Parks and Community Programs Advisory Committee
Meeting Minutes from 5/19/2009
The meeting was called to order by Faith Varney at 4:05 PM.
Present: Janet Lane Dye, Karen Jones, Steve Tenney, Bonnie Troubh, Faith Varney, Ana Gabor, Jay Reynolds (Parks Division)
The minutes from the April 2009 meeting were accepted.
Jay Reynolds reported that the Parks Division is working on trail maintenance at Community Park before the Striders meet next week. They are focusing on regular spring maintenance and a few wash-outs. Parks Division has received a request for Art-in-the-Park for Underwood Park. Karen commented on the lack of parking for that park and other committee members concurred. Jay talked about gravel parking spaces that have been added on rte. 88. Jay also updated the committee regarding complaints of animal traps in Pine Grove Park. After some investigation, they determined that the traps were from neighbors. Animal Control advised them to relocate the traps outside of the park.
Faith Varney reported on the Falmouth Ice Rink Proposal presentation to the Council. The Council’s main questions were:
- If demand is so great, why not run by a business?
- Will there be open skating time for Falmouth residents?
- Will this compete with Family Ice? What will the relationship be?
- Cost to town teams?
- What is the market for summer facilities?
The Council gave a “go-ahead” at this time. They have asked the Ice Rink group to work with PACPAC to determine next steps.
The Committee agreed that there are several questions that have gone unanswered by the Ice Rink group. Faith will present these questions to the Ice Rink group and ask that they be addressed before we continue with discussions. The Ice Rink group will be invited to address these questions at our June meeting or the September meeting. (No meeting in July and survey of grounds planned during August meeting.)
Outstanding Ice Rink Questions:
- What is the relationship with Family Ice?
- Please address the issue of using public land versus a developer/private parcel. How has this been explored?
- Will there be open skating time for Falmouth residents? And will Falmouth have some free or reduced ice fees?
- If using public land, a “life-of-the-building” commitment to give Falmouth town teams priority scheduling would be expected. Are you willing to make this commitment?
- What is the plan for non-ice year round use of this facility?
Steve Tenney reported on the Community Facilities Planning Project. They have summarized and reviewed the results of the meeting surveys and online surveys. The next steps are to communicate these results to the Falmouth community, compile basic space and design requirements and hand over these requirements to the architects.
The next scheduled meeting is :
June 16, 2009 at 4 PM.
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