Park Board 7 6 22mp4

that um regular meeting of the Park Board of the Commissioners agenda order business Wednesday July 6 2022 this meeting is being held in the city Collins uh Council hearing rules beginning at uh 5 25 pm citizen input submitted by email to the park board Forever at ma.org by noon 7 20 uh six seven six twenty two I mean it will be a uh available viewing HTT uh FRG TV dot Fred TV and channel 18.

reading of the open meeting law as soon she opened me a 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 advise that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed admissible okay roll call the commissioners uh Victorious

Joseph the Silva commissioner Burns is uh absent and commissioner Sylvia's option

no citizen input new business item a grant writer to whole public hearing and present information overview of goals of the pop Grant opportunity for this proposal for pot Recreations with questions and answering period I turned it over to Jane DiBiase the grant writer thank you thank you for having me Jane dibiaseo and I am the city's grant writer and I'm here today to talk about a funding opportunity that's

specifically for the city parks it's referred to as the Parkland Acquisitions and Renovations for communities or as a short name a shortcut the park Grant we're going to talk today briefly about the grant we're going to give an overview of the grant present the grant timetable and talk about some of fall River's previous as well as this year's proposed Park Grant funded project and we will have a question and answer

period at the end if people have questions okay so the purpose of the park grant that the state's executive office of energy and environmental Affairs offers municipalities is to provide financial assistance to develop new parks to renovate existing Parks or to acquire Recreation land each year the Secretary of EA um sets forth some priorities for this for that particular Year's Park grants

the first priority for this year is to fund projects that are located in environmental justice neighborhoods and we're going to be talking a little bit about more about what environmental justice neighborhoods are on the next slide another priority is the development of new parks also designs that incorporate climate resilience so those would be elements like planting trees which we do with

every Park rant funded project that we receive it might be to reduce the amount of impervious surface and make sure that we have more pervious surfaces so that water especially groundwater can flow through them and rather than pool on the surface the fourth priority is to ask to have access to Recreation for all residents so we try to look at our entire population and we have some past funded

projects that were for little children like top Lots with water features we have ball fields basketball we have skate parks there's a variety of projects that have been funded with these grants and we're going to talk more about some of those we also have inclusion playgrounds so that people of all abilities can also go to the parks and have Recreation opportunities these are two-year grants so the first

grant is designed for the engineering and design phase and that's in the first year and then the second year is for the actual construction or the build out of whatever that project is so so all of the costs have to be related to the design and then the construction of the parks and we talked in the last slide about environmental justice that's a a priority of the Secretary of Energy and

environmental Affairs and environmental justice is a goal of the environmental the EPA and it means the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of their race color national origin or income with respect to the development implementation and enforcement of environmental laws regulations and policies and it will be achieved when everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental

and health hazards and has equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live learn and work so the purpose of us having this presentation is to make sure that people in our community no matter what their race color national origin or income is has an opportunity to hear about this funding opportunity as well as to have input or ask questions about

the project that might be funded if we receive a grant so we know about Fall River that Fall River does have some environmental justice neighborhoods in fact 63 of our neighborhoods are environmental justice neighborhoods which means that there are people of lower income there are people who are of color or minority populations and many also experience English language isolation so English was not

their first language so we do have an obligation to make sure that our environmental justice population and neighborhoods hear about recreational opportunities and have an opportunity to provide input or ask questions about the projects the timetable for the grant is that the applications must be submitted by July 14th which is next Thursday letters of support are optional but they

must be postmarked and sent to the state by July 21st so the following week usually the awards are announced in November of this year of each you know year but this year would be November and another requirement is that successful application so if we receive an award must have City Council vote by the end of this calendar year and the purpose of the city council vote is to do three

things one is to authorize the mayor to actually you know submit the application and to enter into a contract if we do receive a grant a second purpose of the city council vote is to appropriate the total project cost these are reimbursement grants so we we are eligible to receive 70 of the total project costs from the state so we the local share must provide 30 of the total project cost typically Our

Community Development agency provides that local share portion of the the grant and then the final purpose of the city council vote is to dedicate the land to Recreation the project would start as soon as the contract is executed which means the mayor has signed a contract and the state agency has signed a contract typically that happens around the start of the new calendar year so would be at

the beginning of 2023 and we have again we have about two years to complete the project so we would need to complete this project if it's funded by June 1st of 2024.

when we're developing a project and then a Grant application we want it to be as competitive as possible so the funding source does tell us what they're looking at now these are the the goals that we have in terms of we want to make sure we try to hit as many of these as possible with our project that we choose but we may not and don't have to necessarily meet all of these in every single Grant

application but we do try to hit as many of them as possible so they'll be looking at the state in their review of the application we'll be looking at whether or not the park that we're proposing a project in is in an environmental justice neighborhood as I mentioned we have so many that it's highly likely that the park will be in an environmental justice neighborhood they'll be looking to see whether the

the project increases access to recreational amenities for all residents including people with disabilities they'll be looking to see if there will be Environmental Education on site some parks might have a kiosk with some type of information that's provided about Environmental Education they'll also look to see whether there's a water-based Recreation that's offered at the park again this isn't possible in

every Park but we do try to have some water features as possible is the park located in an area that's mapped as an urban heat island that just means that there may be fewer trees or no trees and there may be many many impervious surfaces so those areas tend to be hotter so the surface temperature in an urban heat island is higher so we try to implement some mitigation strategies to to reduce that

does the project design incorporate climate resiliency so again are we planting trees we typically do with every single Park Grant project Park Grant funded project are we using colors and and surfaces that are more amenable to you know to letting water run off or reflect the sun better not absorb the Sun and make it hotter do we publicize and provide Outreach in our environmental justice neighborhoods

again that's the purpose of having this information available so that everyone can see what our Park Grant project is do we have a partner for future stewardship so the city usually does some you know city-wide cleanups there are also several organizations that will approach us and say hey we'd like to help with maintaining a certain Park a certain area so we're always working looking to see what Partners can help us

maintain the park how does the project address our open space and Recreation plans goals objectives or action plan items one of the conditions of Eligibility is that the city must have an open space and Recreation plan we do have a current plan in place I believe it expires in 2024 so we're okay for now a couple of the the goals that we know the open space plan is designed to make sure that

we have a blueprint for responsible conservation and Recreation planning in the city of Fall River so it's not just that we just willy-nilly say oh let's do this here no we have an actual written plan that has to be approved by the state so one of the goals of that plan is to improve the quality of our parks and our Park system to maintain existing trees and plant additional trees and to

maintain Parks so we always let the state know yes we've looked at our goals yes this project will meet help us meet our goals for open space and then lastly how many goals and objectives from the Statewide comprehensive outdoor recreation plan will be Advanced the state is also required to have a plan it's called the Statewide comprehensive outdoor recreation plan or scorp for short and

those goals include providing access to Recreation for underserved populations and support the creation and renovation of neighborhood parks so again we point out to the state we've looked at the state's plan our project will help the state meet some of those planned goals we've been very fortunate over the years just in the time that I've been with with the city in this role which is about 12 and a half years now so

starting back in 06 we've received quite a few of these Park grants about two and a half million dollars worth and these are some of the projects over the years that have been funded in North Park there were a couple of projects to renovate the North Main Street entrance and to renovate the bleachers and the walkway um in britland park we put in the Synthetic Turf field and improved the

entrance and the parking area and created some paths and a picnic area in Maplewood Park we acquired two Parcels of land and so that added to the park to make it larger we put in basketball courts in five Parks Kennedy Ruggles Maplewood Abbott Court and North Park we've managed to improve the ball fields in Maplewood Kennedy and Abbott Court with one of these grants we put in spray parks in Maplewood and chew parks

and our most recent recently completed project was the Kathy Assad totlock playground and splash pad if you haven't been there you should drive by it looks wonderful that was our project that just ended at the beginning of June just last month and the project that is currently underway is the Kennedy Park tennis and pickleball courts it's now in construction and must be completed by June 1st of 2023.

so as you can see we've been pretty fortunate with grants from the state to do lots of Park improvements just a correction um Jane the spray Park's a Pulaski and shoe Maplewood was not one of them so in case anybody's watching I don't want them to think that this spray pot there was polesky and chew that okay being the spray pops okay thank you thanks for making that correction I'll correct it um

so this year the project that we're considering applying for is to renovate the skate park at Abbott Court playground the skate park there is in pretty rough shape there's some rusted features there's lots of graffiti there's lots of cracks not only in the jumps and the ramps but in the asphalt that is the base itself the fence is in tough shape in some places so we would be removing and replacing those features

the ramps and the jumps and also the fence and the asphalt and we would be planting some new trees at the park as well that is everything that I wanted to share today about the park Grant and if anyone has any questions now or even later I'd be happy to answer them

right now I guess yeah okay I would imagine yes yeah I'll do next week to make a motion that we uh approve this and have her move forward and prove this application and uh move forward that motion seconded by commissioner Regal all in favor say aye thank you very much Item B ID a reward Kennedy Park tennis courts renovations ifb Dash number 22-22 Bay Street as you see we have the kind of squats the bids

that we came in tabulation and a letter from Mr uh from Ronnie jocks to Mr Dia for the architect from Stockton

looks like everything's all in set a bit more opened on May 18th you have any questions no no concerns no here you have a motion to approve this motion to accept it okay motion accepted uh and approved was a commissioner various second break commissioner Rigo all in favor say aye aye aye foreign C request from Christian McCloskey youth coordinator city of Florida police and public police

and public palooza at Brooklyn Park on world Dell Street August 23rd this is an annual event uh I just think they don't think they had it last year or the year before because of covet but they've had this in the past Police Department everything that puts this on with them so we have any questions concerns no questions uh those dates available August 23rd available yeah yeah anytime they have I'll reschedule any

games they have for that night yes I think they just need the parking lot right they don't need the field but the parking lot the teams usually talk a lot as well so yeah so I'm saying they don't need the field it's the basketball court and everything else that they need it's just they need the parking lot huh so there won't be no parking for the fields right but we in

order to make sure that everybody has enough room we just asked them to reschedule all right uh since this is uh run by the city youth service coordinated there's not going to be no fees no liability in that right right okay so driver for motion to approve this motion to approve it commissioner made that motion seconded by commissioner Ferris all in favor say aye aye um I believe we voted on this last week I

mean last month uh we had the individual here pilot pediatric uh flya use of Highland Park Robeson Street for Healthy Living event on July 13th from 6 pm to 8 P.M they were just uh gonna get back to Mrs Smith and that's why she included it did the actual date that they picked on the Fly what it looks like and what it's all about so we have any questions or concerns yeah okay um

approve this in a second commissioner Regal made that motion second by commissioner Farris all in favor say hi item e H we crossed on the mayor's office events with the narrow and greater forward Recreation for the Arts and Music events at various sites 5 30 P.M to 8 pm starting July 6 at Griffin Park Fort Street July 13th Pulaski Park Warren Street July 20th police oh lus Park Aetna Street excuse me July

27th Arundel spot Seabury Street August 3rd Kennedy Park Broadway August 10th Lafayette Eastern Avenue and August 17th Abaco Burke Street August 24th North Park President Avenue they had this event last year uh any concerns or questions so commissioner Regal made that a motion to approve of a second a second second Commission of Ferry that's all in favor say aye aye okay item uh f request from the four of a community

tenants uh Association use of Maplewood courts Stafford Road Bicentennial courts Duval Street so I know we uh just approved stuff last night they had the dates here Tuesdays and Wednesdays at uh on 7 12 7 13 7 19 720 726 727 9 A.M to 11 p.m 11 A.M uh the original package showed that they had Monday dates yeah so right if you look at the calendar I put that was the copy in black and white I

just made a circle those are additional dates so now at Maplewood they're going to have Monday Tuesdays and Wednesdays so just so the board knows they still do have those other dates it's not that those dates have expired these have additional dates and as well at Bicentennial and I think at Bicentennial they're asking for three courts so at one point the courts are going to be um

at one point the courts are going to be taken in the morning and they're going to be taken again at night um yeah that's at Maplewood so on the Wednesdays they're going to be taken from 9 to 11 and then they're going to be taken from 6 to 7 30 at night on the Wednesday so just so the board knows um these dates are additional I believe most of it ends by mid-august so um

they will not be given more than three quarts because we have to leave a corpse General Public and the thought and not to bring this up but the next item that you're going to address is for additional time at Bicentennial for a summer camp so there'll be a little bit of coordinating of times down there so there's going to be times where people are not quotes are not going to

be available to people so just so we know three chords yeah they did submit rosters a while back I think there was maybe I don't know 12 15 people that were on the rosters if you remember not offhand it was last month's meeting I did I do remember they because uh commissioner Sylvia commented that they had submitted their rosters and their insurances and so I know there was a roster submitted I

can ask how many people are in their league if you'd like

I just I don't have a problem with it I just you know if there's like only like 12 13 people playing in this I don't want to be tying up all these points for 12 13 people and then the public have nowhere to play we only have tennis courts at two different parts well you have a couple of them well we have vanity Park and everything but they're kind of yeah

not in the best of shape yeah the two best quotes that you have the newest that have been resurfaced on Maplewood and um the only thing I can suggest is you can award it and let them know that if there's complaints that come forward based on the amount of people that they have you may have to cut back some of their time I guess I could let them know that like we'll

reward what what you're requesting but please know that if the board receives additional concern about it then we may have to adjust the times you have it's like I said I don't have a problem with it I like to have all parts of being used in it but I also want the actual average taxpayer that wants to just go play a pickup game or something with these kids or something to have the

opportunity and not having all these leagues or associations taking up all this time and they're not paying for this so the actual tax paid never gets a break here and gets on the opportunities here so and I know some of these leagues not all of them are citizens but taxpayers uh actual citizens before so I'm going to look out for the Citizens First okay so so what's your pleasure it's a pleasure Commissioners well

bases and then if it gets out of hand and we get enough you know to get complaints that the citizens can't use it then we'll uh to revisit it revisit it and um make sure that we all can use it so I'll make I'll make that a notion of Ferris made that motion do I have a second one second commissioner Regal made that second so I'll uh all in favor

say aye aye all right so we're awarding the additional dates yes and if there's any concern there's no complaints uh item G requests from Martin Middle School summer camp to use the bicentennial Courts for Wall Street 12 30 to 2 30 July 25th to the 28th and August 1st to August 3rd the first time thing

so it's just that first page thank you

so do we have any uh questions concerns permissions available

there so those thoughts on those days um would be used 12 30 to 2 30 and then they would be reserved again 5 30 to 8 or 6 to 7 whichever um thank you depending on the night it is Tuesdays 5 30 to 8.

Wednesdays and Thursdays are six to seven so it'll be tied up during the day for two and a half hours and then at night for another two and a half hours or an hour depending on the night unfortunately accept uh commissioner Rigo second commissioner farius all in favor say aye

I was a football team foreign

chair Organization for the use of Lafayette Park Eastern Avenue on 723 from 12 to 4 to conduct a community event

you guys have a letter in front of you

I wonder how many units how many youths from Fall River that they have I know they're opening it up to the public so it's not just for the for the team team it's open to the public to invite other people to recruit kids to recruit kids and everything so and they know that they're not going to bring grills and stuff like that yeah well I would definitely have them sign that go around with that form because

it's also saying if we can't bring grills we'll put hot dogs in self-contained whatever but you're not supposed to bring stuff from outside in I'm not really sure of the particulars of that so they would have to check all that out with the health department so my suggestion would be that they um at least do the if they would definitely need to have a liability insurance policy like everyone else and they

probably shouldn't sign a Civic events form so that we know they've gone to the health department and who have gotten the particulars on what they can serve and what they can do and we don't have anything on our date um I believe the following week is the week that you there's something there on the uh the following week from in the morning from like 27 28 29 that was like um the Bible study okay kids um

that was from I believe nine to twelve well as long as they follow what would we recommend I don't see a problem letting him use it at that the 23rd so Civic events form liability insurance policy and the fee yes ma'am what is this uh at the bottom that's the second event it's crossed out because they were looking to have an event on the ninth and I told them there was no this says

uh the battleship area yes for 723. they were looking to have the event in the parks on the 9th in that Heritage on 23.

so Heritage I told them that they could not get permission by the ninth yeah so she moved the 23 to the parks and I don't know maybe she flip-flopped it if Heritage could turn it around quicker than we could okay so I'm not I crossed that out because she was that dates wouldn't come from but she knows she knows that some time yes I told her that I thought when it said above about

Battleship Arc I thought she was talking about the green that goes along Heritage Heights no so photography Civic events form and liability correct yes yes Parkview definitely yep hey do I have a motion to approve this yes motion to approved commissioner uh Regal seconded by commissioner farius all in favor say aye aye item I requests from the Healthy Families program the use of Kennedy Park pavilion

Broadway for a story time with Sasha on July 13th from 9 A.M to noon so healthy families I believe this is uh People Incorporated yes yes that's a program from People Incorporated they just want to have a story time event at the Pavilion for their families and then any other families that want to show up yeah I don't see us uh having uh probably no uh liability or fees or nothing like this would do you

think well People Incorporated might be able to attended I think you need to have a life a liability at least yeah yeah you don't have to yeah since it is their event we don't have to have the Civics event form and uh we're not cooking or anything or the fee but at least the liability insurance should state the city as a secondary you have a motion on it make a motion uh

can you say it the way it should be yeah make a motion that we uh rent them with the live elements listen to City secondary and weave in all epoxies for this event for this event all right uh item uh Commission of Harris made that motion seconded by commissioner Rigo all in favor say aye all right okay item J requests from CRV for the use of cupola field Rafael on July 17th from two to

seven for a company outing when I first read this I know I don't know how you guys feel but I know it's 20 to 30 employees but this is not open to the public this is for our employees it's a private event I know we're definitely going to have to have liability insurance and um I would definitely I know we don't charge all the leagues and everything but this is a total different animal this is

a market wanting to do something for their employee employees in that to use the landing that so if that was any other place they'd have to use a payfee so I would definitely request the fee to use that I feel please don't run right on the corner of Broadway and wrap it up first from the garage across the garage we do have a new softball league that's been using it yeah

it's uh your pleasure but that's my feelings really really all permits but they'd have to pay a fee too okay thank you Okay so let me prove that that gate is open work with Mrs Smith uh but uh giving them permission to use it if they have liability insurance as a city secondary and also use a photography so if they're getting a permit they need liability insurance we need to pay the 125. pay the 125.

and uh no grills nothing like that right guys no I'm just saying in case they've on a they want to bring snacks or something like that because I know it's like the market or something they may have stuff set up or something for their employees but I wouldn't recommend any cooking or nothing there all right so commissioner Rego made that motion oh one second seconded by commissioner farius all in favor say aye oh

all right item K last one update dog uh pop dispensers our place entirely the Wall Street so the last meeting we were talking about these dispensers this is the brand new dispenser that Jessica put in and as you can see already been destroyed again yeah people stand on the back so it'd be my recommendation that I know the Vets have the cameras down there if we're gonna put this in

again at the request of the Vets then they need at least this was not the Vets it was the wall people that asked the walls so either way they're all vets for me uh the walls Iwo Jima or the Vietnam Wall or any of them different people there no no I understand that so I don't want their responsibility they're all working together for that park down here so my understanding is they have surveillance

cameras down there if we're gonna put these at the request of them they're going to need to work with you to let us see that footage to see who's destructing us if they have anything if not I'm going to put a request you I don't know how you guys feel that we do not replace these because it's just costing this body money if it's just going to keep getting vandalized

I don't know how you guys feel and anybody else they would bring a bag and if pocket just so the board knows city ordinance States yeah City London states that you are to bring your own item to Pick Up After Your Dog yeah the suspenses are here as a courtesy and as a um I don't know a plus but it's not supposed to be the only thing that you

depend on it says that and it also says that you are supposed to remove it from the pot not put it in a POC Barrel but and I meant to attach the ordinance so you would have it but uh probably got sidetracked and whatever I can put the ordinance in the next meetings packet if you'd like but this particular place I have replaced this one a few times and it's not it's not alone

and it doesn't matter whether the dispenser is metal with dispenser is plastic they why I don't know but what is the what's the cost of these uh they're a good two to three hundred dollars so like I said you're talking if she's already replaced this three or four times you're talking almost a thousand dollars yeah what is a camera you just have to ask uh well the point of it is I think the

cameras to be are more focused on The Monuments and I certainly don't want to put a dog dispenser adjacent to a Veteran's Memorial I just think that's not a good thing but um I mean we have had other organizations that want to buy them we can't stop them if the organization wants to buy them I don't think this board has any problem with that um but like you said it has been replaced a number of times

and I just had Mrs Smith a couple of months back replace one at Maplewood that got destroyed so it's like do we keep replacing these and no it's taxpayer dollars that we're going to keep spending this money that this money could be used on a swing or something that's more utilized for these for the kids then I don't like this pencil just relax yeah and then well the supply that she's

stocking that someone's going by and stealing them up because they don't want to go and buy them yeah yeah chores or anything when you're going shopping I saw it wasn't in a city though it was I was going somewhere Saturday out of town and I passed by a park and they were taking it when they put the hand in the dispenser they didn't take one they putting it in kept

putting it in their pocket so they take them off exactly that's how they do it so I mean it's so easy to get there take the paddle newspaper I used to use the Herald newspaper you know the bags they don't lose your chicken at that time I mean the Walmart bags are blowing in the trees yeah okay but anyway I wanted the board to know that that's what happened we have to so

in case we do get a complaint that it wasn't replaced it has been replaced and this is the new one so this is just another one this is just an update so we don't have to take a vote on this thing no it's just to buy some fire just place on file the motion to place on file I'll make a motion place on file submission Ferris made that motion seconded by

um I would just check with us to see if we ever have any other organizations want to replace them or something but I would not be replacing them I won't talk to them Commander um that's all right that's fine commissioner inquiries that was mine okay so commissioner Ferry said he will talk to the walk veteran Council Commander uh commissioner Regal any updates or no we started tonight with the Box okay

uh well I think we should make a motion um let me guess the moment of silence for the people that just got uh in the Highland Park in Illinois yes so

thank you all right another commissioner inquiries uh everybody go out and enjoy themselves this summer I know there's a lot of events planned for the summer at the different parks in it and housing developments and everything so go out and enjoy yourselves it's all free to the public so go out and enjoy yourselves I have a lot of fun have safe summer and we'll see you in August okay thank you

uh uh excuse me a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion to do today commissioner Ferris made that motion second by commissioner all in favor say hi hi bye