Item F is a letter from Ryan Hogan on behalf of Tilson. He's requesting uh the fiber network cabinet to be placed at Rugles Park.

Charlie, what do you think of this? It's a standard cabinet. It's a I asked it's a internet. It fiber to uh from the provider to the uh company. It's a standard cabinet.

That's it. Yeah, that's it. Well, no, that's where the proposal to put it on.

Mike, I and it's it's got to be approved by the city engineer and then the city clerk's office and all that, but they're just coming to us to let us know that it's going in. I mean, it doesn't seem like it's something that we would not want to put in, like something that needs to go somewhere.

Yeah. I make a motion to approve. Second motion. Motion to approve by Commissioner Burns, second by Commissioner Faras. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries.

Item G is a letter from Gail Powers from the regarding the preservation society requesting to offer guided tours this summer at Oakrove Cemetery. Come on down.

Good evening. Could you just state your name and address for us for the if you want to pull the mic over or make sure we're following one open meeting wasn't been here in a while. Good evening. I'm Gail Powers. I live at 731 Prospect Street. I'm a board member and the treasurer of the Preservation Society of Fall River, which is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Um, I'm here on behalf of

our board to seek permission to schedule a walking tours. One at Oakrove Cemetery and a second one uh for Underground Railroad sites around the Lower Highlands neighborhood. So, there's two different things. Uh, we're proposing it to be a fundraiser for us. um $20 a person for those going on each tour. All the monies collected will serve as a fundraiser to fund a study for the design of a new underground railroad

museum at uh a museum space of the basement level at the do Isaac Fisk House at 263 Pine Street in Fall River that the society has owned since 2018.

We started a capital campaign to raise needed funds and currently have about $4,100 designated for this um of the $10,000 that we need for the study to make this the basement uh museum. We've been unsuccessful in our attempts to secure grant money to aid us. Most recently, the through the Mass Cultural Council of the $6.5 million that they awarded in this fiscal year to to Massachusetts, none of the money went to

Fall River. Our request was for $5,000 and we were going to match those funds for our $10,000 that we need and it was denied obviously. Um so this has prompted the board to seek other avenues to obtain funds needed to bring this dream to life. Um I have a proposal from Civetex of how much the cost will be to um have a study. So we've already gone ahead and had Mike Keen come through

give us an idea what we need. Uh I reference a couple of things in the city's uh master plan for encouragement towards the fruition of the uh museum and why we need the funds. Under visions and goals to promote appreciation of cultural and historic heritage. Under historic and cultural resources to develop and enhance Fall River as a tourist destination with an emphasis on the arts, culture and history. And under

economic development, three points.

Identify leaders and themes that will be the ambassadors of Fall River. develop uh further the tourism industry in Fall River and to increase opportunities for uh obtaining grants. So that would help us. Obviously, I could go on and on about the key points in the master plan, but I'm sure you get the point. Uh the museum is an opportunity to create a new tourism destination in the city. Our

request is not unprecedented. Currently, the Lizzy Bordon BNB has since March 1st of 2024 offered an Oakrove Cemetery tour and more recently offers a walking ghost tour from the Bordon House throughout the city in that area.

Both tours center around the Bordon family, people related to the murder, and other notables in Oak and Grove.

They currently charge $20 for the cemetery tour and 25 for the walking tour. And obviously, you know, they're a for-profit organization. They're not a nonprofit. This money's going in their pocket. I don't think they've ever I don't think they've ever sat an approval for that. So, they have Okay.

Lord Jesus. Anyway, that's fine. Oh, can I'm not done yet. Open. Oh, I got I'm not Nope, that's fine. Gotcha. Um when Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Finish. I have a question when you're done. I'll be happy to answer anything you have. Uh, as of April 20 of 2023, Fall River has a distinction of having 263 Pine Street as the first Fall River Underground Railroad site added to the National Park

Service National Underground Railroad Freedom to Network. The Freedom to Network documents and expands knowledge related to the Underground Railroad and increases public awareness of the struggles for freedom and equality endured by so many in our country's history. As for my experience in the past, I have done multiple walking tours at Oak Cemetery. Some of you may have heard of them. Um, and always in

partnership with the park board and the cemetery managers, past and present for every single tour I've ever done in there for any on anyone's behalf and I've done it for nothing. If I see your car and you're from Connecticut and you're hanging around Lizzie Bordon's grave, there's a good chance I'm going to throw you in the back seat. I'm going to go for a ride around the cemetery,

show you what's going on. I've done that with a bunch of people. So, like I'm like a little ambassador on my own doing my flowers in there. Anyway, so I want to thank you for your cooperation. Um, I did print off the website Okov Cemetery tour that they have and that they have a walking tour and that they charge money.

So, thank you for your consideration.

And lastly, when we do these tours, our goal is to raise the monies we need to get to $10,000. We're going to continue on fundraising test. Once that's accomplished, we're not going to continue that. So, this is not going to be a money grab from now till eternity.

Um, not in the least. So, it's specific cause. It's going to go to a specific cause and then our intentions are not to pursue it. We've done other things uh for free in the past for uh preservation month for the city for Caliola. I've done it for the historical society. I've done it with the garden club. I'll do it for anybody who calls me and comes by my house and wants to do it, but nothing.

I'll meet you in there. Then you come over my house for beer if you're done at the end. So I'm I'll absolutely bring anyone through there on my own and I'd be happy to do it without hesitation. So with that, I yield.

I I don't Yeah, I have no problem with her. I think that it's a great idea to do it. Um I guess my only question is how often and like I suggest would just be like make sure they're not like I'll be honest with you, but I'll I've talked talked to Chris all the time. I'm I'm in there all the time. Um I don't they more than once every two weeks. They they if

you look on the website for them, they could do the tours five times a day.

It's like have you have they have a time schedule. You sign up and you pay for it and you show up at 1:30 on a Tuesday.

They do it like at Tuesday nights till 7 I think I saw and then almost any time during the day from 7 to 3. Okay. So like they could you could almost do it they could do it five times a week and once on Tuesday nights I'm not I'm not suggesting that at the least. Yeah. No.

So I guess for yours whenever you because I have no problem with it. I don't want to speak for everyone else, but whenever you do get to that point where you want to start, work with him and then come up with some sort of a schedule just so that we know when I've done that in the past for years because I've been I don't know if you guys have been around. I've been doing this for

Yeah. I don't know how many years stipulations when it comes to like having tours in there when it comes to like insurance like liability like I don't know anything about I was told the city is selfinsured so like the parks is open the cemetery is open to people usually when there's a permit. So a lot of times when there's a permit that goes out, the city requires a liability policy to go

along with it. They're typically like a one day or for the extent like if the feast it's you know a couple of having a fundraiser unless you're going to have hundreds of people going through. Yeah.

So I'm I think the question is it's not really it's not really a permit because they don't have exclusive use of the cemetery. That's what I was saying. I don't know how that works. But I also feel like if if she worked with Sam, like I feel like it wouldn't be Yeah. I feel like they would probably like wave to the point where you What I usually do too, I've been in the past when I when

Tom eaten was here, I would show I would get a map and so here's my path so they know exactly where they're going. If we have to go through a grass area, I get I go the day before to make sure that cemetery team has gone through and make sure that area is safe. So like and I that's Yeah. No, we I think we've just never done this before. I think there

was one other time where it was like a bus or something like a I remember something all the time back in the back in the day. So that's I remember that but we've just never we people because there's a lot of people that do things without Yeah. We don't know about any of these sometimes when you know my address is 731 Prospect Street. Oh no. So what I'm what I'm saying is the the cemetery

is 765. Yeah. I can hit use my nine iron and hit the front with the golf. So, like I'm that close. So, I see what they're doing in there. Um, and I'm a good advocate for what happens in there.

The guys do a great job and we have we get along great and I'm there. My phone Chris will call or Brend will call me in the office if they need anything at all.

I'm more than happy to help. But so, I'm going to make a motion to approve and then just say to work with Chris and Charlie to make sure scheduling, maps, times, do that all the time, all that good stuff. Um, and then up to your discretion, Charlie, like if there's anything additional that you need, just Yeah, I don't think so. Gail is if you work with Chris, I work with Chris.

You'll be fine. I'll second it. Yeah, you work with Chris and uh you just Thank you. get together, tell them this your schedule, your route, and no one knows the I don't expect the tour to be more than an hour. I mean, I've done two and a half hour ones if you want to go all over the place, but I don't expect that to be. I just have to do some research on where everybody's buried. I

do try and make it a safe route. I don't want to bring people through areas which are not safe and there's some that are not as safe as others. So I really I'm very mindful of that. Y So the motion to approve was made by Commissioner Burns, second by Commissioner Rigo. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Good luck.

Thank you. I'll call you. Thank you.

And then the last item is item H. It's a letter from Nick Ozog regarding the use of Len Park for a cornhole event on Saturday, June 21st from 12 to 6 and on Saturday, July 12th from 12 to 6. Um Nick, no, Nick's not here. Um is this space big enough for that? Like how many people are going to be there? Like it's right on the street. So the backstory is

I talked to Nick. He owns the brew brew house brew house pup right there.

So he the little restaurant coffee shop and restaurant that's right right there.

Right next door right across from city hall. Mhm. Mhm. I thought owned it. I thought it was the other guy that he he sold it. They Cuz this is Ashley's husband. I went to high school with her.

Um Yep.

So he originally, this came through with a bunch of different things, but it dovetailed into a conversation of why is that space a park? And that I got a um I got an email from the law department today. have talked to the mayor's office, the law department to try to figure out like it it shouldn't really be a park because there's part of this request to that is not included on here

is serving alcohol. So that would be something that is not allowed in a park.

But this space, hypothetically, you could have an event in there with alcohol because it's I don't know of anyone that would consider that space a park. But for whatever reason, years ago, it was designated a park, right? So I think that what we should do is give him the permit for now without the alcohol would be my suggestion. say he can have his Cornwhall tournament and we can put on

next month's agenda. I'll work with the law department in the next couple weeks to figure out what we have to do to transfer this park back to whoever the ownership is within the city or whatever department it's then going to fall under. Um so that they can have these types of events cuz the space was just renovated.

These are the types of events that will happen in that space. And if you can't serve alcohol in there, it's kind of it becomes a little bit tougher to have events because there's not a huge space.

So my suggestion would be to just approve his cornhole event with the idea that you can't have alcohol in a park.

There's a city ordinance against that.

So maybe for his June one, he doesn't.

and then maybe by July it's no longer deemed a park and maybe he can work with, you know, the licensing board and whoever else if he wants to serve liquor there. So that's my two cents on that. I don't know if anybody else has any thoughts.

It's not a how many Well, it is right now. Do you know Do you know how many people It was never It never cuz then you get into like parking and all and I know it's right on the street and it's right on the street. It's a Saturday. I get it. So, that area is not as busy.

But then it's like, what if a cornhole bag goes in the street and someone goes and run it and the car doesn't, you know what I'm saying? Like, you would think that like a detail or something would be needed as well just to But that's just that's just my thoughts. I know that the licensing would require the detail if he were to get a liquor license, but he's not going to be able to get a liquor

license for June 21st. And I talked to him yesterday and I told him like, I don't think you're going to be able to get a liquor license while this is considered a park. and he said, "Well, that's not like a total deal breaker for the event, but he's trying to drum up business in the area. They're trying to, you know, spur things downtown and get people downtown." I get what you're

saying. It's not a huge space. Yeah. Um I I'm concerned. It's the first time he's doing it, so I don't know if he has an idea of how many people I mean, his um request is just doesn't give us much.

and I had asked him if he could try to come down today and answer any questions. So, it's up to the board, you know, what you guys want to do.

But that that's the context anyway behind it because I know that in your packet it just says cornhole event and it's I've been there. God forgive me. I haven't been there in a while. It's all cement, right? Yeah. There's no grass or anything. So, I don't have to worry about grass.

Technically, if it wasn't a park, it would be a great place for this type of event. Whether it's a cornhole event or or or simple um whatever type of event, they actually put a small area in there.

for entertainment up, you know, but um yeah, I can see his goal and the purpose of having something like this is to bring people downtown, use the restaurants, you you know, start giving downtown some business, bring it back to life, and you know, get the vendors uh earning some money down there. But um the designation of that area right now is just not going to work as long as and

even Allen agrees it's not a park. You know really you look at it it's just it's no different than a lot of the other areas.

I think uh years ago they used to have people come down and have music. Yeah. certain hours of the day, maybe between 12 and three, and they I think they drew some people people come down there, listen to the music, especially with the summer coming. There's nothing going on in this city. This city is So, so that's going to that's the ultimate goal, I think, of the board is to give that property back to the city,

take it off the park department's desk, give it back to the city so that they can have music, they can have alcohol, they can do some stuff down there, utilize it. that they spent the money to clean it up. So, I think I my I would I lean to approve this. Let him have the cornal tournament without the alcohol in June and then um if we're able to approve the and get it reddesated or

reassigned from a park, then maybe for his July event, he can get in front of licensing. Can we just ensure like they would need to get a liability policy?

Correct. just because like for safety purposes like if that street isn't shut down, right, which I'm assuming it's not going to be I just I agree with what he's saying. So yeah, as long as they have like the insurance and all of that, um I make a motion to approve. Second that motion. So, the motion to approve by Commissioner Burns with the stipulation in making sure that there's

a an insurance policy in place and all of the other protocols are met based on, you know, the other events that are within parks at this time, then he can have his cornal tournament on June 21st and then without alcohol. So, that was your motion. It's a motion to approve, second by Commissioner Faras. All in favor? I I Any opposed? Miss RGO opposed. So 41. Motion carries.

Any commissioner inquiries? Um I think I have one I have a just because it was brought up and I don't want it to seem like we're just ignoring it. Does anyone have any knowledge of these uh tours that are going on? Have they been approved? Do we know what we should be doing? No. Contacting the business because of the fact that it's not approved. Like what should we do?

Essentially, I just That's the first time. That's what Chris, are you know about it or I seen them in there. I had no idea that that was something that they were coming in there and charging for, but I had seen them in there before. I I didn't get it. What? I I missed the thing because the thing went off. I so the the now that the Lizzy board and they're charging people for tours I had

asked is this something that everyone knows about it's unanimous none of us knew about it so then now it's like what's the next step like where do we go from here and then he was saying that we should probably you know maybe somebody in your office could reach out to them and just say hey let's just I'm still trying to reach out to um the ice cream event I got a I I I have a contact

um for the 29th at Britain. Yeah. So that's the other thing. So what happens a lot and Amber sends messages and we we don't know what doesn't come before us. So you see things on Facebook and they're promoting different events in the parks and then you look at the agenda and they haven't asked for, you know, a permit or permission to use the park. So, we do our best when we see those things to try

to contact these people and say, "Hey, you know, there's a protocol that you need to follow in order to have an event in the park and you need to follow the same rules as everyone else. Um, there's an ice cream event or something going on at Britain or according to Facebook on the 29th and we don't have any information on it." So, it it's a nice event. It's, you know, it's free, you

know, but guys, they have to be insured.

They have to, you know, they have to do the same protocol as everyone else. And we have to make sure nobody else is there that day. Yeah, that was the thing. Did we check the schedule to see if anyone I'm going to run? It's a Sunday, so I figured it probably would have soccer or something there. Yeah, I'm going to run it by Nina because it's not official. So, I really And

we've had this in the past with the Easter egg hunts and the different things that come up. So that's the other like it's the police department is apparently also like I don't want to say a sponsor but they're also like in the mix with it.

Do you want me to just I'll say if you would No, but that's what I'm saying like so I'm trying to figure out who it was that I'm gonna I'm gonna reach out to to and if I can't I there's a couple people on that list that know them. So I I'll get them. All right. I have a question. Has Have you decided what you're going to do with Palaski Park on that fence? Is it

coming down?

We haven't We haven't finally got We have We don't have any plans right now for Is the fence going to come down and it's going to just be open space?

Correct.

We're going to have all the picnics, huh? All the picnics. You're going to have the guys over there playing games charging. So, I have two other things.

Um, it didn't make it on the agenda, but we got a couple of complaints from Maplewood Park. Maplewood Park. Yeah.

So, they're they're taking the tennis nets down at the park and they're putting the volleyball nets up. Yeah. Don't know if it's the same crew that was at Griffin Park last year, but they're at Maplewood now. Um, we had a two emails that came in. I didn't they didn't make it on the agenda but um a lot of similar complaints to what we've had in the past. So, I think the

question for Charlie is is there a way to lock down the nets, the tennis nets, so that they can't take them down. Um also, it seemed like the volleyball net we had put up, they broke. Yeah. As well. Yeah. I think that's what one of the messages had said, like what we had put up, they broke. So then they just moved or something got messed up on that court. So they moved to the tennis

courts and now they're just putting it's the same thing as did they um they moved they moved over to the tennis courts and I went by on a Saturday and I seen it stretched across the um the b the uh tennis courts. So then Sunday morning I went and there was no one there. this past Sunday morning after receiving numerous complaints from the week before. So Sunday morning I went by

there was no one there though although the net was still up. I went by Kennedy Park to the courts we just built them. There was about 120 of them there. They were all they would have been in the right place playing was fantastic. It was great. I took some pictures. We put the um nets back up, the tennis nets. Now, we've hired a contractor. They're going to go in and they're going to resurface the two uh

tennis courts at Maplewood. So, they're going to be pretty much brand new. We're going to put in Spanish and English. There will be no volleyball or any type of play on here except for tennis. Now, we can lock them. But the fact is, if we do lock them, then even the tennis people won't be able to get in. That's the problem. But you can't lock the nets so that they can't take

them down. You can lock the nets in place so that they can't take those down. Cuz like what they're doing, according to the email, so that they can they put the volleyball net up high and they take the tennis net down. They take the tennis net down because if they leave it up, they're gonna fall over.

Trip over it. They're going to fall over. I can I could take a look at it. I don't know if there's just a way to lock down the net. I mean, I guess they could always stop them from cutting cutting it, right? I guess. But but I I could take a look at it. Maybe if not this I could probably put an extra cable or something in there. I'll take a look at

it just to see if we can make it a little more difficult for them to um take it down. I'll take a look at it. I mean, when you went on Sun when you saw them at Kennedy, there were no like alcohol, no selling of the issues essentially because that's what the message said that that's what they were doing at Maplewood was the partying and all of that. No, I didn't see I seen a

lot of tables. They were um they were they had food. They I mean, but I didn't see any alcohol. And uh I mean you got to where they are at that court. They're good ways out but uh I didn't see any of I seen lots of food. Yeah, I would like to join them. I I can't play volleyball but I uh but they they eat well. I mean I it was great. We they really got down

here. We can just make note of that. I mean and everybody all the board can just keep their eyes and ears open. If you hear stuff, we just bring it to Charlie's attention. And then I did notice they like to cook on the grill.

Do they? They didn't have a grill Sunday over there. Come by a Sunday afternoon.

Yes, they're cooking on a grill.

If I seen a grill, I would have got I would have went over. I didn't see any grills.

Um, and the last thing I saw, they took the sidewalk up in Snake Hill in North Park. So, they're working working through that. So, I was with uh I was with Daniels today before I came here. I went down there visiting. They're right down the bottom now. They're working on right down near the uh the end of the baseball field and um I was talking to them for a while and um so it's going to

look good when it's done. It really will. Anybody else have anything else?

Good. We have a motion to adjurnn. I make to adjurnn. I second. Motion to adjurnn by Commissioner Rigo, second by Commissioner Sicil. All in favor? Motion carries. Thank you.