December 3, 2025 – Recreation Commission – Video & Transcript
December 3, 2025 - Recreation Commission
I recall meeting in order on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2025, 1030 a.m., hybrid Zoom meeting at Wayland Town Hill.
His agenda is called order, public comment, minutes review, and approved minutes if available on October 21st, 2025.
But our commissioner's announcements, reports, and concerns, CPA report, involving funds, schedule the next meeting, and potential agenda items.
It's not reasonably anticipated by the chair, 48 hours, an advance meeting, if any, and adjourn.
We have a hard stop at noon.
If we can get out of here before that, how much the better.
I think we all love this board.
Okay, we have a couple of comments. None? None on mine? Nope. Nope. We do not. A couple of minutes if available. My friend sent them to me this morning. I couldn't put them in your packet, but I can send you a digital copy.
A couple of ministers to look at those. I mean, I guess, we have to figure out what the council is, but when people are, you know, what player you want, but I don't know. Yeah.
All set. Would someone make a motion to accept it as provided, or, excuse me, October 21st, July 25th? Sure, I'll make a motion to accept it. All right. Is there a second? Second. Second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Commissioners, announcements, reports, and concerns. General announcements. Do we have any general announcements?
Not for me. No? You did it. Good. Route 20, landfill positioning committee. Yes. Would you give a little update in terms of the meeting that was held under public comment? Yeah. No, I appreciate your public comment. We were cut short due to, you know, meeting a quorum with the commissioners. Some folks had to leave. Oh. Okay. So, we didn't get to fully complete the meeting, but it absolutely feels like it's trending towards, you know, the most appropriate use as a field, you know, versus, you know, housing while that we're continuing. That work is continuing, but it definitely, you know, a lot of questions about it for this work. But my understanding of the housing thing has to do with the old burn dump and whether or not it would cost a lot of time money to clean it up in order to do that. Yeah. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. I can't see, based on the current fiscal situation, that there's going to be a big willingness to do that. Yeah. Nor if you were to give it, just give it to a developer, for the developer to do that work and have a land basis that high. I mean, the work's still going on to, there's still, I think there's still borings and studies being done on the, but yeah, it seems rather cost prohibitive. Is there any, do you know if there's any issues in terms of putting a field in there, as far as, oh yeah, that's concerned? None that I've heard yet. Okay. Yeah. And what about, was there any discussion about the dog park? Um, there wasn't definitive discussion necessarily about the field or the dog park. Um, there was just a lot of, you know, review of the current facts from the, um, engineers. Okay. Um, and, you know, asking DPW what their perspectives were on the findings. Um, so I, we had just gotten into the, you want, what now conversation. Okay. And actually, it was, it was classic. Um, Mike Spelman, uh, had to go to work and, you know, there was a crane that he needed to attend to. So I was happy for him that some kid's going to be reading up on the minutes and find out that the meeting was adjourned on account of the crane.
Pretty cool. Okay. Very good. Yeah. Uh, thank you, Mark. Uh, how about, uh, community preservation? Yeah, we had a good meeting. We reviewed all the, um, some applications that came in, um, and, um, kind of a smaller number of submissions this year, which was kind of confusing. Um, but, uh, I'm just pulling up my minutes here. Um, there's a few open space plan, um, items, uh, you know, the submission about Eliza's Park, which I imagine we'll start talking about. Um, there's a, the revamping of, or review of, of Dudley Pond's area and how to add a few walkways and how to, um, a few, possibly a few purchases that would be helpful, like a, um, drone camera with a heat system, a heat, uh, um, tracking system, you know, which will be useful for a few projects around town, but maybe won't apply for CPA funds. Um, but yeah, no, that was, so there, you're just, um, going to be, and then Hamlin Woods boardwalk, uh, to repair, repair, a boardwalk that was, uh, damaged or, or maybe no longer even there. Um, so a few small things, but not, not a major, um, no, obviously I'm asked that we're unaware of, we're aware of, of what's, what's happening. All these, um, submissions are very small dollars compared to previous years. And then. How much, how much money goes through, is this interesting? Yeah. It's, uh, I fear one, uh, actually we don't have the actual dollar amounts for this year. Um. I'm excited to start. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. Okay. Yeah. Um, but yeah. Is there, at some point in time, is there, will that, will that number be known? We should not, we have a meeting tonight. We're here. Yeah. So I hope, yeah. Cause I think, um, Doug Stotts was looking at that, but he didn't want to commit to a number yet. Yeah. They invited me to appear before them tonight when they've asked a number of questions, some of which are mine to answer, some of which are for you to answer. And we can talk about that when we get to the next agenda item, but, um, some of the open questions about how much money they have has to do with status updates on some of the projects that are open. Um, and, and some of those belong. And some of them don't. Some of them. Right. And so I have a couple of recommendations and I can walk through those about turning money back to the CPA either just because it won't be used in a timely fashion or, um, it's just old money. Um, I did create a, like a one page writeup of those projects. If you want to move on to the next agenda, and I can talk about that. Okay. We'll move on to that. Yeah. So it's a one pager. It has a little playground on the back. Um, there are seven projects right now, the year we've applied for CPA funds that date back all the way to FY 2016. In 2016, we asked for $85,000 to finish the Dudley Woods walking trails, which as you know, are done. Um, there's $2,500 left in that account, which the historical commission at the time wanted to reserve to install historical signage on that site. I don't know that the historical commissioners have talked about that since 2016. Evan? Yeah, because I guess, um, they have to run signage through another commission. Okay. Um, it's like a state foundation and they're very particular about what's on the signs and how many signs are there. Okay. So my recommendation tonight was going to be to turn that money back. But potentially that my recommendation is for them to consult with the store commission to spend that money. Cause it's not ours to spend at this point. I think it belongs to the historical commission. Okay. So that's how that one will shake out. Um, in FY 22, um, we petitioned the CPA for $50,000, uh, for some design work at the middle school. And at the time on the capital plan was to redo the back of the middle school baseball fields. There was talk about turf, all of that. And this was just to help support that. I think there was at the time, some kind of tip off that there might be $15,000 up for grad. And we applied for it and got it. Um, but because that plan is no longer in like the five year capital plan, I would say, I would recommend turning it back now and then just asking for it again later when we need it. Um, it was, um, it was supposed to be dovetailed with some other work that was happening at the middle school. That's just not on the right now. No, and there was talk at the time about potentially if we're going to look at the middle school that we should look at that current area that we use behind the middle school, the one 95 lot, the whole property and try to like make a, like a design of this $50,000 would help support that design. But as you know, since then we've learned a lot about the condition of the one 95. There's another group in town that's pushing for a community center or a athletic center there. So, um, I think more community discussion needs to happen around that. And it's just for $50,000, I would say, um, potentially give it back now and then apply for it again as part of a bigger project, uh, supported by the whole town or co-sponsor, not just a rec project because according to the MOU, that project, because it's on a school property, um, would be a jointly sponsored initiative from the schools, the rec and probably the DPW. So that's where that stands. Um, the next one is the constituent basketball court, which I, um, applied for in 2024. Um, we asked for $150,000 at the time. The CPA awarded the money, went to town meeting and got approved. We bid the project, um, late in 2024. Bids came back very high, much higher than 150. Um, and so we, at the time is when the EJN foundation started talking about rehabilitating things that go into a ballpark. So we tabled that money, uh, until we could get a site plan done, um, to figure out, you know, if that basketball court, if that's the right spot for the basketball court, if they want a basketball court, how to do it. Um, so that's still being kind of tabled until we make more decisions about the site plan and the CPA application that we're going to look at today from the EJN foundation actually incorporates those funds into their budget. So that's pending. Uh, the beach entry, uh, improvement was also FY 24. The CPA awarded $147,000 at $500. Um, we've used a good balance of that, replacing the fence and doing some other projects. Um, we still have some work, but we ran out of time, um, on the front of the beach. Um, just like landscaping, um, some benches, some trash enclosures, things like that. So we are going to spend a little bit more this spring, but we do anticipate that we will have a sizable turn back, back to the CPA, maybe 50. Uh, we won't know until some of that stuff gets bit in the spring. So we're going to turn that back in, in the summer. Yeah, probably before June 30, as we'll know. Right. Um, so there's 85 left there, but we won't feed all 85, which is great. Um, but that one, we just got lucky. The fence, um, quotes that we got ahead of that project were really high. And then the low bid came in really low and not because of poor quality. It's a great fence. We're very happy with it, much better than what was there before. Um, so that's where that ended. Um, in FY 25, last year, um, we, for the EJN petition, the CPA for a project, $154,000 that included refurbishment of backstops and other, and the site plans. We just finished the site plans with Meridian Associates. We have, you have them here in your packet today. Um, I think that that's still unspent because we're still working through some of the design decisions, uh, that involved in the basketball court and the playground. Um, but we'll talk more about that when we go through the application. So there's been 18,000. Yes. On the site plans. Yes. Yeah. So we got 136,000. Yeah. But that is also incorporated into the budget for this current application. Um, the Children's Way Town Building Playground. Last year, we went to the CPA. We got $400,000 to replace that playground. You were ready to bid it, uh, about three weeks ago. Um, and before it hit the street, the town engineer has been working with Ty and Bond, which is a consultant on the town's stormwater initiatives to report with a MS4 permit, as they call it. And one of the recommendations from Ty and Bond was to remove the Children's Way Playground out of the wetlands, because it's currently in the back of this parking lot, not very close to the wetlands. Um, so we are willing to look at our options about moving it out of the wetlands, but it involves us going back to the design team and doing that. So we are hoping that we'll have some decisions between the town engineer, the playground designer, rec, and the Children's Way School, um, hopefully before this. What options are available in terms of moving it? Uh, somewhere else on this property, probably. Um, there was also talk about, um, the school department had to do some leg work to, they're currently going through some long-term, uh, school building planning to determine the future of the Children's Way, like if it will be here and how long it will be here before. I mean, that playground is used by much more than the Children's Way, but it is currently designed as a pretty preschool playground because the Children's Way is housed here. So if there wasn't a preschool house on this property, then maybe we might do like a five to 12-year-old playground and move it closer to the ball through or something. So we have to work through those open questions as we go through this process. Do we have, uh, sufficient property to house that? I think so. I think we do. There's a big area over by, um, Art King, that open area. I mean, they were talking a bit about the front of the building. There's a big island in front of this town building. Um, and potentially even just pulling it on the other side of the road where it is now into the courtyard. But we have to think about how the courtyard is used because it is used. Um, there's a lot of open questions. So that was like almost there and got taken off as a lot of projects do in this town. Um, and then the last one that the CPA asked me about was the constituent playground. Um, right now it's part of the EJN, uh, budget for this year. Right now in our, on our playground wheel, I don't know if you guys are familiar with this. This was a backpack of capital requests a long time ago. We have 12 playgrounds in town. We created a 24 year schedule. Contitua ballpark is slated in 2032. The, the two before that are the local school side playground and Claypit Hill kindergarten playground. Those three playgrounds together. Um, so this wheel was created after inspections and all playgrounds and it was determined the schedule based on the current condition and age of the facilities that are there now. Those three are pretty similar. And so my, when asked, I said that they could kind of be reordered, which I think we could do. So we could bump Contitua ballpark to FY 28. If that is what we want, but we have to get, we have to consult with the stakeholders from both the local school and the Claypit Hill school, uh, to kind of agree to bump their projects out. Which we haven't, we haven't talked about that yet. Um, but they absolutely could be reprioritized. Also, since that time, the town has established the capital improvement planning committee, which is working on the prioritization and the phasing of different projects. So I think that they would have to be roped into the projects. Well, the idea that we could titular ballpark to a sooner date would be because of the, the whole updating of that particular project or project. Yeah. We could, yeah, we could move to FY 28. Yeah. But the idea behind it is because we're looking at special updating that whole project. Yeah. It would be like a phase. You'd incorporate that into the bigger project. Okay. So that's what the CPA has asked me several questions. They asked me for the status of the projects that have been approved and appropriate so far. There they are. Um, they want to know where it lies as part 15 to the playground rotation, as I just explained. It's right now in 32, but it is open for discussion to bump it up. Um, they asked if the recognition supports the CPA application. I'm probably like speak to that because we have to make a decision on that. So one way or another. And then the last question is, I think it's for the town manager's office. It's not necessarily up to me. If approved, what would be the process and the timeline for that project? Um, right now, the open project that we talked about with the backstops, um, the site plan leg of that was assigned to the rec department and we worked through that and completed that. Um, I recently requested that we start the process for bidding the backstops. And it, I don't want to say it's tabled, but it's like, I think they're concerned about the bandwidth of project managers and resources that the town has to get that done before the spring. Um, but they're looking at it. But they're looking at it. So, and I haven't had an answer yet on that. So those are the questions that you can ask. I'm going to go before them tonight where they will ask those questions and I will give those same answers that I have just given to you all. Can you record them? I wish I did. Actually, it is being recorded on the son of the video. No, I don't, I don't mind. You don't even have to pee. I know. I don't mind it. It's six o'clock tonight. And Leslie will probably be there too. Double header today. Thank you for fitting us in. So that is my update on the CPA situation and I will end it back over to you. Okay. Okay. So, um, what are we coming out? So number six, do we go all in front? Nope, we didn't finish by bit. Oh, oh, oh. One of the, I think the recommendation, the, the, the, the recommendation doesn't have to take a position on this, um, particular CPA application, but the CPA, CPC has asked for a recommendation. Uh, in your packet, I also included the, the site plan process that we did from the CPA project one, produced three conceptual designs and three cost estimates, which I included in your packet. Um, the PJN has kind of morphed all three into one ideal project with a different cost estimate that they have presented to the CPA. Is that right? Is that right? Yeah. So, um, I'm happy to share backgrounds, um, not as a commissioner, but as on behalf of it. If that's helpful. Absolutely. Um. And I assume the goal is for us to take a position on supporting this. I, yeah, that's, that's right. That's right. So, um, however, the commission, uh, you know, wants to support it or table it or however they feel about it, responsibility. Yeah. Uh, I think the CPC is looking for the commission to take a position on it. Um, for that, I will abstain from, from voting, um, just for entirety sake. Um, I can give you guys quick overview. Um, you know, being kind of redundant on a little bit of what Catherine shared, but just walking through the whole process again. Um, for the benefit of not, you know, you all cause you've, you are fully aware of everything, but for those that maybe watch this later, um, the reason that we're, uh, going ahead with this, uh, effort is, um, three years ago, we lost our daughter Eliza. She was a fifth grader at Clay Pit. Um, we, as a family were overwhelmed by the support of the community. Um, we celebrated her, uh, that first year at Chichuit. Um, I can't even count how many people were there and have continued to each fall, um, celebrate her there as well. Uh, when she was born, we lived over on Shawman Ave Extension. So we spent a lot of time, um, over there with her and her sister, Jenna at the time, um, before moving over to, uh, Sears Road. Um, we've spent a ton of time at the park, uh, playing, um, coaching, um, multiple different sports. And, um, it's a place that's important to us. It's important to community. It's the front door of Wayland. Um, when you come into Waylands, it's one of the first parks that you'll see. Um, and so, uh, as a thank you, we wanted to, you know, pour our energy into the park. Yeah. And getting back to the community that was so great to support us. Um, so that's why we are where we are now. Um, our first effort there was, um, upgrading the existing dugouts, which were benches and vents, um, to, uh, the brick structures that you see today with the roof. Uh, we started out as a foundation, um, Eliza's foundation committed $175,000 to that project. We ultimately ended up, um, investing $275,000 into the, into the park through that project. Um, with that effort, our, um, intent was to continue the work, uh, continue to improve the park and make it a place where, you know, people of all ages could come together, celebrate, um, play, um, enjoy the park and be proud of it. Um, so with that, we wanted to, um, you know, we went to the, uh, CPC and showed them, you know, what we were thinking about and what we want to do to partner with them. Um, and I think at that time it was just too soon. We needed a plan and they came to us and said, can you give us a plan? Um, we'll support you in that effort and, you know, work with the recreation commission to go ahead and start that work. So we worked with Catherine, um, we started, you know, putting together that plan. Um, we've got a couple of concepts that are under review, um, but really, um, you know, just working in lockstep with, uh, with the CPC. So with that, we completed the plan that was requested. Um, it's an initial plan that you do have in front of you. So it's, this isn't like, Hey, we're done and final. Um, there's a number of elements that I think we want to incorporate over time to improve the, uh, the site beyond what you're looking at here. Um, but I can kind of walk you through, uh, where we are with the parks design. And, um, actually you can look at it on page five of the package, or you can see it as, uh, site plan three in, um, the packet that, uh, Catherine shared from designers. So I have a big form too. Oh, I brought the big form also, but you should, yours has been written all over. So it's three. Yeah. That's two. That is it. Yeah. I think you're right. Cause the drawing is different. You have a flexible space. It's different. Yeah. So, so this is, I don't know if you guys have nothing from the UASA. So, I mean, what we've got here is a, we think a great start. Um, there's a number of things that we want to focus on just from a practical perspective. Uh, first questions were, how are these drawings going to impact drainage? And how is it going to impact parking? Um, we absolutely don't want to impact, uh, drainage negatively in the area. And it is such a limited parking, you know, area as it is. Uh, we wanted to make sure to maximize, um, that aspect of the, of the design. We also wanted, um, in an effort to make it, um, if you go to the park at any time, you'll see people walking around it. And right now they're just walking around a square. So we wanted to really kind of make a space for people to walk and enjoy the, the park in a more, um, enjoyable way. Uh, we want to have it, um, you know, be measured off. So folks can walk around and know exactly what they're doing. Uh, I know they have their Apple watches tell them what's going on, but, um, just to have that as well. Um, and then we really wanted to focus kind of first off. Oh, this doesn't have the fastball court. I was gonna say there's a couple of areas between two and it's almost like it's a merge between two. You know what? So we wanted, that's what's throwing me off. We want the walking path of two. Right. Yeah. The fastball court of the green. Fastball court. And the flexible space of two. Other way around. And the flexible space of two. Yeah. Yeah. So like I said, first round drawings. We are going to request from the group that furnished these three to kind of take our feedback and create one conceptual plan that we can kind of live off of. Yeah. And so, yeah, and that's what you're looking at here would be an improvement to the basketball court. Which we have the money for. Which we have the money for. And we'd like to make it more of a, uh, sport court. So soccer, basketball, roller hockey, if that's possible, that's an improvement we'd like to focus on. Um, and the improvement in the playground area. Um, what, what makes those, what, what makes it a more accessible for sports? Is it the surface or the fencing or the surface and pictures? Like there are some kind of units where you can incorporate like goals into a basketball hoop so that you could play hockey and basketball there right now. There's just basketball, basketball hoops. I think there's seven, eight, and there's like a park fence. There's not much there. And the court is in disrepair. We get requests probably a few times a year asking about when we're going to start resurfacing that court. Cause it's all. Yeah. Well, it wasn't there. It wasn't there as well. There was, yeah. I think it was resurfaced in a week later. Somebody marked it all out. Oh. Yeah. What do you mean? Like, um, the, the surface hadn't cured completely and kids went on there with bikes and stuff like that and, um, marked it up. Oh. These things. Cool. Yeah. Um, and so that's, you know, incorporate into design. We also want to, um, you know, try to find ways for, um, you know, just different play structures for both children and adults. Like, you know, can we fit in chess tables? Um, can we do, you know, add elements like that, that are not large in surface area, but impactful, um, to the community. Um, and so that's where we're at now. I think just to the last piece is, you know, as you mentioned, the, the backstops, the backstops are in disrepair in comparison to, especially in comparison to the other new dugouts. Um, and the space is lacking storage. So that's why there's an emphasis of trying to get the backstops and storage done before spring so that they can get that pod that's in the parking out there out of the way. Um, but that, so this is where we're at after round one set of drawings. So we reviewed it. We made comments. And now, uh, as Catherine said, the designer needs to come back. They have at least updated for us. Any questions so far? What, what, do you, if you were to, to do all the things that you want to do here, two questions for me is, what's the timeframe? According to these, everything influenced, I would assume that, that there would be a sort of a, a, uh, be step by step by step. Okay. How long will that take? And how much money now we're looking for? Yeah. So if you look at page seven in the CPC package, that will get us to the financial side of it. Um, Um, I'll start with the finances and then go to the schedule. That's probably the best way to do it. Um, so, you know, going off of the budgets that we received, I think we received a budget as high as 1.9, 1.4. And our request here is for 1.66, uh, of total budget. Um, and you could see in the table, the top table, number three, that's the anticipated costs. Um, these costs were provided by the design engineer. Um, and then, uh, that's what you see replied to do. If our way of, um, achieving the 1.66. Yeah. Is for private donations and partnership with, uh, Eliza's foundation. Yeah. Um, to provide another $500,000. Um, so that's in addition to the 275, we've already invested into the park. Um, the CPA request was for 500,000. Um, if we are able to move the park into, um, the playground schedule, uh, 400,000 there. Um, and then there's prior allocations, which we've discussed today, of an additional 260,000. To get us to that 1.66. Just, so the timeline. If that existing town capital product for playgrounds, that 400,000. I think the earliest that can be moved is at .28. Okay. Does that. Right. Yeah. I, we have to get a little greater. Yeah. I don't know. Who's responsible for that school thing? It's part of the MOU because it is like a DPW slash rec managed facility on the school for operation. And the MOU is probably about 10 years old? Yeah. It probably needs to be revisited. But the other part of that is generally when playgrounds at the schools are renovated, we do it in the summer. Um, just not to disrupt what's happening at the school. Yeah. I think we started in the spring. There was a, but it was COVID. So, um, so the timing of those playgrounds might help dictate the restructure of the order. But like I said, we, in 25, we went and got money for the children's way playground, which is still underway. Um, so not that those other ones would get delayed, but things just take longer than they opt to. Yeah. It's not just wayland, but it is a wayland thing. Um, yeah. Time timelines are lengthy just because of the process, like the procurement process that we have to do. So, so if, you know, determine where, where that playground would be and how that placement of playground would impact the actual use of the field as a current license. Yeah. I was just thinking out loud now, potentially we swap, but maybe we table children's way to 28. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. It is in disrepair and needs attention. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't bump it out to 32. Uh, but like I said, it involves the schools and we need to talk to the schools. That's not going to put the, we're outstanding. Yeah. That the, the placement of the playground and the rehab of the, of the, of the playground is not going to in any way impact what the other uses of Kachitri field law. Yeah. Correct? That's correct. Right. That would be absolutely good. Yeah. Just in terms of. Yeah. Yeah. It's relatively, it's basically the same envelope that the playground is right now. Okay. Yeah. That playground is the easiest one to renovate probably because it's not at a school and it's not in the field of play. True. I have a couple of questions about the playground. Um, the playground that's there now, does it serve, is it going to serve the same demographic of kids that will be the new playground feature? And, and then kind of, does it make sense? And, you know, when liaison with Hannah Williams, that's so nearby that like parents kind of bought or children bought from one to the other. Um, and then the second question I have is, um, it, it's been told to me that children with disabilities really need to have a fence around a playground so that they can be safely contained. Are you planning on that? Uh, yes, the plan is to have a fence, uh, includes a house. Um, and as for the ages, and I, just back me up on this. I think the way we're thinking about it is the younger age group is serviced by Hannah Williams. Yep, and this would be a 5 to 12. Yep. Cool. Yeah. I think we do have to probably carry the board in place number in the budget if we want to go that route for accessibility. Like you said, with children with disabilities, just make it accessible for all. Yep. Um, there is some legislation at the state bubble right now to investigate the board in place. Rob, there's a similar to term, but from rubber and what materials are being used. Um, but legislation also moves very slowly too, so. Yeah. Um, but just something to be aware of. Yep. Yep. Uh, considering. There's a bill right now about banning, um, rubber in place. Yes. I have the bill number. I don't know if that's, that's, that's made work. Oh. Is the entire field getting fenced in? Or, like I just happened to notice one there, there's like an improved entrance on the carpet and roads. Yeah. Would that all be fenced in or is that just like a, a little bit more of like a cleaner approach as opposed to just rolling into. Yeah. Good question. So they, um, they proposed fencing on the field. Um, but we, we told them not to include that. Um, it's not worth the cost. And also it, um, we don't have much real estate to work with. And I, I think, you know, part of the, you know, good nature of the park is that the parents are like right on the field. Yeah. Um, so no, no cuts is there. Good. I love your exchanging the parking in that bottom half corner to that walking flexible lawn space. Is that, is that, you know, you're still in plan? Yeah. Um, I mean, that could possibly have an impact on the funeral home, but, um, it looks like there's enough street parking to compensate. Yeah. So we were very literal about parking and making sure that we, that, which would, would and should be the first complaint is he would be taking away spaces here. Um, it would be open instead of, but yeah, so we're, that's what we're targeting. And, and also we're trying to think forward with the design. So, um, if in the future they want, you know, the town or wanted a gazebo over there or some other sort of, you know, more permanent structure for people to enjoy that space, it's available. Um, we're not necessarily closing that at this time. Is there a reason why you didn't extend the parking all the way to the corner on Bradford street? I think that has to do with underground stormwater. Yeah. Oh, the town engineer sat in some of these design meetings specifically focused on stormwater in that corner of the field. Sounds great. And she also supported the flexible space. I don't believe. Oh, no, I think we do lose some cause they wanted it to loop. And right now it doesn't loop. Is that right? Yeah, that's right. I mean, we even contemplated a curve cut here so that you go in and out, but we've gone through many iterations of this. I think that at most you're losing two parking spots here, but otherwise it's pretty much the thing, but you're adding. But you're not gaining another 10 down on the basketball court, which is dead space right now. There's a lot of distance between the basketball court and the street right now. It's a wide street anyway. So there's additional parking and they're kind of, there's plans to potentially formalize some of the parking that happens casually now. On one of the, on one of the designs, you have the, the improvement circulation part for that front lot. So, I mean, it ended up, we'd end up losing four spaces for that front part, but that is one of the biggest issues is that area, if there was any way to be able to actually make it so that way you can do a circle around that lot. Yeah. That would be, I mean. It's worth the price. It's worth the price to be able to not have everybody you turning when there's nothing up at that front corner. Yeah. We did even look at doing a curve cut, so you could just go in and one, but we abandoned that. There were a lot of reasons why that wasn't gonna work well. Do you, do you know the usage of that bathroom facility there and ours that it's open and available? Just. It's so it has a key code on it. And so all the user groups that hold permits receive the key code to it so that they can use it. We get requests consistently just from the general community wanting us to leave it open. Um, which I think the town has entertained in the past, but that area was like a hot button for vandalism. And so now we just continue to use the key code system. Um, I know you had a request about other bathrooms in town too. No. Yeah. Yeah. Just noticing it's taking up a lot of real estate and I never know if it's. It does get used a lot. And you know, we put, um, portable toilets at all the other facilities in town where people have permits. And so this and the high school are the only ones with actual facilities. Um, but so we don't put toilet parties there. So there's a little bit of savings. It's the key code coded by groups. So you would know if the system isn't that smart, but we, we, we have considered upgrading into a system. So we know who's in there when, but it is smart enough that we change it every season. So, because the number gets out there, kids get it, you know, like, so we, we try to change it every spring. Good. Not using it. Yeah, no, it is very highly used. And we have a cleaning company that can put in Queens. I think we'd like to reskin it. Just kind of make it the compression it up a little bit. Yeah. It's a little dark corner of constituents. It's kind of ugly. So we're good. There is a plan to make it a little more attractive. Yeah. Thank you. It's playing those red door. It's playing those red door. It's playing those red door. Schedule ASAP. Um, we would ideally, if DPW can support, would do the backstops and storage this winter, leading into the spring sports seasons. DPW would do the work? Well, isn't that what you're saying? The project manager. Oh, the project manager. But then see, we even contract out of project manager. Oh, okay. But I think that the concern about resources and timeline had more to do with procurement. Well, a little bit with project management. Oh. Okay. Yeah. So, um, it's on the radar. Okay. It's, I don't have an answer yet, but, um, there are a lot of projects. We don't know about it. We don't know about it. We don't know about it. We don't know about it. So I think there, there was, you know, it takes a lot of, like, bandwidth and resources and stuff over again, so. Yeah. Got it. Um, so that, you totally get that. So putting resources aside, the ideal would be to complete it before the spring season. Um, so that that portion of the projects is, you know, checked off. Yeah. Um, and then, I, you know, ideally we would have funding approved next spring, this June. So the fiscal, fiscal 27. This application, if approved at town meeting, which is, I think they booked it in May, would be available in July. In July. In July. Sure. Yeah. But some of the funds are already available, like the basketball court funds and the back stops. Like some funds are available. Um, but like I said, I think the playground funds wouldn't be available to F.28 unless we can swap out the children's wife, potentially. Yeah. So again, that's a combination we need to have in the schools. And so I think logistically, it seems like we're getting close with regards to the funding would be available in July. Um, which would mean at that point, we're probably bidding it after town meeting, right? Um, which, you know, we would have. A lot of times, like July 1, bids are ready to go. Yeah. Like everything that gets approved at town meeting, if it's ready, would get bid right away. And so that's, I mean, I think we'd probably be looking at end of year, next year, first half of the following year as the timeline. So if I finished, Dave, over the spring of, of, uh, 2007? Could be. If ever they were. Well, I imagine. That's ideal. That would be ideal. That would be ideal. Right. Yeah. I'm handicapping. So we should be able to do it. It was in 2030. Yeah. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we're, we're three years in. Would you be able to start, we'd be able to do backstops and then basketball courts and everything. It would just basically be playground based on the additional, and then the like rerouting and redesign of like parking and everything like beyond that. But because we already have funds for basketball courts and backstops, those could get started almost immediately. That's the hope. And like I said, I was, I was, we had a meeting five, two months ago. We were ready to bid the backstops. And the answer I got was basically get in line. Like there's other projects that are being bid ahead of this, which is normal in a municipal world. We can wait in line, but, um, yeah, I think immediate is a very high. You don't have to wait. It wouldn't, you could do the project in phases. Right. Being like, you have to say, great, there's funding that's already set aside for this. Next available time. We can do basketball courts and then we can do this. One of the goals we wanted from Meridian was to do that to kind of phase that out in the timeline and determine like the timeline for each phase of this and the funding source associated with it, which we can, you know, put pen to paper and work with them to make it happen. You don't, you don't anticipate, you don't anticipate that field being offline at all. Obviously the basketball court. That's another piece of the timeline. We have to, we can't take that field off. No. That's it. So the backstops have to happen like from November to March. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's the, the backstops are the, that's the one. That. That would close it. Yeah. Yeah. The playground, you can totally use the fields while this is being done. Sure. I mean, the personal. Yeah. I mean, by the way, backstops shouldn't be like a three month process. I mean. Right. No, I think once you get a contractor on hand, it would be a five day process. Yeah. It's just the process. We need specs and we need. Yeah. Yeah. We need oversight. Yeah. Yeah. No, I don't think we take the fields offline. I think the majority of the work that comes close to even impacting would be, you know, adding the, the extra space in the current parking lot and putting in a new sidewalk. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that, that, that, that field or that complex, you see, is a real revenue generated, you know, for the town, I mean, for, for, for, for us, in terms of that. Cause you got, you got senior softball who's there. Yeah. They'll play every day, all day. Yeah. Yeah. So. Yeah. They play a lot. Yeah. That field was never not used. Yeah. Right. The ability to not have to take it offline. It's huge. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That field that has lights. That's this size. That's this, you know, like it would interrupt. We have to turn people away from sports, which is not what we want to do. Yeah. Cause they'll find some other place to play. They'll steam. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, I mean, one of the foundations is fillers is enabling play. The last thing we want to do. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Okay. So from our perspective. Are we, as a recreation commission, supportive of this? Right. I would say, yes. The question is going to be actually is, where's the funding coming from? And, and, and, and can we look at the CPC and say, how much are CPA, CPC, whatever, which, how much, how much can we realistically depend on them for providing the funding? Mm-hmm . And I don't know the answer to that. Um, looking at your future playground. I mean, are all of these playgrounds likely to use their full 400,000 that we usually need for class? So I think maybe playpet, local wood. It depends on the playground. It depends on the, uh, the beach playground wasn't quite $400,000, but clay pet, hill playground, cause they're so big, was like six. And so when I first, uh, attempted to slot these into the capital plan, they wanted me to put $200,000 every year. And I'm like, $2,000 doesn't get you to even have a playground. So then through the budget conversations, it morphed into $400,000 every other year. Um, which will work on some of the smaller playgrounds. Like the one at the local side playground is very small. I think it won't be 400,000. Um, but some of them are bigger and, and, you know, every year the cost goes up and that $400,000 that's in the plan over the 24 years doesn't go up. It's not earmarked. Yeah, it's not. Yeah. And so it's. That, that, but that money is earmarked for playgrounds. Yes. So just because it's earmarked for playgrounds, does that mean it's used just for playgrounds? It has been historically since, since we've developed this plan. Okay. You don't anticipate that being a problem? I don't think so. No. Um, no. The ones at the school, we have six playgrounds at schools and six that are not. And so the ones that are at schools are just a little more complicated because you have to work around their schedules and get, um, you know, partner with the school committee and the different stakeholders that use it. Yeah. Um, yeah. I don't know. And then I think in the future, not, not for this playground, but as we get out that the, the board in place rubber conversation is going to come into play. Yeah. And that's, that's directly related to the state. Yeah. And that's actually the expensive part of playgrounds. But obviously the town has accessibility obligations that we have to meet. Yeah. No, no, no. Is this legislation, are they, are they, are they looking to, are they looking to ban rubber and, I mean, offer, offer, sorry, my next question is, are they looking to ban rubber and offer an alternative? An alternative, yeah. Yeah. Or are they just going to ban rubber? It's very similar to the conversation about turf fields. You know, it's the same conversation. It's, you know, how do you, how do you do it? Is there science that backs up these decisions? And, you know, like, especially for turf fields, it's not a local Wayland question. It's a national question. You know what I mean? Like. Yeah. Everyone would rather play on grass. There's no question. Everyone would rather. Yeah. I love it. Yeah. You're going to be realistic in terms of where you're playing. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody would rather play than not play. Right. Yeah. Yeah. These are just things to think about as we go through that wheel, because it is a 48 year or 24 year wheel or something like that. So. And that's the average life of a playground is like 20 to 30 years. And so by the time we get back to playground number one, it'll be 30 years later. Yeah. I think that's the right. Yeah. In my sense, there'll be new technologies. Right. That's I think the playground industry is looking at this very hard. And they are similar to turf where you can get walnut shell infills and things like that. They are coming up with alternatives. And the town has committed through the energy and climate committee, like certain standards of commitments to sustainability and climate control. So. Other questions. Are your private donations and fundraising, are those anticipated donations? Yes. Okay. Great. Got it then. Yeah. So when you, when you say anticipated, have you, do you have commitments for people? Um, we have significant commitments, but not for the full background. Okay. They're into these. That's an ongoing. It's an ongoing. Yeah. It's good. Yeah. Um, and this is just an off the wall question, but my assumption is it's still going to be called constituent. If this isn't proposing any name sheets. Well, I mean, that's a, that's a whole other topic. Yeah. Uh, that, you know, this commission has talked about putting on the agenda, not just this park, but naming parks and playgrounds and facilities in general. So I think that's, it is a separate conversation, but it is one that needs to be had. Yeah. Um, so would anybody make any kind of motion in terms of, I assume, a motion in terms of, of being supportive of, of, uh, the project that, that has been, um, presented, uh, with respect to the, uh, . Yeah. I make a motion to that. Can we add in, you know, encouraging the swapping of the priority fields, uh, playgrounds as well, that we would hope this, that this ties into that as well. Yeah. You can make that part of the motion. So, um, so that we, we, we support, you know, this project is submitted and including, um, swapping either the town building or. Including potentially devising the playground schedule. Yeah. That is currently presented. Right. Yes. Okay. Action. I'll be delivered. I second that. Uh, there. I. I'll stay. I'll stay. 301. Mm-hmm. 301. Yes. Yep. Good. Thank you. You're welcome.
I'm going to take a look at the tags of the recreation project. They submitted, the, the application is posted online on the CPCS website and they asked, um, I was asked to, about reviewing it and taking a stance on it. It's 45 pages long and I haven't finished reading it yet. What's wrong? I don't know. You buy a house. You buy a house. You buy a house. You read English? So, uh, it is. My plan is potentially, uh, before tonight's six o'clock, you need to finish reading this and take a stance on behalf of the rec department, but I didn't know if the rec commission was aware of it or wanted to take a stance on it. Want me to read the little summary? Yeah, definitely. I mean, if you guys are comfortable doing it based off the summary, then sure do that. Um, the town of Wayland proposes a deadly pond resiliency and water quality improvement study, a data-driven assessment and planning effort to restore and protect one of the community's most valuable natural resources. Dudley Pond, an 83-acre great pond with 368-acre watershed has experienced declining water quality due to stormwater runoff, erosion, and nutrient loading. This project will evaluate existing watershed conditions, identify pollution sources, and develop nature-based climate resilience solutions to improve water quality, reduce flooding, and stabilize eroded slopes. Using advanced tools such as a GIS mapping, drone-based surveys, and geotechnical analysis, the study will provide the technical foundation for future restoration and capital improvement projects. Key components include a walking path case study that integrates stormwater management with safe public access, a nutrient assessment, and a community education program to promote long-term stewardship. Um, upon completion, the study will deliver a comprehensive watershed management framework, conceptual design plans, and cost-effective strategies to enhance Dudley Pond's ecological health, recreational value, and climate resilience. Um, serving as a model for watershed, um, uh, projects, and throughout Weyland. They're asking for $116,000. Um, they consider open space, historic, and recreation. Um, so yeah, it's much longer. Cool. Thanks. Where are they, where are they, where are they going to give the, the $116,000? Where? Who? Who? Who? Who? Oh, CPA. Oh, oh, oh. Yeah. Um, and, and there's going to be a little, a little bit of a review of how much is actually qualifies. Because, you know, there's this, but they're, you know, they're looking to figure that out. Um, we in the REC Department consistently get requests about formally providing recreation opportunities at Dudley Ponds, boating, fishing, swimming, all of that. Um, but right now there's not easy and accessible access to the pond. Just because most of the areas around are private, but the town does own properties in and around Dudley Pond. So I think that, I mean, they'll ask us to come up with conceptual design similar to what we did here. So I think it's harmless. That would be very helpful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, people, we don't permit swimming as a bathing beach at Dudley Pond the same way we do at Lake Contituate, um, because of those access issues. But we annually, we have requests to do something like that. Like we don't lifeguard, but people, we know people do boat fish when they use that property. Yeah. A lot of ice skating. Um. So again, is, is this a, a, um, something like a motion to be supportive of this? And, and then this is, who is it? Who is the, is it the Dudley Pond? Uh, no, it's the town engineer. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'd like that. It's just really looking at it in a comprehensive, large hill plan rather than just tackling a small portion of it. They're just trying to get a handle on the whole thing. Um. Well, I mean, I would, I would think that people who own property on, down the quad, would be all handlers. Yeah. Because, you know, clearly it benefits the value of the property. I also think to Catherine's point, it actually opens up opportunities for REC to be able to actually actually create some type of, you know, program or activity that we'd be able to, to use for the, like use if there were the right access. Right. Yeah. They've already gotten letters to support from the town manager, the DPW director, the police chief, fire chief, conservation administrator, the chair of the support corporation, uh, COA, sustainability manager, service water quality community, Dudley Pond association, a handful of residents. Why don't we join today? Oh yeah. I don't want to be left out. Sorry. Uh, so would someone like a motion to be supportive of this? I'd like a motion to be supportive. I'll say. Yeah. Uh, discussion? All in favor? Or all? I won't let, um, the town engineer go before tonight's meeting. So is this something that will be addressed this evening? Um, if someone's been invited, I don't think we've invited, maybe the engineer's been invited back, but I'm not sure. I know you are the only person named. Okay. I think we're down to, uh, evolving farm. Yep. I think that's only, so annually, town meeting sets spending caps for all revolving counts that the town in it is. We have two. We have a field account and a general operating account that we work out of. And I usually project out what's going to happen in the rec department in the next year and determine what the spending caps will be. I recommend them to you all. You all then make a motion to recommend it, choose a select forward and or town meeting. And ultimately it, it's approved at town meeting. It's usually one article with all the towns revolving accounts. Um, and the number fluctuates from year to year based on what's going on. One year we were paying a good chunk of our money out of the field account for local. So the spending cap went up. Um, the reason it's fluctuates and is because our indirects are, um, usually determined as a percentage of our spending cap. And so I like to keep spending cap as accurate as possible. Um, and so I've done that this year. I think I'm recommending that we keep, or we set the, the general recreation revolving account to 1.2 million and the field account to $200,000. Um, the, the big change from this year and last year is our rec pass program, which generated a, a significant amount of revenue in the first two years. Um, but it also had associated expenses with it, um, has dwindled. It went from a five day program, uh, to a four day program right now. It's only a one day program. And I don't know that we will run it next year. Um, but we run on a school year and the fiscal year. So the part of the part of it will be in the fiscal year. Um, and so that's really the only big change I anticipate. Um, generally when our fees go up for different things, like whether it's summer camp or the beach or whatever the, the, the expense. We are obligated to set our fees to match our expenses. Um, and so the spending cap fluctuates as the market fluctuates. So I would say 1.2 million for the revolving account and 200 for the account. Okay. Now when you, when you do that, how, how are we charged on an indirect basis based on these terms? It is a percentage that is determined from the finance department based on the town's overall budget. So it's, it's what our spending cap is in relation to the town's general fund budget, which also changes year to year. Um, and it factors in things like the services that we use just by existing. So like it and human resources and the treasurer's office. Um, and so we have to pay kind of our share to participate in the town's services. I know. And yeah, I think that's great. We are, we are, we are, we are, we are a, a, a department that has one, two, three, four. Full time. Full time people. Full time people. And we pay over $80,000 a year. We are the town's smallest budget. We, we represent a quarter of 1% of the town's. Right. And we pay $80,000 on our budget. Back to $2,000. In direct. Hmm. Curious. What are the schools? How do schools pay? The schools do have some revolving accounts, to be honest, um, related to life, athletics and things like that. What do we pay to pay? They pay the same percentage. Yeah, yeah. But. I know this has been a sticking point for ACER for 50 years. That's why we're both laughing and we're like, I know, I know. This is. Um. What's up to draw? Isn't it? It is, but we factor those fees when we set our rates for different things to cover those fees. We do. So, I'll believe that taxpayers are paying as if they were taxed off. So, the argument is, you know, if they just gave us more tax dollars, then we wouldn't have to pay these fees. But, in the end, it's coming out in the same pockets. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So, that's my recommendation for FY 20. So. Okay. Now we shall make a motion to accept those recommendations. Well, don't you approve these. Second? I'll second. No, no, no. I'm in the agenda already. All of favor. Thank you. Nice job, Jeff. That's you. That's you. We got it done early. Yeah. Yeah. I'm looking at our agenda here, scheduled for our next meeting. Would you please? So, I'm going to tell you, I talked to my friend and his, I asked if there were any specific days that he could attend in January. And he said the 20th, the 22nd, or the 27th. Anyway. So, I don't know if you want to start with it. January 20th? 22nd? 27th? The 19th? The 19th is the holiday. We could stay away from Thursday, I'd appreciate that. So, like, the 20th or the 27th. Looks better for me. I am out of town on the 20th. 27th. 27th is good for me. 27th, Friday. It's Tuesday. Tuesday. That works really well. And 30. Yeah. And look at this. My goodness. So, do we want to talk about potential agenda items for that meeting right now? Maybe Ace is ready to spike the ball. It's a long way away. It'll save me emailing you. It's a long way away. I know, but Leslie suggested that the park naming concept. Oh, yeah. That's a good idea. Do we have anything related to this ballpark initiative on that agenda? I don't know if it rules. How does it don't tell with the CPC schedule? We have... I don't know what our next... Let me just see. Well, she's looking. Is there any conversation that can be had with the schools in terms of changing the playground schedule? Absolutely. You want me to have that conversation? I just wasn't sure. No, that would be great. Yeah, I mean, if we're able to figure out what the schedule would be, I think that allows us to be able to, like, even push it one step further. Sure. To have it on the May agenda. Okay. Okay. I mean, I can certainly talk to my counterparts in the school department, but I think ultimately it might be a conversation between the rec commission and the school. But we can start that moving. Yeah. That's fine. I actually have been called in front of the Capital Improvement Planning Committee for next week with my counterpart in the school department, the new business manager, to talk about some of the overlap between school facilities, capital plans, and capital plans. So this would be one of them. Right. So I should have more information about them than that. So for CPC, the deadline for warrant submissions will be January 15th. I just, I don't know that anything really, I'm going to have to come back for specific. Yeah. I'll be having three meetings with CPC before, or four meetings in between CPC and two of them now. Isn't it hard? Are they as fun as this? What? Would you want to consider the next meeting asking the school committee to open the bathrooms of the turf? We could. I don't know. Oh yeah. It might require, if the, if the request is coming from the rec commission, then it would require a meeting to discuss and make that request to the school committee. I think ultimately the answer is going to be who pays for it. And so it potentially, and in February, I had the schedule that this commission would revisit our field user fee schedules. So if we want to build those costs into turf permits, let's say, then we could do that. Possibly, I don't think the school department is going to pay to support the, we have to use Dr. Use LaCrosse's bathroom facilities. Um, right now the port-a-potty bills are worked into those fees. Um, so this, it would just be more expensive. I would get rid of the port-a-potties and start using the bathrooms at a high school. But there are like the custodial contract requires minimums. So it is expensive. So I think the last time that the youth groups looked at it, they said, we'll just go with the port-a-potties, but it's worth both the talent looking at it from, you know, how to make it happen, but also the youth groups to say, is this something we want to pay for? Yeah. It doesn't, to me it's always made sense if there's a building there with bathrooms, why aren't we using it? Right, right. Yeah, it's not in the school. It's like, you know. It's not in the school. Right. But it still requires a custodial. Um, is that something we should make a motion on now? Or to, it's not on the event. Okay. Yeah, so, but we could add it to the January agenda. Yeah. To have that discussion. Yeah. That's an important statement. Unless you think this is better served, just, you know, individuals reaching out to the school committee to grant their attention? Or should we? Yeah, because they might have a different approach on how to handle it, you know, like, I would say that, but maybe do some legwork offline. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I was trying to feel. Okay. So we'll. The park naming too. Just so that we can come to that conversation with some. Yeah. Yeah. I'll send my email, my chat to people individually. Okay. Somebody read her open. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, what's going on? If we were 10.30 a.m., why would it be time to staff the channel? And we have a couple of minute items. Yep. Um, anything else in terms of topics not reasonably anticipated? You can talk it on. None by me. None by me. Nope. Nope. Someone make a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn? I'll send it out. Okay. All right. What is it? Four zero. Great. Fantastic. Excellent. Excellent.
Okay, we have a couple of comments. None? None on mine? Nope. Nope. We do not. A couple of minutes if available. My friend sent them to me this morning. I couldn't put them in your packet, but I can send you a digital copy.
A couple of ministers to look at those. I mean, I guess, we have to figure out what the council is, but when people are, you know, what player you want, but I don't know. Yeah.
All set. Would someone make a motion to accept it as provided, or, excuse me, October 21st, July 25th? Sure, I'll make a motion to accept it. All right. Is there a second? Second. Second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Commissioners, announcements, reports, and concerns. General announcements. Do we have any general announcements?
Not for me. No? You did it. Good. Route 20, landfill positioning committee. Yes. Would you give a little update in terms of the meeting that was held under public comment? Yeah. No, I appreciate your public comment. We were cut short due to, you know, meeting a quorum with the commissioners. Some folks had to leave. Oh. Okay. So, we didn't get to fully complete the meeting, but it absolutely feels like it's trending towards, you know, the most appropriate use as a field, you know, versus, you know, housing while that we're continuing. That work is continuing, but it definitely, you know, a lot of questions about it for this work. But my understanding of the housing thing has to do with the old burn dump and whether or not it would cost a lot of time money to clean it up in order to do that. Yeah. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. I can't see, based on the current fiscal situation, that there's going to be a big willingness to do that. Yeah. Nor if you were to give it, just give it to a developer, for the developer to do that work and have a land basis that high. I mean, the work's still going on to, there's still, I think there's still borings and studies being done on the, but yeah, it seems rather cost prohibitive. Is there any, do you know if there's any issues in terms of putting a field in there, as far as, oh yeah, that's concerned? None that I've heard yet. Okay. Yeah. And what about, was there any discussion about the dog park? Um, there wasn't definitive discussion necessarily about the field or the dog park. Um, there was just a lot of, you know, review of the current facts from the, um, engineers. Okay. Um, and, you know, asking DPW what their perspectives were on the findings. Um, so I, we had just gotten into the, you want, what now conversation. Okay. And actually, it was, it was classic. Um, Mike Spelman, uh, had to go to work and, you know, there was a crane that he needed to attend to. So I was happy for him that some kid's going to be reading up on the minutes and find out that the meeting was adjourned on account of the crane.
Pretty cool. Okay. Very good. Yeah. Uh, thank you, Mark. Uh, how about, uh, community preservation? Yeah, we had a good meeting. We reviewed all the, um, some applications that came in, um, and, um, kind of a smaller number of submissions this year, which was kind of confusing. Um, but, uh, I'm just pulling up my minutes here. Um, there's a few open space plan, um, items, uh, you know, the submission about Eliza's Park, which I imagine we'll start talking about. Um, there's a, the revamping of, or review of, of Dudley Pond's area and how to add a few walkways and how to, um, a few, possibly a few purchases that would be helpful, like a, um, drone camera with a heat system, a heat, uh, um, tracking system, you know, which will be useful for a few projects around town, but maybe won't apply for CPA funds. Um, but yeah, no, that was, so there, you're just, um, going to be, and then Hamlin Woods boardwalk, uh, to repair, repair, a boardwalk that was, uh, damaged or, or maybe no longer even there. Um, so a few small things, but not, not a major, um, no, obviously I'm asked that we're unaware of, we're aware of, of what's, what's happening. All these, um, submissions are very small dollars compared to previous years. And then. How much, how much money goes through, is this interesting? Yeah. It's, uh, I fear one, uh, actually we don't have the actual dollar amounts for this year. Um. I'm excited to start. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. Okay. Yeah. Um, but yeah. Is there, at some point in time, is there, will that, will that number be known? We should not, we have a meeting tonight. We're here. Yeah. So I hope, yeah. Cause I think, um, Doug Stotts was looking at that, but he didn't want to commit to a number yet. Yeah. They invited me to appear before them tonight when they've asked a number of questions, some of which are mine to answer, some of which are for you to answer. And we can talk about that when we get to the next agenda item, but, um, some of the open questions about how much money they have has to do with status updates on some of the projects that are open. Um, and, and some of those belong. And some of them don't. Some of them. Right. And so I have a couple of recommendations and I can walk through those about turning money back to the CPA either just because it won't be used in a timely fashion or, um, it's just old money. Um, I did create a, like a one page writeup of those projects. If you want to move on to the next agenda, and I can talk about that. Okay. We'll move on to that. Yeah. So it's a one pager. It has a little playground on the back. Um, there are seven projects right now, the year we've applied for CPA funds that date back all the way to FY 2016. In 2016, we asked for $85,000 to finish the Dudley Woods walking trails, which as you know, are done. Um, there's $2,500 left in that account, which the historical commission at the time wanted to reserve to install historical signage on that site. I don't know that the historical commissioners have talked about that since 2016. Evan? Yeah, because I guess, um, they have to run signage through another commission. Okay. Um, it's like a state foundation and they're very particular about what's on the signs and how many signs are there. Okay. So my recommendation tonight was going to be to turn that money back. But potentially that my recommendation is for them to consult with the store commission to spend that money. Cause it's not ours to spend at this point. I think it belongs to the historical commission. Okay. So that's how that one will shake out. Um, in FY 22, um, we petitioned the CPA for $50,000, uh, for some design work at the middle school. And at the time on the capital plan was to redo the back of the middle school baseball fields. There was talk about turf, all of that. And this was just to help support that. I think there was at the time, some kind of tip off that there might be $15,000 up for grad. And we applied for it and got it. Um, but because that plan is no longer in like the five year capital plan, I would say, I would recommend turning it back now and then just asking for it again later when we need it. Um, it was, um, it was supposed to be dovetailed with some other work that was happening at the middle school. That's just not on the right now. No, and there was talk at the time about potentially if we're going to look at the middle school that we should look at that current area that we use behind the middle school, the one 95 lot, the whole property and try to like make a, like a design of this $50,000 would help support that design. But as you know, since then we've learned a lot about the condition of the one 95. There's another group in town that's pushing for a community center or a athletic center there. So, um, I think more community discussion needs to happen around that. And it's just for $50,000, I would say, um, potentially give it back now and then apply for it again as part of a bigger project, uh, supported by the whole town or co-sponsor, not just a rec project because according to the MOU, that project, because it's on a school property, um, would be a jointly sponsored initiative from the schools, the rec and probably the DPW. So that's where that stands. Um, the next one is the constituent basketball court, which I, um, applied for in 2024. Um, we asked for $150,000 at the time. The CPA awarded the money, went to town meeting and got approved. We bid the project, um, late in 2024. Bids came back very high, much higher than 150. Um, and so we, at the time is when the EJN foundation started talking about rehabilitating things that go into a ballpark. So we tabled that money, uh, until we could get a site plan done, um, to figure out, you know, if that basketball court, if that's the right spot for the basketball court, if they want a basketball court, how to do it. Um, so that's still being kind of tabled until we make more decisions about the site plan and the CPA application that we're going to look at today from the EJN foundation actually incorporates those funds into their budget. So that's pending. Uh, the beach entry, uh, improvement was also FY 24. The CPA awarded $147,000 at $500. Um, we've used a good balance of that, replacing the fence and doing some other projects. Um, we still have some work, but we ran out of time, um, on the front of the beach. Um, just like landscaping, um, some benches, some trash enclosures, things like that. So we are going to spend a little bit more this spring, but we do anticipate that we will have a sizable turn back, back to the CPA, maybe 50. Uh, we won't know until some of that stuff gets bit in the spring. So we're going to turn that back in, in the summer. Yeah, probably before June 30, as we'll know. Right. Um, so there's 85 left there, but we won't feed all 85, which is great. Um, but that one, we just got lucky. The fence, um, quotes that we got ahead of that project were really high. And then the low bid came in really low and not because of poor quality. It's a great fence. We're very happy with it, much better than what was there before. Um, so that's where that ended. Um, in FY 25, last year, um, we, for the EJN petition, the CPA for a project, $154,000 that included refurbishment of backstops and other, and the site plans. We just finished the site plans with Meridian Associates. We have, you have them here in your packet today. Um, I think that that's still unspent because we're still working through some of the design decisions, uh, that involved in the basketball court and the playground. Um, but we'll talk more about that when we go through the application. So there's been 18,000. Yes. On the site plans. Yes. Yeah. So we got 136,000. Yeah. But that is also incorporated into the budget for this current application. Um, the Children's Way Town Building Playground. Last year, we went to the CPA. We got $400,000 to replace that playground. You were ready to bid it, uh, about three weeks ago. Um, and before it hit the street, the town engineer has been working with Ty and Bond, which is a consultant on the town's stormwater initiatives to report with a MS4 permit, as they call it. And one of the recommendations from Ty and Bond was to remove the Children's Way Playground out of the wetlands, because it's currently in the back of this parking lot, not very close to the wetlands. Um, so we are willing to look at our options about moving it out of the wetlands, but it involves us going back to the design team and doing that. So we are hoping that we'll have some decisions between the town engineer, the playground designer, rec, and the Children's Way School, um, hopefully before this. What options are available in terms of moving it? Uh, somewhere else on this property, probably. Um, there was also talk about, um, the school department had to do some leg work to, they're currently going through some long-term, uh, school building planning to determine the future of the Children's Way, like if it will be here and how long it will be here before. I mean, that playground is used by much more than the Children's Way, but it is currently designed as a pretty preschool playground because the Children's Way is housed here. So if there wasn't a preschool house on this property, then maybe we might do like a five to 12-year-old playground and move it closer to the ball through or something. So we have to work through those open questions as we go through this process. Do we have, uh, sufficient property to house that? I think so. I think we do. There's a big area over by, um, Art King, that open area. I mean, they were talking a bit about the front of the building. There's a big island in front of this town building. Um, and potentially even just pulling it on the other side of the road where it is now into the courtyard. But we have to think about how the courtyard is used because it is used. Um, there's a lot of open questions. So that was like almost there and got taken off as a lot of projects do in this town. Um, and then the last one that the CPA asked me about was the constituent playground. Um, right now it's part of the EJN, uh, budget for this year. Right now in our, on our playground wheel, I don't know if you guys are familiar with this. This was a backpack of capital requests a long time ago. We have 12 playgrounds in town. We created a 24 year schedule. Contitua ballpark is slated in 2032. The, the two before that are the local school side playground and Claypit Hill kindergarten playground. Those three playgrounds together. Um, so this wheel was created after inspections and all playgrounds and it was determined the schedule based on the current condition and age of the facilities that are there now. Those three are pretty similar. And so my, when asked, I said that they could kind of be reordered, which I think we could do. So we could bump Contitua ballpark to FY 28. If that is what we want, but we have to get, we have to consult with the stakeholders from both the local school and the Claypit Hill school, uh, to kind of agree to bump their projects out. Which we haven't, we haven't talked about that yet. Um, but they absolutely could be reprioritized. Also, since that time, the town has established the capital improvement planning committee, which is working on the prioritization and the phasing of different projects. So I think that they would have to be roped into the projects. Well, the idea that we could titular ballpark to a sooner date would be because of the, the whole updating of that particular project or project. Yeah. We could, yeah, we could move to FY 28. Yeah. But the idea behind it is because we're looking at special updating that whole project. Yeah. It would be like a phase. You'd incorporate that into the bigger project. Okay. So that's what the CPA has asked me several questions. They asked me for the status of the projects that have been approved and appropriate so far. There they are. Um, they want to know where it lies as part 15 to the playground rotation, as I just explained. It's right now in 32, but it is open for discussion to bump it up. Um, they asked if the recognition supports the CPA application. I'm probably like speak to that because we have to make a decision on that. So one way or another. And then the last question is, I think it's for the town manager's office. It's not necessarily up to me. If approved, what would be the process and the timeline for that project? Um, right now, the open project that we talked about with the backstops, um, the site plan leg of that was assigned to the rec department and we worked through that and completed that. Um, I recently requested that we start the process for bidding the backstops. And it, I don't want to say it's tabled, but it's like, I think they're concerned about the bandwidth of project managers and resources that the town has to get that done before the spring. Um, but they're looking at it. But they're looking at it. So, and I haven't had an answer yet on that. So those are the questions that you can ask. I'm going to go before them tonight where they will ask those questions and I will give those same answers that I have just given to you all. Can you record them? I wish I did. Actually, it is being recorded on the son of the video. No, I don't, I don't mind. You don't even have to pee. I know. I don't mind it. It's six o'clock tonight. And Leslie will probably be there too. Double header today. Thank you for fitting us in. So that is my update on the CPA situation and I will end it back over to you. Okay. Okay. So, um, what are we coming out? So number six, do we go all in front? Nope, we didn't finish by bit. Oh, oh, oh. One of the, I think the recommendation, the, the, the, the recommendation doesn't have to take a position on this, um, particular CPA application, but the CPA, CPC has asked for a recommendation. Uh, in your packet, I also included the, the site plan process that we did from the CPA project one, produced three conceptual designs and three cost estimates, which I included in your packet. Um, the PJN has kind of morphed all three into one ideal project with a different cost estimate that they have presented to the CPA. Is that right? Is that right? Yeah. So, um, I'm happy to share backgrounds, um, not as a commissioner, but as on behalf of it. If that's helpful. Absolutely. Um. And I assume the goal is for us to take a position on supporting this. I, yeah, that's, that's right. That's right. So, um, however, the commission, uh, you know, wants to support it or table it or however they feel about it, responsibility. Yeah. Uh, I think the CPC is looking for the commission to take a position on it. Um, for that, I will abstain from, from voting, um, just for entirety sake. Um, I can give you guys quick overview. Um, you know, being kind of redundant on a little bit of what Catherine shared, but just walking through the whole process again. Um, for the benefit of not, you know, you all cause you've, you are fully aware of everything, but for those that maybe watch this later, um, the reason that we're, uh, going ahead with this, uh, effort is, um, three years ago, we lost our daughter Eliza. She was a fifth grader at Clay Pit. Um, we, as a family were overwhelmed by the support of the community. Um, we celebrated her, uh, that first year at Chichuit. Um, I can't even count how many people were there and have continued to each fall, um, celebrate her there as well. Uh, when she was born, we lived over on Shawman Ave Extension. So we spent a lot of time, um, over there with her and her sister, Jenna at the time, um, before moving over to, uh, Sears Road. Um, we've spent a ton of time at the park, uh, playing, um, coaching, um, multiple different sports. And, um, it's a place that's important to us. It's important to community. It's the front door of Wayland. Um, when you come into Waylands, it's one of the first parks that you'll see. Um, and so, uh, as a thank you, we wanted to, you know, pour our energy into the park. Yeah. And getting back to the community that was so great to support us. Um, so that's why we are where we are now. Um, our first effort there was, um, upgrading the existing dugouts, which were benches and vents, um, to, uh, the brick structures that you see today with the roof. Uh, we started out as a foundation, um, Eliza's foundation committed $175,000 to that project. We ultimately ended up, um, investing $275,000 into the, into the park through that project. Um, with that effort, our, um, intent was to continue the work, uh, continue to improve the park and make it a place where, you know, people of all ages could come together, celebrate, um, play, um, enjoy the park and be proud of it. Um, so with that, we wanted to, um, you know, we went to the, uh, CPC and showed them, you know, what we were thinking about and what we want to do to partner with them. Um, and I think at that time it was just too soon. We needed a plan and they came to us and said, can you give us a plan? Um, we'll support you in that effort and, you know, work with the recreation commission to go ahead and start that work. So we worked with Catherine, um, we started, you know, putting together that plan. Um, we've got a couple of concepts that are under review, um, but really, um, you know, just working in lockstep with, uh, with the CPC. So with that, we completed the plan that was requested. Um, it's an initial plan that you do have in front of you. So it's, this isn't like, Hey, we're done and final. Um, there's a number of elements that I think we want to incorporate over time to improve the, uh, the site beyond what you're looking at here. Um, but I can kind of walk you through, uh, where we are with the parks design. And, um, actually you can look at it on page five of the package, or you can see it as, uh, site plan three in, um, the packet that, uh, Catherine shared from designers. So I have a big form too. Oh, I brought the big form also, but you should, yours has been written all over. So it's three. Yeah. That's two. That is it. Yeah. I think you're right. Cause the drawing is different. You have a flexible space. It's different. Yeah. So, so this is, I don't know if you guys have nothing from the UASA. So, I mean, what we've got here is a, we think a great start. Um, there's a number of things that we want to focus on just from a practical perspective. Uh, first questions were, how are these drawings going to impact drainage? And how is it going to impact parking? Um, we absolutely don't want to impact, uh, drainage negatively in the area. And it is such a limited parking, you know, area as it is. Uh, we wanted to make sure to maximize, um, that aspect of the, of the design. We also wanted, um, in an effort to make it, um, if you go to the park at any time, you'll see people walking around it. And right now they're just walking around a square. So we wanted to really kind of make a space for people to walk and enjoy the, the park in a more, um, enjoyable way. Uh, we want to have it, um, you know, be measured off. So folks can walk around and know exactly what they're doing. Uh, I know they have their Apple watches tell them what's going on, but, um, just to have that as well. Um, and then we really wanted to focus kind of first off. Oh, this doesn't have the fastball court. I was gonna say there's a couple of areas between two and it's almost like it's a merge between two. You know what? So we wanted, that's what's throwing me off. We want the walking path of two. Right. Yeah. The fastball court of the green. Fastball court. And the flexible space of two. Other way around. And the flexible space of two. Yeah. Yeah. So like I said, first round drawings. We are going to request from the group that furnished these three to kind of take our feedback and create one conceptual plan that we can kind of live off of. Yeah. And so, yeah, and that's what you're looking at here would be an improvement to the basketball court. Which we have the money for. Which we have the money for. And we'd like to make it more of a, uh, sport court. So soccer, basketball, roller hockey, if that's possible, that's an improvement we'd like to focus on. Um, and the improvement in the playground area. Um, what, what makes those, what, what makes it a more accessible for sports? Is it the surface or the fencing or the surface and pictures? Like there are some kind of units where you can incorporate like goals into a basketball hoop so that you could play hockey and basketball there right now. There's just basketball, basketball hoops. I think there's seven, eight, and there's like a park fence. There's not much there. And the court is in disrepair. We get requests probably a few times a year asking about when we're going to start resurfacing that court. Cause it's all. Yeah. Well, it wasn't there. It wasn't there as well. There was, yeah. I think it was resurfaced in a week later. Somebody marked it all out. Oh. Yeah. What do you mean? Like, um, the, the surface hadn't cured completely and kids went on there with bikes and stuff like that and, um, marked it up. Oh. These things. Cool. Yeah. Um, and so that's, you know, incorporate into design. We also want to, um, you know, try to find ways for, um, you know, just different play structures for both children and adults. Like, you know, can we fit in chess tables? Um, can we do, you know, add elements like that, that are not large in surface area, but impactful, um, to the community. Um, and so that's where we're at now. I think just to the last piece is, you know, as you mentioned, the, the backstops, the backstops are in disrepair in comparison to, especially in comparison to the other new dugouts. Um, and the space is lacking storage. So that's why there's an emphasis of trying to get the backstops and storage done before spring so that they can get that pod that's in the parking out there out of the way. Um, but that, so this is where we're at after round one set of drawings. So we reviewed it. We made comments. And now, uh, as Catherine said, the designer needs to come back. They have at least updated for us. Any questions so far? What, what, do you, if you were to, to do all the things that you want to do here, two questions for me is, what's the timeframe? According to these, everything influenced, I would assume that, that there would be a sort of a, a, uh, be step by step by step. Okay. How long will that take? And how much money now we're looking for? Yeah. So if you look at page seven in the CPC package, that will get us to the financial side of it. Um, Um, I'll start with the finances and then go to the schedule. That's probably the best way to do it. Um, so, you know, going off of the budgets that we received, I think we received a budget as high as 1.9, 1.4. And our request here is for 1.66, uh, of total budget. Um, and you could see in the table, the top table, number three, that's the anticipated costs. Um, these costs were provided by the design engineer. Um, and then, uh, that's what you see replied to do. If our way of, um, achieving the 1.66. Yeah. Is for private donations and partnership with, uh, Eliza's foundation. Yeah. Um, to provide another $500,000. Um, so that's in addition to the 275, we've already invested into the park. Um, the CPA request was for 500,000. Um, if we are able to move the park into, um, the playground schedule, uh, 400,000 there. Um, and then there's prior allocations, which we've discussed today, of an additional 260,000. To get us to that 1.66. Just, so the timeline. If that existing town capital product for playgrounds, that 400,000. I think the earliest that can be moved is at .28. Okay. Does that. Right. Yeah. I, we have to get a little greater. Yeah. I don't know. Who's responsible for that school thing? It's part of the MOU because it is like a DPW slash rec managed facility on the school for operation. And the MOU is probably about 10 years old? Yeah. It probably needs to be revisited. But the other part of that is generally when playgrounds at the schools are renovated, we do it in the summer. Um, just not to disrupt what's happening at the school. Yeah. I think we started in the spring. There was a, but it was COVID. So, um, so the timing of those playgrounds might help dictate the restructure of the order. But like I said, we, in 25, we went and got money for the children's way playground, which is still underway. Um, so not that those other ones would get delayed, but things just take longer than they opt to. Yeah. It's not just wayland, but it is a wayland thing. Um, yeah. Time timelines are lengthy just because of the process, like the procurement process that we have to do. So, so if, you know, determine where, where that playground would be and how that placement of playground would impact the actual use of the field as a current license. Yeah. I was just thinking out loud now, potentially we swap, but maybe we table children's way to 28. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. It is in disrepair and needs attention. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't bump it out to 32. Uh, but like I said, it involves the schools and we need to talk to the schools. That's not going to put the, we're outstanding. Yeah. That the, the placement of the playground and the rehab of the, of the, of the playground is not going to in any way impact what the other uses of Kachitri field law. Yeah. Correct? That's correct. Right. That would be absolutely good. Yeah. Just in terms of. Yeah. Yeah. It's relatively, it's basically the same envelope that the playground is right now. Okay. Yeah. That playground is the easiest one to renovate probably because it's not at a school and it's not in the field of play. True. I have a couple of questions about the playground. Um, the playground that's there now, does it serve, is it going to serve the same demographic of kids that will be the new playground feature? And, and then kind of, does it make sense? And, you know, when liaison with Hannah Williams, that's so nearby that like parents kind of bought or children bought from one to the other. Um, and then the second question I have is, um, it, it's been told to me that children with disabilities really need to have a fence around a playground so that they can be safely contained. Are you planning on that? Uh, yes, the plan is to have a fence, uh, includes a house. Um, and as for the ages, and I, just back me up on this. I think the way we're thinking about it is the younger age group is serviced by Hannah Williams. Yep, and this would be a 5 to 12. Yep. Cool. Yeah. I think we do have to probably carry the board in place number in the budget if we want to go that route for accessibility. Like you said, with children with disabilities, just make it accessible for all. Yep. Um, there is some legislation at the state bubble right now to investigate the board in place. Rob, there's a similar to term, but from rubber and what materials are being used. Um, but legislation also moves very slowly too, so. Yeah. Um, but just something to be aware of. Yep. Yep. Uh, considering. There's a bill right now about banning, um, rubber in place. Yes. I have the bill number. I don't know if that's, that's, that's made work. Oh. Is the entire field getting fenced in? Or, like I just happened to notice one there, there's like an improved entrance on the carpet and roads. Yeah. Would that all be fenced in or is that just like a, a little bit more of like a cleaner approach as opposed to just rolling into. Yeah. Good question. So they, um, they proposed fencing on the field. Um, but we, we told them not to include that. Um, it's not worth the cost. And also it, um, we don't have much real estate to work with. And I, I think, you know, part of the, you know, good nature of the park is that the parents are like right on the field. Yeah. Um, so no, no cuts is there. Good. I love your exchanging the parking in that bottom half corner to that walking flexible lawn space. Is that, is that, you know, you're still in plan? Yeah. Um, I mean, that could possibly have an impact on the funeral home, but, um, it looks like there's enough street parking to compensate. Yeah. So we were very literal about parking and making sure that we, that, which would, would and should be the first complaint is he would be taking away spaces here. Um, it would be open instead of, but yeah, so we're, that's what we're targeting. And, and also we're trying to think forward with the design. So, um, if in the future they want, you know, the town or wanted a gazebo over there or some other sort of, you know, more permanent structure for people to enjoy that space, it's available. Um, we're not necessarily closing that at this time. Is there a reason why you didn't extend the parking all the way to the corner on Bradford street? I think that has to do with underground stormwater. Yeah. Oh, the town engineer sat in some of these design meetings specifically focused on stormwater in that corner of the field. Sounds great. And she also supported the flexible space. I don't believe. Oh, no, I think we do lose some cause they wanted it to loop. And right now it doesn't loop. Is that right? Yeah, that's right. I mean, we even contemplated a curve cut here so that you go in and out, but we've gone through many iterations of this. I think that at most you're losing two parking spots here, but otherwise it's pretty much the thing, but you're adding. But you're not gaining another 10 down on the basketball court, which is dead space right now. There's a lot of distance between the basketball court and the street right now. It's a wide street anyway. So there's additional parking and they're kind of, there's plans to potentially formalize some of the parking that happens casually now. On one of the, on one of the designs, you have the, the improvement circulation part for that front lot. So, I mean, it ended up, we'd end up losing four spaces for that front part, but that is one of the biggest issues is that area, if there was any way to be able to actually make it so that way you can do a circle around that lot. Yeah. That would be, I mean. It's worth the price. It's worth the price to be able to not have everybody you turning when there's nothing up at that front corner. Yeah. We did even look at doing a curve cut, so you could just go in and one, but we abandoned that. There were a lot of reasons why that wasn't gonna work well. Do you, do you know the usage of that bathroom facility there and ours that it's open and available? Just. It's so it has a key code on it. And so all the user groups that hold permits receive the key code to it so that they can use it. We get requests consistently just from the general community wanting us to leave it open. Um, which I think the town has entertained in the past, but that area was like a hot button for vandalism. And so now we just continue to use the key code system. Um, I know you had a request about other bathrooms in town too. No. Yeah. Yeah. Just noticing it's taking up a lot of real estate and I never know if it's. It does get used a lot. And you know, we put, um, portable toilets at all the other facilities in town where people have permits. And so this and the high school are the only ones with actual facilities. Um, but so we don't put toilet parties there. So there's a little bit of savings. It's the key code coded by groups. So you would know if the system isn't that smart, but we, we, we have considered upgrading into a system. So we know who's in there when, but it is smart enough that we change it every season. So, because the number gets out there, kids get it, you know, like, so we, we try to change it every spring. Good. Not using it. Yeah, no, it is very highly used. And we have a cleaning company that can put in Queens. I think we'd like to reskin it. Just kind of make it the compression it up a little bit. Yeah. It's a little dark corner of constituents. It's kind of ugly. So we're good. There is a plan to make it a little more attractive. Yeah. Thank you. It's playing those red door. It's playing those red door. It's playing those red door. Schedule ASAP. Um, we would ideally, if DPW can support, would do the backstops and storage this winter, leading into the spring sports seasons. DPW would do the work? Well, isn't that what you're saying? The project manager. Oh, the project manager. But then see, we even contract out of project manager. Oh, okay. But I think that the concern about resources and timeline had more to do with procurement. Well, a little bit with project management. Oh. Okay. Yeah. So, um, it's on the radar. Okay. It's, I don't have an answer yet, but, um, there are a lot of projects. We don't know about it. We don't know about it. We don't know about it. We don't know about it. So I think there, there was, you know, it takes a lot of, like, bandwidth and resources and stuff over again, so. Yeah. Got it. Um, so that, you totally get that. So putting resources aside, the ideal would be to complete it before the spring season. Um, so that that portion of the projects is, you know, checked off. Yeah. Um, and then, I, you know, ideally we would have funding approved next spring, this June. So the fiscal, fiscal 27. This application, if approved at town meeting, which is, I think they booked it in May, would be available in July. In July. In July. Sure. Yeah. But some of the funds are already available, like the basketball court funds and the back stops. Like some funds are available. Um, but like I said, I think the playground funds wouldn't be available to F.28 unless we can swap out the children's wife, potentially. Yeah. So again, that's a combination we need to have in the schools. And so I think logistically, it seems like we're getting close with regards to the funding would be available in July. Um, which would mean at that point, we're probably bidding it after town meeting, right? Um, which, you know, we would have. A lot of times, like July 1, bids are ready to go. Yeah. Like everything that gets approved at town meeting, if it's ready, would get bid right away. And so that's, I mean, I think we'd probably be looking at end of year, next year, first half of the following year as the timeline. So if I finished, Dave, over the spring of, of, uh, 2007? Could be. If ever they were. Well, I imagine. That's ideal. That would be ideal. That would be ideal. Right. Yeah. I'm handicapping. So we should be able to do it. It was in 2030. Yeah. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we're, we're three years in. Would you be able to start, we'd be able to do backstops and then basketball courts and everything. It would just basically be playground based on the additional, and then the like rerouting and redesign of like parking and everything like beyond that. But because we already have funds for basketball courts and backstops, those could get started almost immediately. That's the hope. And like I said, I was, I was, we had a meeting five, two months ago. We were ready to bid the backstops. And the answer I got was basically get in line. Like there's other projects that are being bid ahead of this, which is normal in a municipal world. We can wait in line, but, um, yeah, I think immediate is a very high. You don't have to wait. It wouldn't, you could do the project in phases. Right. Being like, you have to say, great, there's funding that's already set aside for this. Next available time. We can do basketball courts and then we can do this. One of the goals we wanted from Meridian was to do that to kind of phase that out in the timeline and determine like the timeline for each phase of this and the funding source associated with it, which we can, you know, put pen to paper and work with them to make it happen. You don't, you don't anticipate, you don't anticipate that field being offline at all. Obviously the basketball court. That's another piece of the timeline. We have to, we can't take that field off. No. That's it. So the backstops have to happen like from November to March. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's the, the backstops are the, that's the one. That. That would close it. Yeah. Yeah. The playground, you can totally use the fields while this is being done. Sure. I mean, the personal. Yeah. I mean, by the way, backstops shouldn't be like a three month process. I mean. Right. No, I think once you get a contractor on hand, it would be a five day process. Yeah. It's just the process. We need specs and we need. Yeah. Yeah. We need oversight. Yeah. Yeah. No, I don't think we take the fields offline. I think the majority of the work that comes close to even impacting would be, you know, adding the, the extra space in the current parking lot and putting in a new sidewalk. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that, that, that, that field or that complex, you see, is a real revenue generated, you know, for the town, I mean, for, for, for, for us, in terms of that. Cause you got, you got senior softball who's there. Yeah. They'll play every day, all day. Yeah. Yeah. So. Yeah. They play a lot. Yeah. That field was never not used. Yeah. Right. The ability to not have to take it offline. It's huge. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That field that has lights. That's this size. That's this, you know, like it would interrupt. We have to turn people away from sports, which is not what we want to do. Yeah. Cause they'll find some other place to play. They'll steam. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, I mean, one of the foundations is fillers is enabling play. The last thing we want to do. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Okay. So from our perspective. Are we, as a recreation commission, supportive of this? Right. I would say, yes. The question is going to be actually is, where's the funding coming from? And, and, and, and can we look at the CPC and say, how much are CPA, CPC, whatever, which, how much, how much can we realistically depend on them for providing the funding? Mm-hmm . And I don't know the answer to that. Um, looking at your future playground. I mean, are all of these playgrounds likely to use their full 400,000 that we usually need for class? So I think maybe playpet, local wood. It depends on the playground. It depends on the, uh, the beach playground wasn't quite $400,000, but clay pet, hill playground, cause they're so big, was like six. And so when I first, uh, attempted to slot these into the capital plan, they wanted me to put $200,000 every year. And I'm like, $2,000 doesn't get you to even have a playground. So then through the budget conversations, it morphed into $400,000 every other year. Um, which will work on some of the smaller playgrounds. Like the one at the local side playground is very small. I think it won't be 400,000. Um, but some of them are bigger and, and, you know, every year the cost goes up and that $400,000 that's in the plan over the 24 years doesn't go up. It's not earmarked. Yeah, it's not. Yeah. And so it's. That, that, but that money is earmarked for playgrounds. Yes. So just because it's earmarked for playgrounds, does that mean it's used just for playgrounds? It has been historically since, since we've developed this plan. Okay. You don't anticipate that being a problem? I don't think so. No. Um, no. The ones at the school, we have six playgrounds at schools and six that are not. And so the ones that are at schools are just a little more complicated because you have to work around their schedules and get, um, you know, partner with the school committee and the different stakeholders that use it. Yeah. Um, yeah. I don't know. And then I think in the future, not, not for this playground, but as we get out that the, the board in place rubber conversation is going to come into play. Yeah. And that's, that's directly related to the state. Yeah. And that's actually the expensive part of playgrounds. But obviously the town has accessibility obligations that we have to meet. Yeah. No, no, no. Is this legislation, are they, are they, are they looking to, are they looking to ban rubber and, I mean, offer, offer, sorry, my next question is, are they looking to ban rubber and offer an alternative? An alternative, yeah. Yeah. Or are they just going to ban rubber? It's very similar to the conversation about turf fields. You know, it's the same conversation. It's, you know, how do you, how do you do it? Is there science that backs up these decisions? And, you know, like, especially for turf fields, it's not a local Wayland question. It's a national question. You know what I mean? Like. Yeah. Everyone would rather play on grass. There's no question. Everyone would rather. Yeah. I love it. Yeah. You're going to be realistic in terms of where you're playing. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody would rather play than not play. Right. Yeah. Yeah. These are just things to think about as we go through that wheel, because it is a 48 year or 24 year wheel or something like that. So. And that's the average life of a playground is like 20 to 30 years. And so by the time we get back to playground number one, it'll be 30 years later. Yeah. I think that's the right. Yeah. In my sense, there'll be new technologies. Right. That's I think the playground industry is looking at this very hard. And they are similar to turf where you can get walnut shell infills and things like that. They are coming up with alternatives. And the town has committed through the energy and climate committee, like certain standards of commitments to sustainability and climate control. So. Other questions. Are your private donations and fundraising, are those anticipated donations? Yes. Okay. Great. Got it then. Yeah. So when you, when you say anticipated, have you, do you have commitments for people? Um, we have significant commitments, but not for the full background. Okay. They're into these. That's an ongoing. It's an ongoing. Yeah. It's good. Yeah. Um, and this is just an off the wall question, but my assumption is it's still going to be called constituent. If this isn't proposing any name sheets. Well, I mean, that's a, that's a whole other topic. Yeah. Uh, that, you know, this commission has talked about putting on the agenda, not just this park, but naming parks and playgrounds and facilities in general. So I think that's, it is a separate conversation, but it is one that needs to be had. Yeah. Um, so would anybody make any kind of motion in terms of, I assume, a motion in terms of, of being supportive of, of, uh, the project that, that has been, um, presented, uh, with respect to the, uh, . Yeah. I make a motion to that. Can we add in, you know, encouraging the swapping of the priority fields, uh, playgrounds as well, that we would hope this, that this ties into that as well. Yeah. You can make that part of the motion. So, um, so that we, we, we support, you know, this project is submitted and including, um, swapping either the town building or. Including potentially devising the playground schedule. Yeah. That is currently presented. Right. Yes. Okay. Action. I'll be delivered. I second that. Uh, there. I. I'll stay. I'll stay. 301. Mm-hmm. 301. Yes. Yep. Good. Thank you. You're welcome.
I'm going to take a look at the tags of the recreation project. They submitted, the, the application is posted online on the CPCS website and they asked, um, I was asked to, about reviewing it and taking a stance on it. It's 45 pages long and I haven't finished reading it yet. What's wrong? I don't know. You buy a house. You buy a house. You buy a house. You read English? So, uh, it is. My plan is potentially, uh, before tonight's six o'clock, you need to finish reading this and take a stance on behalf of the rec department, but I didn't know if the rec commission was aware of it or wanted to take a stance on it. Want me to read the little summary? Yeah, definitely. I mean, if you guys are comfortable doing it based off the summary, then sure do that. Um, the town of Wayland proposes a deadly pond resiliency and water quality improvement study, a data-driven assessment and planning effort to restore and protect one of the community's most valuable natural resources. Dudley Pond, an 83-acre great pond with 368-acre watershed has experienced declining water quality due to stormwater runoff, erosion, and nutrient loading. This project will evaluate existing watershed conditions, identify pollution sources, and develop nature-based climate resilience solutions to improve water quality, reduce flooding, and stabilize eroded slopes. Using advanced tools such as a GIS mapping, drone-based surveys, and geotechnical analysis, the study will provide the technical foundation for future restoration and capital improvement projects. Key components include a walking path case study that integrates stormwater management with safe public access, a nutrient assessment, and a community education program to promote long-term stewardship. Um, upon completion, the study will deliver a comprehensive watershed management framework, conceptual design plans, and cost-effective strategies to enhance Dudley Pond's ecological health, recreational value, and climate resilience. Um, serving as a model for watershed, um, uh, projects, and throughout Weyland. They're asking for $116,000. Um, they consider open space, historic, and recreation. Um, so yeah, it's much longer. Cool. Thanks. Where are they, where are they, where are they going to give the, the $116,000? Where? Who? Who? Who? Who? Oh, CPA. Oh, oh, oh. Yeah. Um, and, and there's going to be a little, a little bit of a review of how much is actually qualifies. Because, you know, there's this, but they're, you know, they're looking to figure that out. Um, we in the REC Department consistently get requests about formally providing recreation opportunities at Dudley Ponds, boating, fishing, swimming, all of that. Um, but right now there's not easy and accessible access to the pond. Just because most of the areas around are private, but the town does own properties in and around Dudley Pond. So I think that, I mean, they'll ask us to come up with conceptual design similar to what we did here. So I think it's harmless. That would be very helpful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, people, we don't permit swimming as a bathing beach at Dudley Pond the same way we do at Lake Contituate, um, because of those access issues. But we annually, we have requests to do something like that. Like we don't lifeguard, but people, we know people do boat fish when they use that property. Yeah. A lot of ice skating. Um. So again, is, is this a, a, um, something like a motion to be supportive of this? And, and then this is, who is it? Who is the, is it the Dudley Pond? Uh, no, it's the town engineer. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'd like that. It's just really looking at it in a comprehensive, large hill plan rather than just tackling a small portion of it. They're just trying to get a handle on the whole thing. Um. Well, I mean, I would, I would think that people who own property on, down the quad, would be all handlers. Yeah. Because, you know, clearly it benefits the value of the property. I also think to Catherine's point, it actually opens up opportunities for REC to be able to actually actually create some type of, you know, program or activity that we'd be able to, to use for the, like use if there were the right access. Right. Yeah. They've already gotten letters to support from the town manager, the DPW director, the police chief, fire chief, conservation administrator, the chair of the support corporation, uh, COA, sustainability manager, service water quality community, Dudley Pond association, a handful of residents. Why don't we join today? Oh yeah. I don't want to be left out. Sorry. Uh, so would someone like a motion to be supportive of this? I'd like a motion to be supportive. I'll say. Yeah. Uh, discussion? All in favor? Or all? I won't let, um, the town engineer go before tonight's meeting. So is this something that will be addressed this evening? Um, if someone's been invited, I don't think we've invited, maybe the engineer's been invited back, but I'm not sure. I know you are the only person named. Okay. I think we're down to, uh, evolving farm. Yep. I think that's only, so annually, town meeting sets spending caps for all revolving counts that the town in it is. We have two. We have a field account and a general operating account that we work out of. And I usually project out what's going to happen in the rec department in the next year and determine what the spending caps will be. I recommend them to you all. You all then make a motion to recommend it, choose a select forward and or town meeting. And ultimately it, it's approved at town meeting. It's usually one article with all the towns revolving accounts. Um, and the number fluctuates from year to year based on what's going on. One year we were paying a good chunk of our money out of the field account for local. So the spending cap went up. Um, the reason it's fluctuates and is because our indirects are, um, usually determined as a percentage of our spending cap. And so I like to keep spending cap as accurate as possible. Um, and so I've done that this year. I think I'm recommending that we keep, or we set the, the general recreation revolving account to 1.2 million and the field account to $200,000. Um, the, the big change from this year and last year is our rec pass program, which generated a, a significant amount of revenue in the first two years. Um, but it also had associated expenses with it, um, has dwindled. It went from a five day program, uh, to a four day program right now. It's only a one day program. And I don't know that we will run it next year. Um, but we run on a school year and the fiscal year. So the part of the part of it will be in the fiscal year. Um, and so that's really the only big change I anticipate. Um, generally when our fees go up for different things, like whether it's summer camp or the beach or whatever the, the, the expense. We are obligated to set our fees to match our expenses. Um, and so the spending cap fluctuates as the market fluctuates. So I would say 1.2 million for the revolving account and 200 for the account. Okay. Now when you, when you do that, how, how are we charged on an indirect basis based on these terms? It is a percentage that is determined from the finance department based on the town's overall budget. So it's, it's what our spending cap is in relation to the town's general fund budget, which also changes year to year. Um, and it factors in things like the services that we use just by existing. So like it and human resources and the treasurer's office. Um, and so we have to pay kind of our share to participate in the town's services. I know. And yeah, I think that's great. We are, we are, we are, we are, we are a, a, a department that has one, two, three, four. Full time. Full time people. Full time people. And we pay over $80,000 a year. We are the town's smallest budget. We, we represent a quarter of 1% of the town's. Right. And we pay $80,000 on our budget. Back to $2,000. In direct. Hmm. Curious. What are the schools? How do schools pay? The schools do have some revolving accounts, to be honest, um, related to life, athletics and things like that. What do we pay to pay? They pay the same percentage. Yeah, yeah. But. I know this has been a sticking point for ACER for 50 years. That's why we're both laughing and we're like, I know, I know. This is. Um. What's up to draw? Isn't it? It is, but we factor those fees when we set our rates for different things to cover those fees. We do. So, I'll believe that taxpayers are paying as if they were taxed off. So, the argument is, you know, if they just gave us more tax dollars, then we wouldn't have to pay these fees. But, in the end, it's coming out in the same pockets. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So, that's my recommendation for FY 20. So. Okay. Now we shall make a motion to accept those recommendations. Well, don't you approve these. Second? I'll second. No, no, no. I'm in the agenda already. All of favor. Thank you. Nice job, Jeff. That's you. That's you. We got it done early. Yeah. Yeah. I'm looking at our agenda here, scheduled for our next meeting. Would you please? So, I'm going to tell you, I talked to my friend and his, I asked if there were any specific days that he could attend in January. And he said the 20th, the 22nd, or the 27th. Anyway. So, I don't know if you want to start with it. January 20th? 22nd? 27th? The 19th? The 19th is the holiday. We could stay away from Thursday, I'd appreciate that. So, like, the 20th or the 27th. Looks better for me. I am out of town on the 20th. 27th. 27th is good for me. 27th, Friday. It's Tuesday. Tuesday. That works really well. And 30. Yeah. And look at this. My goodness. So, do we want to talk about potential agenda items for that meeting right now? Maybe Ace is ready to spike the ball. It's a long way away. It'll save me emailing you. It's a long way away. I know, but Leslie suggested that the park naming concept. Oh, yeah. That's a good idea. Do we have anything related to this ballpark initiative on that agenda? I don't know if it rules. How does it don't tell with the CPC schedule? We have... I don't know what our next... Let me just see. Well, she's looking. Is there any conversation that can be had with the schools in terms of changing the playground schedule? Absolutely. You want me to have that conversation? I just wasn't sure. No, that would be great. Yeah, I mean, if we're able to figure out what the schedule would be, I think that allows us to be able to, like, even push it one step further. Sure. To have it on the May agenda. Okay. Okay. I mean, I can certainly talk to my counterparts in the school department, but I think ultimately it might be a conversation between the rec commission and the school. But we can start that moving. Yeah. That's fine. I actually have been called in front of the Capital Improvement Planning Committee for next week with my counterpart in the school department, the new business manager, to talk about some of the overlap between school facilities, capital plans, and capital plans. So this would be one of them. Right. So I should have more information about them than that. So for CPC, the deadline for warrant submissions will be January 15th. I just, I don't know that anything really, I'm going to have to come back for specific. Yeah. I'll be having three meetings with CPC before, or four meetings in between CPC and two of them now. Isn't it hard? Are they as fun as this? What? Would you want to consider the next meeting asking the school committee to open the bathrooms of the turf? We could. I don't know. Oh yeah. It might require, if the, if the request is coming from the rec commission, then it would require a meeting to discuss and make that request to the school committee. I think ultimately the answer is going to be who pays for it. And so it potentially, and in February, I had the schedule that this commission would revisit our field user fee schedules. So if we want to build those costs into turf permits, let's say, then we could do that. Possibly, I don't think the school department is going to pay to support the, we have to use Dr. Use LaCrosse's bathroom facilities. Um, right now the port-a-potty bills are worked into those fees. Um, so this, it would just be more expensive. I would get rid of the port-a-potties and start using the bathrooms at a high school. But there are like the custodial contract requires minimums. So it is expensive. So I think the last time that the youth groups looked at it, they said, we'll just go with the port-a-potties, but it's worth both the talent looking at it from, you know, how to make it happen, but also the youth groups to say, is this something we want to pay for? Yeah. It doesn't, to me it's always made sense if there's a building there with bathrooms, why aren't we using it? Right, right. Yeah, it's not in the school. It's like, you know. It's not in the school. Right. But it still requires a custodial. Um, is that something we should make a motion on now? Or to, it's not on the event. Okay. Yeah, so, but we could add it to the January agenda. Yeah. To have that discussion. Yeah. That's an important statement. Unless you think this is better served, just, you know, individuals reaching out to the school committee to grant their attention? Or should we? Yeah, because they might have a different approach on how to handle it, you know, like, I would say that, but maybe do some legwork offline. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I was trying to feel. Okay. So we'll. The park naming too. Just so that we can come to that conversation with some. Yeah. Yeah. I'll send my email, my chat to people individually. Okay. Somebody read her open. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, what's going on? If we were 10.30 a.m., why would it be time to staff the channel? And we have a couple of minute items. Yep. Um, anything else in terms of topics not reasonably anticipated? You can talk it on. None by me. None by me. Nope. Nope. Someone make a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn? I'll send it out. Okay. All right. What is it? Four zero. Great. Fantastic. Excellent. Excellent.