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2005-06-01 CITY OF BEVERLY PUBLIC MEETING MINUTES BOARD: Open Space and Recreation Committee SUBCOMMITTEE: DATE: June 1, 2005 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Chairman Robert Buchsbaum, Vice-Chair Paul Knight, Patricia Adams, Suzanne Beaudoin, David Brewster, Tony Paluzzi, Pam Kampersal BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT: Ellen Flannery, Elizabeth Dunne, Bill Squibb OTHERS PRESENT: Amy Maxner, Environmental Planner RECORDER: Amy Maxner Approval of Minutes Knight moves to accept the minutes from the April 6, 2005 meeting as amended. Seconded by Adams. Paluzzi and Kampersal abstain. Motion carries 4-0-2. Right-Of-Ways Folger Avenue: Buchsbaum asks for the status of the open space parcel off the end of Folger Avenue to be deeded to the City. Maxner states that Leah Zambernardi, Assistant Planning Director, has been pursuing the finalization of the deed and hopes to receive it from the applicant’s attorney within days. Buchsbaum asks whether Bathing Beach Lane is public or private. Maxner states she will research for this information. Brewster states that access to the open space parcels is not clear and is doubtful there are definitive rights reserved by the City of Beverly for such. Maxner agrees to find out what rights the Planning Board had reserved for access. Tall Tree Drive: Maxner states that she has had no time to schedule a site visit to Tall Tree with the Assistant City Engineer, Gerry Marsella, as he has been away on vacation and busy with union negotiations. She states that she will try to arrange this visit so that the frontage to the City property can be clearly delineated. Beverly Open Space & Recreation Committee June 1, 2005 Meeting Minutes Page 2 of 5 Discussion ensues regarding the condition of the trails on the City property, and options for blazing a trail off of Tall Tree Drive. Marking the trailhead with posts rather than a large kiosk was a consideration as well. Paluzzi states that the Committee should inform the Conservation Commission of their plans to blaze a trail, as there are wetlands in this area. Sally Milligan: Buchsbaum states that there may be an issue with the Red Trail on Sally Milligan as the property owner has blocked the trial with brush and a no trespassing sign. He suspects that this portion of the Red Trail could be on private property, and wonders if this could be determined with City GPS. Maxner states that she will contact Roland Adams, GIS Coordinator, to see if he would map out the trail in the field. YMCA: Maxner states that Tina Cassidy, Planning Director, has contacted the Y’s attorney and has initiated discussion regarding the obstruction of the 50’ right-of-way off of Essex Street behind the new teen center. She is unsure where things stand at this point, but will ask Cassidy if there are any developments. Branch Lane: Kampersal asks the status of the Branch Lane access. Maxner states that she has not been able to set a site visit with Charles Benevento, but will follow up with him to schedule something with Buchsbaum. Beaudoin arrives. Marking Right-Of-Ways: Buchsbaum states that this should be pursued, but that starting with Tall Tree Drive would be a logical first step, as it seems the most straight forward. Buchsbaum states that raising funds for the trail markers and posts is another priority, and maybe the Mayor could be approached for funding. Beverly Open Space & Recreation Committee June 1, 2005 Meeting Minutes Page 3 of 5 Natural History Newspaper Articles Adams asks if anyone has any articles ready for publication as there aren’t any more drafted. Brewster states that he could possibly have two articles that he could try to get to Adams by the end of the coming weekend. Kampersal states that Ron Johnson had promised an article for Norwood pond and has indicated that he is still working on it. Buchsbaum states that he’d be willing to draft a piece about right-of-ways. Adams states that the Committee should shoot for a monthly article, as anything more frequent may be too burdensome. Members agree. Conservation Restrictions Buchsbaum states that he and Ed Becker, Essex County Greenbelt, met with the Mayor regarding the Norwood Pond conservation restriction, and indicates that the Mayor was receptive of the idea and sounded willing to work on this with them. Becker had volunteered to proceed with this project as he had drafted a restriction document a few years ago, which was initiated by an anonymous donor who proposed placing a CR on Norwood pond property in exchange for a large donation to the City. Kampersal asks what the City Council’s position is on this issue. Buchsbaum states that the Council took no action on the Committee’s letter. He thinks that the Committee should initiate a meeting with the Council, but waiting until September may make sense since the budget is dominating the Council’s attention at this point. Maxner states that waiting until September would give the Committee time to prepare a polished, well organized Power Point presentation which would create a bigger impact. Kampersal, Brewster, Buchsbaum and Maxner volunteer to work together to put together a Power Point presentation. Buchsbaum states that the Mayor often brings up the fact that the Committee is charged with enhancing and pursuing active recreational opportunities, but that it seems the Committee has mainly focused on passive recreation and open space acquisition. Buchsbaum states that the Committee should try make active recreation one of its priorities and place more effort in this area. Ideas such as bike paths, bike parks and playing fields were briefly discussed and the general consensus of the Committee was that these should be topics of focus for future meetings. City Park Maintenance Brewster states that he received a call from Emily Cademartori, member of the Beverly Conservation Land Trust, regarding concerns over the release of nuisance animals into Greens Hill, groundhogs being the most common. He states that he contacted Jim Lindley, Animal Control Officer, and found out that he is not licensed to trap or terminate these animals but is Beverly Open Space & Recreation Committee June 1, 2005 Meeting Minutes Page 4 of 5 able to retrieve dead animals or road kill. Members agree there is little it can do other than possibly posting rules in the kiosks regarding trapping and release of wild animals. Discussion ensues regarding maintenance of trails. Maxner states that the Essex County VELO bike club has been doing trail maintenance for various Conservation Commission controlled properties during the past couple of years. She volunteers to contact the representative and ask that he attend the next meeting to explain what they have done so far. Kiosks Brewster states that Greens Hill trails are in relatively good shape, at least as of this past weekend, but the plexi-glass on the kiosk has been broken and the rules have been torn down. Buchsbaum states that Mary Reilly has been working on developing a full sized poster display to place in the kiosks and she has started with J.C. Phillips parcel. Reilly presents a draft print of the poster and states that she developed it on Power Point. Members review the draft print. Buchsbaum asks if Maxner could arrange for a full-sized version to be printed in house. Maxner agrees to ask Roland Adams to help with it printing. Reilly agrees to email the material to Maxner. Beaudoin suggests placing the frog & fern logo somewhere on the poster, Reilly agrees and Beaudoin states she will email the logo to her. Kampersal states that Barney Bouton has indicated that installing the kiosks is very hard work which most of the boy scouts are unable to accomplish without adults. She wonders if the DPW could help with this labor. Maxner agrees to contact Mike Collins, DPW Director, to see if he would be able to provide man-hours. Kampersal asks if a supply of locks for the kiosks have been secured. Maxner states that she recalls that she put Mike Bouchard in contact with Kampersal and was unsure of the status of this. Kampersal states that she did speak with Bouchard, but that he wanted to make sure that all the locks had one master key and that way a couple of select people would be able to access the kiosks if need be. Maxner agrees to follow up with Bouchard. New Business Committee Membership: Buchsbaum states that Jim MacNeil, Mayoral appointee, has stepped down from the Committee as his schedule has become too busy to continue in this position. Buchsbaum expresses concern that Ellen Flannery, Planning Board representative, may be too busy to serve on the Committee as well, and that there is a need for active participation from this position as the Planning Board is very involved with land use planning in the City. He states that he will discuss this with Flannery to get a sense of her ability to commit time to the Committee. Beverly Open Space & Recreation Committee June 1, 2005 Meeting Minutes Page 5 of 5 Maxner reviews the present membership and term expiration dates. City Web Site: Buchsbaum states that he received a call from an interested citizen concerning the trails off of Tall Tree Drive. He states that this person was unable to retrieve much useful information about open space on the City web site. Maxner explains that last year she and the Assistant Planning Director were trained on updating the web pages particularly for the boards and committee’s that they staff, but she has had no time to devote to it. Buchsbaum states that the Action Plan should be posted on the web page at the very least, along with the trail map and maybe the agendas. Knight volunteers to work with Maxner to work on this throughout the summer. Summer Schedule: th Buchsbaum states that the next meeting will be July 6 and hopes that date works for most of the members. The Committee will not be meeting in August and will resume meeting in September. He asks if members would be interested in organizing a group picnic. Members agree to talk about it at the next meeting. Other Business Dog Park: Brewster states that in speaking with Jim Lindley, a dog park is needed and there has been no resolution as to a location. Members agree to place this on the next agenda. Natural Resource Map: Maxner states that she printed out the natural resource map that a few people have inquired about. She indicates that Roland Adams printed it but could not manipulate the scale, therefore this version may not be very useful. Maxner states that she and Roland Adams have field located a few certified vernal pools using GPS and plan on doing the remaining certified pools as some point in the future when time allows. Buchsbaum states if no one has any other business to discuss, he would like to adjourn the regular meeting and convene into executive session to discuss the status of some tax title property and other priority parcels. Paluzzi moves to adjourn the regular meeting, and not to reconvene into regular meeting. Seconded by Beaudoin. All members are in favor. Motion carries 7-0. Regular meeting adjourned at 9:00 p.m.