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Antrim Parks & Recreation Commission
Minutes
September 12, 2013
The meeting was called to order at 7:02 pm.
Attendance
Parks & Rec Commissioners: Joan Gorga, Sam Harding, Peter Lamb, and Tim Smith
Additional: Laurie and Tom Griggs, Police Chief Scott Lester, Officer Brian Lord and Sergeant Ryan Storro
Minutes
The minutes from the August 15, 2013 meeting were approved as written.
Memorial Park
10-Year Plan
Overview. Parks and Rec Commissioners briefly explained to those in attendance the goal of formulating a 10-year plan for Memorial Park based on community input.
Summary of survey results and other feedback. Joan presented a summary of the results of 92 returned surveys collected over the course of the summer at Town Hall and at various functions held at Memorial Park. Tabulated results were shown graphically and excerpts of comments were presented (see Amendment 1).
Public and police input. Memorial Park neighbors Laurie and Tom Griggs explained that the skate park was not there when they bought their house and questioned whether the neighborhood was the place for it, as it appears to be the source of much activity, including people spreading trash, unsupervised teens and youths, screeching vehicles and boom boxes and general disrespect for property. Kids are frequently in the park after it closes, and their inappropriate behavior and language is offensive to neighbors and a bad influence on their own children. Those using the park also walk through, and even lie down in, neighboring yards and throw trash. The offensive activity is cyclical, and appears to have recently gotten worse.
Antrim Police Chief Scott Lester, Sergeant Ryan Storro and Officer Brian Lord outlined several topics to be addressed, including tobacco use and distribution, marijuana/narcotics use and distribution, alcohol use and distribution, vandalism, littering, reckless driving, swearing and bullying. The large groups of 15- to 22-year-olds they make contact with are from all over the area, sometimes as far away as Jaffrey. Officers are seen coming, regardless of approach, and are not able to build cases against violators in many circumstances due to the lack of admissible evidence and/or witnesses willing to testify. It is an area the officers are frequently called to and patrol on their own due to the nature and volume of the complaints.
The police explained that there have been at least 14 incidents at Memorial Park this summer outside of normal contacts they make at the park. They read a letter from a park neighbor, leaving out juveniles’ names, describing observations of underage drinking and smoking, pot smoking, swearing, and kids walking into the woods behind a neighboring house to hide. They also had two other letters from nearby residents. One of the issues the police face is that they can be seen approaching the park from all directions, which gives perpetrators time to hide evidence. Cables to the security cameras have been cut numerous times. They are now spending money to get the cables covered with heavy metal casing that will reach high up the poles and cannot be easily cut. In addition, the cameras in place cannot
be moved or used to focus in to identify a person. Higher-tech cameras are needed in order to have those capabilities. The park has become more of a hangout than a recreation area. Many of those who hang out there are not Antrim kids, and the general lack of adult supervision allows older kids to have undue influence over younger children using the park. Younger kids who are responsive to the police and do want to help, for instance to pick up trash, are bullied by older kids.
Several areas of action were identified, to be acted upon as soon as possible, with the goal of “taking back the park”:
- Memorial Park will be made a “Tobacco Free” area. A motion to support an ordinance to ban all tobacco products in Memorial Park was passed unanimously.
- The police will be able to issue trespass orders against frequently suspected offenders. A motion that police can temporarily limit access to individuals who are not using the park for its intended purposes was passed unanimously.
- Park rules will be posted in several places. These will include no tobacco products, no alcohol, no littering (a state statute), and park hours.
- More adult presence will be encouraged, especially at times of the day when vandalism appears to be highest (just after GBS dismissal) and throughout the afternoon and evening. More sponsored afternoon and evening programs may be offered at the park.
- We will try to reach youth through education and positive reinforcement. The police will be reaching out to GBS students through the GBS Morning Show. It was also noted that GBS has limited facilities for kids to use after school, which leads them to find other areas in Antrim to hang out, even if they are from other towns.
- It was noted that those who are “hanging out” at Memorial Park are, for the most part, not those who are using the skate park for its intended purpose, and they often just move on to hang out at the bandstand if legitimate skate park users show up. Parks and Rec will increase efforts to bring attention to skate park committee functions, and to not allow legitimate skate park users to be driven away.
- Repairs to the existing video cameras are underway. The contractors will be asked about placing low-profile cameras in other areas, especially the bandstand. The question of liabilities and legalities of making the live videos public was raised as a possible deterrent. Scott Lester will take this question to Galen Stearns.
- Additional fencing should be placed around the perimeter of Memorial Park to cut off quick access to hideout places in neighboring yards.
- Repairs and improvements should be made to the basketball and tennis courts, the children’s play area should be expanded, and benches and picnic tables should be added to encourage legitimate park users.
- Parking spots by the skate park, which appear to be used primarily for illegitimate park uses, could be used to build a barricade and fences to keep skate park users out of Jameson Avenue. The remaining parking spots could be restricted to town residents.
- Restroom facilities could be built to make the park more attractive to both young families and seniors.
Skate Park
Skatepark subcommittee. There is some concern about the battle of the bands being scheduled at the same time as the skate competition takes place during Home and Harvest Days. Any issues that arise will be addressed before Home and Harvest next year. The skate park subcommittee will start dismantling the pyramid in phases on Sunday, September 15, the day after the skate competition. They will start the reassembly the following weekend.
Additional field space
Acquisition of additional land. Peter spoke to some more abutters to the proposed park property on Smith Road. They indicated that they were not opposed, and felt they would prefer a park to two houses being built. There are still others in the neighborhood who have not been contacted. Dennis McKenney provided a full –sized survey of the lot. Peter Wells, from the Berkshire Design Group met with Peter Lamb at the property to look at the feasibility of the site. A motion was passed unanimously to use up to $1200 from this year’s budget, if sufficient funds remain, to have a conceptual plan drawn up.
Budget
Capital Improvement Projects
CIP budgets are due immediately. We will put together requests for:
- Lights at Shea Field to be leased for $75,000
- A new mower at a cost of $15,000
- The land on Smith Road for $90,000
- $50,000 for engineering of repairs at Memorial Park, to eventually include reconstruction of a combined tennis and basketball court, removal of trees and planting of new ones, constructing a surface drainage system, lighting improvements, construction of bathroom facilities, playground expansion, new fencing and skate ramp improvements
Shea Field
Scoreboard. The scoreboard has not yet been installed.
Dead ash trees on west end. Andy Robblee assessed the row of dead ash trees on the west side of Shea Field, and will plan to remove the dying or dead trees and prune back overhanging limbs on others as necessary. He recommends waiting until the ground is frozen, as he will have to drive heavy trucks over the grounds to reach the area. It was uncertain whether the funding will come out of the Town or the Parks and Rec budget.
Nets. Pete solicited a quote for additional netting to be installed on the north and west sides of Shea Field to keep balls from going into the rough vegetation on both slopes, down West Street or into the water. The posts have been ordered for $1600. The nets have not yet been ordered.
ConVal Agreement
School board activity. The meeting with the school board on the gym agreement is scheduled for September 24 at 5:00 pm.
Gregg Lake
Point. Vandals have pulled out one of the beach barbecue structures.
The next regularly scheduled Parks & Recreation Commission Meeting will be held on Thursday, October 10th at 7:00 pm at the Rec Office.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:18 pm.
-Joan Gorga, Chair and Secretary
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