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20220426 Public Services City Council Committee Meeting CITY OF BEVERLY Z �� Q � _ ci: J� PUBLIC MEETING MINUTES BOARD: Public Services/City Council Meeting Committee of the Whole LOCATION: Virtual hybrid meeting; Beverly Middle School Library DATE: April 26,2022 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Kathleen Feldman(Chair),Ward 5 Councilor;Hannah Bowen, At-large; Steven Crowley,Ward 3 Councilor COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE: Todd Rotondo,Ward 1;Hannah Bowen,At-large; Brendan Sweeney,At-large;Matthew St.Hilaire,Ward 6 BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT: OTHERS PRESENT: Bruce Doig, Parks&Rec rep;Jon Paddol;Dominic Copeland RECORDER: Sharlyne Woodbury Feldman chairs and opens the meeting at 7:01 pm. Public Hearing: None Public Discussion: Feldman reiterates this is a public forum for discussion.There will be no votes or action taken tonight. 1. #113—date to Committee 4/19/2022: Councilor St Hilaire request for a Public Service Committee forum regarding the usage of Pete's Park in Centerville and to also conduct a review of the city's park rules and permitting processes Councilor St Hilaire,Ward 6 Brings attention to the incident at Pete's Park on April 0,2022.Ensure any ordinances and rules are evaluated.As a result of the incident, it is clear there was miscommunication and misalignment of the events.Upon review of the ordinances and documents,Hilaire concludes the process is not clear regarding the permitting process. Chair Feldman opens the floor to public comment. Richard Tabbut, 57 Sonning Road Agrees there should be equal access to the park. Speaks highly of Bruce Doig's character and city services. Appalled at the behaviors of the speakers at the last meeting regarding the issue. Melinda Lyons, 73 Kernwood Avenue Discussed Doig's character and confirmed the audio playback was a result of having no other outlet or means to address the situation.Doig found himself"up against a wall".Further discusses the upstanding character of the teens involved and of Doig.Lyons is confused why the teens needed a permit for a pickup basketball game and compares Pete's Park to Bessie Baker. Had the boys played their game at Bessie Baker this would not have been an issue.Lyons appreciates the apology issued on behalf of the mayor and Doig.Discusses the public funding in excess of$300,000 in grants to make this a public park.Finds the neighbors who demanded Doig reprimand the teens unacceptable.This is a public park and permits should not be necessary nor required for the public to enjoy it since federal and state funding was used to construct the park. Nancy Marino, 9 Wellman Street Longtime member of the Parks &Recreation Commission. Encouraged by this meeting. Still approach the policies and procedures from a lay person's standpoint. The ordinance is confusing and cumbersome. The policy for permitting has always been primarily for major leagues in the city. It is for liability insurance and CORI verifications for the coaches.Needs to be simplified for the city. Should make clear what constitutes a league, and what criteria are needed to proceed with permits for consistent usage of the public parks. Discusses the need to put things in plain speech making it easy for the public to understand what the process is and/or procedure and how to go about completing applications and accomplishing requirements to the policy. Appreciate the last speakers' comments,would we be here if this were any other park in the city. Discusses park hours. Most city parks close at 8 pm. For the summer the Parks & Rec were looking to assign two city parks with extended hours until 11 pm. It is important that all the playgrounds are accessible and in good condition. In order to make it open to everyone,there must be some procedures in place. Mike Reynolds, East Garfield Avenue Discusses the potential extended park hours and the Bass River overlay district. How that will impact the parks in that area and residents. Reynolds doubts that new residents would appreciate the extended park hours and lights on. Is curious to see if anyone has ever applied to have a permit at Pete's Park. Cites stay at home mothers who meet weekly for a play date. Would they need a permit for access to Pete's Park. Does that constitute an organized event. Believes the permitting process is on thin ice. Al Visnick, 39 Middlebury Lane Suggests reviewing the policies, what is"repeated and regular use of city fields"cited from the policy. Discusses when insurance is needed. Discusses the boy's impromptu school project that may have constituted and fallen under"league" criteria. Addresses a public comment by Doig from the phone recording. Loosely stated,that the mayor,the police chief and Doig himself determined there will be no basketball activities at Pete's Park. Visnick cites from a communication released by the mayor's office in response to the comment,that they were trying to be mindful of the neighborhoods and residents where public parks bring traffic and parking issues.Visnick does not see what the parking and traffic issues are if the public are not in any open parking or ordinance violation. Does not see what the issue is if there are too many parked cars on a public street. Shanin Copeland, 38 Hathaway Avenue The issue is greater than the situation that happened. Discusses her son playing basketball for the city's public schools.Takes issue with her son being told to leave the park. She sites separate situations where the residents in the area have called the cops on her son. During the pandemic she would drop him off for solo practice while she food shopped for her family. The residents would complain the group of kids is loud and rowdy. Her son is bi-racial. In those instances, it was only her son. She is aggrieved that instead of her son calling because he is ready to go home,he is calling because there are two police officers making him go home. Copeland takes issue that because she is not a resident of the neighborhood does not mean her son cannot utilize the public park. Addresses the racial issues in the city. Her son is good friends with the boys involved in the incident. Calls out the neighbors hiding in the shadow making the park complaints. Implores them to stop with the complaints. Matt Welnak, 8 Aricia Lane Agrees there needs to be simpler language in the ordinance,that simple park activities do not need to be legislated out.Believes the original intent of the basketball bracket was in good spirit of athleticism, competition and sportsmanship. Caution the public not to paint the surrounding park neighbors with a broad brush. Many of his neighbors thought the basketball bracket was a good idea and hoped for it to return to the park. Public Services/City Council Meeting Committee of the Whole-April 26, 2022 Meeting Minutes Page 2 of 5 Andrea Jones, 409 Essex Street Encourages the city not to limit children playing at the park. Believes there may have been an amalgamation of issues at the park from late night shenanigans, loud noise,trash, etc. Also does not believe parking is an issue for Pete's Park. Cites commendable activities from other city parks and would like to see that continue at Pete's Park in the same community spirit. Agrees that the individual who directly complained to Doig was out of line for the events in question. Dominic Copeland, 38 Hathaway Avenue Discusses the time of night.After 6 pm there is no place,the kids cannot go play basketball,there are few resources where kids can simply be kids. Understands the neighbors want their neighborhoods to be peaceful. Cannot cut off access to the public parks simply because they find the basketball to be too loud. The kids need a place to play that is most accessible. Driving kids to different YMCAs is a lot. Children should be able to enjoy their neighborhoods too. Discusses coming out of the pandemic,the mental health issues for the kids,the need for getting outside, etc. Cannot limit the resources for the kids.They should not have to pay to play in a public park. Also asks the council to balance leagues who pay to rent the courts and parks,where they have precedence over the local kids. Open more resources and parks to our children. Children should not be limited to certain days of the week to play in public parks. Bruce Doig, Director of Park,Recreation& Community Services Agrees with providing more opportunities to the kids. Outlines rebuilding McPherson Park, leaving lights on until midnight during the summer. This should be a hub for the kids during summer,weekends, and school vacations. Reminisces about his opportunities to play outside growing up in Beverly. Takes the opportunity to address some comments made by the public. Calls attention to the first page of the permit policy, 3rd paragraph,"regular or repeated meetings of a group of individuals using fields/courts". This does not apply to playgrounds. Fields and courts are specifically identified. This is the"Field and Court Permitting Policy". Doig continues to read from paragraph 3 and discusses the intent, mentions the policy was taken from Lexington and their field policy. The language was modified for Beverly's needs. Essentially,the policy points out that organized groups are the intent behind the policy. Doig cites from the Merriam Webster Dictionary on the definition of"pickup"referencing basketball. Understands based on that definition the boys in question during the incident may be misused the word league. Doig discusses prior email complaints for the previous weekend where there was a referee,the teams had jerseys, etc. It all looked like a genuine league,not a pickup basketball bracket. It was determined that is not an appropriate place for organized games to be played. Discusses permit requests. Main two things he reviews for permit requests are, is there enough parking at the location and will noise be an issue for the event seeking the permit, cites pickleball permit request as a comparison. Would like to see the MacPherson lights on all the time. They did not get the grant request for$1.3M to rebuild MacPherson. Collectively he's built or rebuilt 28 parks in the city. Explains why there is a permitting process and different leagues and programs requesting the permits. Addresses the numerous complaints over the years about Pete's Park with the parking and noise. The park is not an appropriate size for the event in question. There is an 8-week schedule posted online,team jerseys and a referee. The boys should have been advised appropriately for a better park venue to host the event. In which case they would have needed a permit. Once he found out it was for a school project,he advised the boys where they could relocate to,and he would waive the permit fee. The permitting process is important for scheduling to avoid conflicts. Describes the problems when multiple groups show up at the same time wanting to use the same parks. Preference is given to youth sports and activities.Adults should be paying for a permit to play. It is important to generate as much revenue as possible for the courts in order to maintain the parks plus to have liability/insurance coverage. Encourages reviewing the permit policy so all are comfortable moving forward. Feldman asks the members to address their questions to Doig. Public Set-vices/City Council Meeting Committee of the Whole-April 26, 2022 Meeting Minutes Page 3 of 5 Councilor Rotondo clarifies for the public that the policies were recently reviewed and reiterates the McPherson Park is an ongoing discussion. Councilor Bowen appreciates the discussion,how the current policies were developed and how they service the city. Asks what it would take to get the lights on at McPherson Park and what action is needed by the council. Doig sites safety, budget and supervision issues.It takes a community effort to make the park work. Doig discusses prior community outreach programs where former teachers and community activities would talk to kids and get them off the streets and at the parks playing recreationally. Bowen discusses not having the police department or Parks&Rec enforcing the ordinances punitively. It is a fine balance of regulations and open access. Does not want to use permits as a tool to stifle creativity and provide neighbors with a means to regulate park usage. Also agrees the permitting process is appropriate to prevent scheduling conflicts with leagues. It is important to understand all groups of kids will have different levels of responsibility. The council is not condoning bad behavior, however;those kids also need a public space in which to go and learn to become better citizens. Kicking kids out of public spaces is not the answer. Rotondo briefly discusses the collaborative youth outreach program. Provides a potential schedule and the composition of the youth collaboration comprised of junior high school students,YMCA reps,police department reps, and city councilors. Rotondo leaves the meeting. Mike Reynolds, East Garfield Avenue(returning) What are the parking restrictions on Middlebury Lane. There are neighbors who have taken it upon themselves to paint on the public street parking restrictions. The city should have those false restrictions removed and suggest at the resident's expense. Speaks to the many youth groups vying for public park use. Julie Gentile, 47 Middlebury Lane Addresses the lines drawn in the street. Background story is there were city workers restriping the public sidewalks. Gentile has had issues with people parking in front of their mailbox and trash. They asked if the city painter advised they could draw their own lines. Mr. Gentile drew his own lines and cross hatches because he could not park his own trailer one day and because he almost hit a child in his driveway. Pulling into the driveway he could not see the kid coming up the sidewalk because the parked cars crowd his site line.They address illegal parking in the handicap spaces and there are no handicap plates on the car, people park the wrong way and sight lines are compromised.This is a safety issue.Parking is a problem, and they are shocked by people being inconsiderate. Joanne Lund, 56 Middlebury Lane The park was not an issue until two years ago.Parking and traffic are an issue.There are about 1-2 dozen cars parked illegally on the street. The traffic and parking are a safety issue.No one is against young adults playing basketball. That court was originally set up for elders and the physically disabled. The disrespect for the neighborhood is a concern.The trash was left at the park. She goes down several days a week to pick up the trash. Social media has vilified the neighbors. The abutters feel the incident has left a negative vibe. Advocates for Doig and that he was mistreated,which was unacceptable. Lorinda Visnick, 39 Middlebury Lane Bothers her to hear a particular group being blamed for what is occurring. People do not stop at the stop sign;they fly up Whitman. The traffic issues occur whether or not there is a basketball game played or any other activity at Pete's Park. Discusses the trash issue. If someone's garbage cans are not being Public Services/City Council Meeting Committee of the Whole-April 26, 2022 Meeting Minutes Page 4 of 5 picked up it is not because a basketball player is parked in front of a resident's garbage can. The mailmen are not supposed to be deterred in delivering the mail. Covid did not bring about the increased trash issue. Discusses the city's decision to remove public trash receptacles. Has seen city trucks park illegally in the spots at the park. The totality of the issue is similar to when Cove Park was revamped.The problems are pre-existing and are also similar in all neighborhoods. Dominic Copeland, 38 Hathaway Avenue(returning) Clarifies the conflating the parking and kids playing at the park. If there is an actual event or league, that is different, and they should be paying for permits. He has been called down to those same parks when it's just kids playing. They rode their bikes down with no cars. It is not about the organized leagues.He reflects upon the kids coming down to the park to play. Kids have had the cops called on them for simply playing when their group is beyond 10. They need access throughout the city to public spaces for kids. The city has about 40k residents, and we all need a way for everyone to have access to parks and to simply play. Councilor St. Hilaire(final comments) Thanks everyone for their collaboration. Discusses the permitting processes and current ordinances. Assures the public there is a regular ordinance review process. Discusses miscommunications and suggests the Parking and Traffic Commission review the area and offer thoughts. Feldman issues final thoughts. Appreciates everyone's thoughtful comments and respect for one another. There being no further comments or concerns,no further discussion on the matter. Motion: Bowen moves to receive Order#113 and place it on file. Crowley seconds. Motion carries 3-0. Discussion on the motion: Bowen asks if the committee can put a timeline on the issue, Feldman is not comfortable committing to one at the moment. When there is sufficient progress on the ordinance review Feldman suggests placing the current order on public file,then filing a new order and reopening the issue. Motion: St.Hilaire moves to adjourn the Committee as a Whole. Crowley seconds. Motion carries 5-0. Motion: Crowley moves to adjourn the Public Services. Bowen seconds. Motion carries 3-0. The meeting adjourned 9:09 p.m. Next meeting scheduled for 8.15.22. Public Services/City Council Meeting Committee of the Whole-April 26, 2022 Meeting Minutes Page 5 of 5