 And welcome everybody to the April recognition meeting. Today we have it's going to supposed to be a relatively short meeting. There are a few things that I spoke to Carolyn, our chair about wanting to make sure we cover for the April week. We do have some things cooking in preparation coming up as we're approaching the summertime. You all have a copy of the agenda. I want to begin by first, checking on April minutes. I can do that again. Thank you. Carolyn, do you want to take over the introduction piece. Let's see what do I need to talk about. That's just the minutes and the, and the open for public comment. Okay. This is the first. So approval of minutes. We all receive them we all read them is everyone okay with them any changes. Okay, so I make a motion that we approve the March minutes as they are. Second, I'll second that. Okay. Also note taker do we have a note taker. I'll just match it to go again. Thank you, Matt. Glad you're here. May I may also just say that is came up. Jean pointed out this week and email with me that there is a gap in the, in the published minutes online. If you read Andy just submitted January is today and we'll get that posted. There may be some I don't remember Jean if you remember when the, when the gap began online I could have looked for that. But there was a long gap in there. Matt have you been sharing with Marion I think Marion would be the one that's posting the minutes here, and we've been sharing with Marion the minutes. Yes. The last, the last ones I think that were approved for November last year. From November. Okay. Go back to June to. Nothing in between. Yeah, nothing in between. I will see. I'll check with Marion and make sure that, that we have all of the current ones updated if you have those archive and if I need those I'll reach out to you and, and post those on the town website. But those, those minutes should be available here. Yeah, and January's never got approved. Right. January's were the ones. Those, those had the adjustments and those any just submitted those to Marion today. Okay. And last time I checked the recordings weren't all up so would you please see if you can find out where those are and get them posted. Thanks. Yes. Okay. So we're going to vote on the minutes, or do we need to vote. Yes. March. Did we actually invite that? No. Are there enough people here to do that? We have. I haven't seen them so I can't vote. The motion is seconded all in favor. Okay. Does that count as approved? I guess that accounts approved by majority. Okay. Okay. Okay. That's majority present. If we need a fourth. For a, for a true majority. Then. Can we wait until I move, I move that we table that vote until the middle of the meeting when Andy is here. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. That will give us, that'll give us a majority that'll give the true majority. Okay. So moving on to pickleball. Okay. Sanjay wants to play pickleball. You look happy. Yeah, there's a lot of whatever a person feels about pickleball. How can you not smile when you hear someone say the word pickleball? Right. I make a motion we change the name from pickleball to something else. Yeah, I think this, that's why David and Amy are here. So. David is always here. David is certainly here too. And I will bring them aboard here as we start this piece. I will say that we are moving in a direction. I appreciate the fact that Carolyn has been a, as a chair, she has taken on some of the responsibility. Of speaking to members of the community that have been pushing for this. So we're doing some of the legwork to try and find some alternative plans and try to put on the table. Some, some means of trying to move this process forward. I don't think we are stuck. I've said that before. I don't think we're stuck in a space right now, but we do. There's, there's money on the table that was given in a previous cycle. And we want to try and make sure that we are. Our best effort to, to making good on that. So we're still looking, we're still aggressively looking for a site, looking for the forever site. I will just say that our conversations on the agenda here, we're looking at, at management of the temporary courts, which are at Mill River right now. We're looking at developmental site options with different choices for where we're going. That's the conversation that we're having at town hall. And that's the conversation that we're having with the various departments that are responsible for making this happen. And there's some issue about costs that are going to come up here also. So if there. If there are any initial comments or conversations about any of those pieces, we can hear, hear that before I, I. Dave and Amy to the. Platinum panelists. Go ahead. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Could you give us an up to the minute on the temporary courts and the net situation and all that. Yes. The temporary courts right now we have had. We've had some people reaching out about access to that court, which we expected. The weather is, is nicer. We put those temporary lines and then Mill River. In the, in the fall, late fall. We had to come out there and use it as a sort of experiment to see if people had nets could bring out there. I have a, a. Portable net that I'll be able to move out to the Mill River site. Now we've had people reaching out to us about scheduling. About reserving or scheduling pickleball times there. Saturdays we've had community interest about, about how much time can we have during the day. We've had a lot of people on the West side. We've had a lot of people on the West side. We've had a lot of people on the West side. So that's why I'm here. I might not, can we, can we do it this way? Can we run some instructional clinics out there? If people are interested in that part of it is good. We haven't had any conflicts. Yet between. Tennis and pickleball that has been brought to my attention to our attention here. But I think there is a little bit of anxiety from some of the members of the. We're not wanting to step on toes over there. And we just want to make sure that if we're there, that we, that we don't go out there and then realize that there is a clash here right now is first come first serve. People get there and can put their nets up, can use that. Of the two. Tennis courts there. One of them is taken by two pickleball courts. Somebody gets there and shows up and is playing pickleball in that court. Then there's one tennis court there. We haven't seen that conflict yet. But certainly that could arise. And that's why we are going to be monitoring that. But basically informally by moving, moving over there by touching base with people who are using it, we are going to be reaching out to the people who are out there. Carolyn. So I noticed the other day that the courts, the gate is open. Does that stay open? Yes. So anybody who wants to play with their own equipment can go anytime right now. Yes. Okay. Okay. We reserve. We reserve the right to be able to close it down and set a schedule over there. But, but right now, because it's not, it hasn't been a clash of cultures. We haven't. We haven't said that these, this time is specifically for pickleball. This time is specifically for tennis because we want to see if that comes up organically. So, you know, has the court been for a long time? Or is it just dropping off nets or having them available? Have not, have not finalized that yet. But our, our vision is to try and, is to try and bring over, say, three days a week. I bring it out and drop it off. It just came in on Friday. To bring it over and drop it off. Say noon to three, or go over there from 10 to one or something. Drop the nets off and collect them back at the end. the issue is that we don't have any way of establishing collateral or having people come over here and pick a net up and go over there. We would, we're trying to publicize it on our Facebook account, which doesn't reach nearly enough people. But we would like to be able to post signs that pose they already worked on some signage for the courts to let them know that there will be public play available when we can set those times as this is this is going to be no way is there than the nets can just stay off to the side. Yeah, I guess I have kind of a maybe I'm just a naive question. So the that can you you don't play the pickleball just with the tennis nets. No, what why is that. It is a difference. It's a different sized court and a different size net. The net and pickleball is a little bit shorter. It's lower. So you can't you can't just play on part of the tennis court using it's part of the tennis net. If you were desperate enough, you could, and it was the only net that was there you could it's not pickleball. So you're suggesting like a temporary net that just sits on the side. And we would deliver that. How does it, how does that, like anchor itself to the ground so that it creates the correct tension. It has a little bit of weight on the on the feet of the net that allow that that's enough. Yeah, it's it does have enough. It's sturdy enough that it could it could stay still in a windy day. There's enough of a sort of a base on it. There's enough of a weighted base on it that it won't fly around. So your idea is that those are just going to sort of sit on the side of the tennis court and then someone who shows up because there's not really people reserving it for tennis are that is there. Correct. So so people just it's a it's the court to first come first serve. And if somebody comes in wants to use the pickleball they just pull the pickleball net into the middle of the court play pickleball and then leave and then when someone comes and shows up the tennis they put the pickleball nets on the side of the court. Correct. And you're just sort of relying on honesty that nobody's going to like pick up the pickleball court tennis net and take it and play in their driveway. That right now is our risk. Yes, we're we're banking on the fact that nobody will take it with the alternative would be to put it on a chain and wheels and let the chain into the fences and drag it out and I don't like that feel as much. If, if it's a day I'm hoping that that doesn't that that deters folks from just going in there and taking what they what they want. We do there is a precedent we do that with other things in our department where, where people use our facilities or use our equipment. Without our outdoors. Yeah. Okay, what happens is, I guess, I guess if one gets stolen and the next time you have to attach it with a cable or chain. Yes. And so that's, that is a management situation. If there are people out there and we would like to, we would like to. Do you feel like the, the, the double sets of lines is interfering at all. People are not, people are fine with the two sets of lines being on the court. It is definitely interfering with tennis. The lines, the lines are too thick for pickleball right now. And we've heard that feedback. And it just, it's sort of for that shared court. The, the tennis players who are trying to use it. It's confusing for them to see their own lines, the pickleball lines, sort of make the tennis lines a little bit more relevant. Are they in a different color? Slightly yellow. Yeah. Yellow and white. Okay. Okay, so, right. And so, are there any other questions about the temporary site? Carolyn. Actually, I was just raising my hand to move on to the development site options because that's closely tied to this. Got it. And so I'm going to bring in, now I'm going to bring in both David and Amy, if either or both of them would like to contribute to this piece because this is where we're getting into the next step. So it's getting out of my management and into some of the information that we've been going over, both of them have been involved in the conversation essentially. I think Andy is up first. So that's fine. Yeah, I just wanted to say I was here. I'm sorry I got here about five minutes ago. And I'm going to turn the video off. Thanks. Thanks for being here, Andy. Okay, thanks. Right. So just about the courts. It. Anyway, just to say it out loud. And I'm sure you will make sure that the pickle ballers and the tennis players feel like they're being treated the same right so I get it that like the pickle ballers they feel new. They're worried about the tennis players getting angry at them they're calling you and asking them can we reserve times or this or that. But since tennis has never had reservations there right we don't want to wind up in a situation where a tennis players show up and the pickle ballers say well we reserve the court. And it's just, we just need to make clear it could be a very simple sign or it could just be word of mouth that it's, it's open play. And this isn't prospect park or central park and there's no membership card and there's no hourly limit or anything like that and. And just as long as everyone feels like they're being treated the same, I think I'm hopeful that it'll work out. One thing to mention that I'm not sure it's clear here is there. I don't think they can play tennis on the pickle ball courts anymore because the net's not there, and the courts are separate. So people can play tennis and pickle ball at the same time. That clear. So that again. They're both set up right now, you can, there can be tennis on one court and pickle ball on the other two courts. So you have, you have one court dedicated to tennis and the other courts dedicated to pickle ball. The other, the other tennis court has two pickle ball courts on it now and I don't think there could be tennis there. Is there not a net? Is there not a tennis net there right now? I don't think so. I think the tennis net is up. Amy and Dave. I'm pretty sure the tennis net is up on both of the courts. Is that right? Okay. I thought they were. I'm up there three or four times a week and I'm pretty sure the, for baseball and I'm pretty sure the tennis nets, both tennis nets are up. Okay, so they could play tennis if no pickle ball people came there will be two tennis courts. Correct. Okay. And if there are pickle, pickle, pickle ball people there, there was still one tennis course. Yes, Gary. Okay. Okay, I have promoted the panelists. We know them just for introduction sake we have Dave Zomek and Amy Rezeki here. The next piece of this is to look at developmental site options. David, go ahead. Can you do it? Yes. David, yes. Oh yeah, I'm sorry. I didn't get a request to. Are we going to do the video as well? Are you, do I not have you as a video? It still is a, it still isn't a 10 day we're talking committed. Okay, I tried it. I'll change that right now. Yeah, send me another. I tried it like three times. Here we go. Great thing. Got it. We see you. Okay. And so Dave, you that that's all you had your hand up for right. Okay. Amy, are you in the same situation? No, I'm here. Okay, just making sure. Okay, so the next piece that we are looking at is the developmental site options. One of the things that is, I believe. A concern for us moving forward is what we're doing with that long term, our long term goal of finding pickleball a space of its own finding them a space where we can program some of the options where we can do open pick do open pick up pickleball where we can do camp work where we can integrate it in with other, with other sort of similar activities. We've talked about a lot of different sites here. I've introduced some of them to the commission before we've talked, I've talked to Carolyn and and at some extent about options that we have. One of the things that we're working on here. There have been a lot of really creative proposals being brought up by citizens by commissioners by, by town, by town employees. There have been a lot of sort of directional sort of pieces that are going in there and I, I want to basically ask if there is any energy from anybody in the personal any open energy for people here as to where we have looked what's on the table and where we can try and develop here. Is there, is there any, I know Carolyn has had some conversations here but if there's anybody here who has a any general feedback in general questions about where we are and what we're doing and start, I can start there. Questions for me questions for Dave, what are the main locations you're considering right now. Right now, we are looking at the extending the, the temporary home at Mill River into a cooperative tennis and pickleball, or potentially making that entire thing pickleball but using those tennis courts, where the temporary courts are right now. And some that either extending and making pickleball space in connection with the tennis court that exists there or turning that into into pickleball. There's some interest in developing long term. There's the sites at graph park there's a site at graph park that we've discussed up on the upper fields on the back of the upper fields. There is some interest in developing the cow fields up in North Amherst, the open the open space by the library and turning that into pickleball space. There's been some interest in using Kiwanis over on Stanley Street and building there as a site away from away from the beat that the other ones are on. Those are the four my forgetting one please. Mil River has a couple of possibilities I think, but David will be able to tell us more about that. So the, what just came up this week was the idea of, of perhaps even moving, not just on those tennis courts but is there other space at Mill River that that would be available the original proposal was to use the second parking lot the first parking lot when you move into the left, you come into Mill River. For a variety of different reasons, we didn't like that we being many of the people involved in making this decision for a variety of reasons that didn't fit perfectly, despite the fact that it worked well in some cases, but that technically could be an option that we would be looking at, because it's based that was was entered into the proposal but there's no river hosts, a few potential proposed sites. I think Amy and I are happy to jump in whenever appropriate. I don't want to start and then I'll turn it over to Amy, because she's been working with Ray and and Jason skills our town engineer on on a few of the sites. But I guess what I wanted to start with saying is we are 110% committed to building pickleball courts in Amherst, and I think our working group of staff and I met with Carolyn last Thursday or Friday, just to chat a little bit about where we're 100, you know, we're 100% committed to doing making the courts happen. We are, I think most of us also feel like with the with the explosive growth in popularity of pickleball that this might be the first of a couple of different locations so I don't want people. We're going to see to kind of lock in and say, oh, we're going to put pickleball courts here, wherever that might be, but I think we probably in the end are going to have courts in a couple of different parts of town. The history a little bit on this and I was talking with Carolyn about it last week is, you know, I think the group that developed the CPA proposal. For whatever reason, kind of locked in, I might say with the most respect for that group a little prematurely on Mill River, and after staff did after that proposal was well on its way to see back. I know I chimed in kind of at 1159 and said, please, please, please let's not lock in on Mill River. The reason I did that was part of my job and, and particularly Amy's job is to really look with with us with Ray and other department heads to say, what are all the layers of a decision that go into where things go whether it's a building whether it's a road whether it's an intersection or whether it's a recreational facility. And so, as we look at Mill River. Really quickly, the first thing I think of is the growth that is happening in North Amherst and the growth that will happen in North Amherst. And so I'm really cautious about real estate at Mill River. And for a variety of reasons as Ray suggested, the area to the left. Well, first of all, on a very busy day at Mill River, there is no parking. Because that was one of the first things I heard is there's plenty of parking lots at Mill River it's not a problem if we take up space for pickleball to three courts shouldn't be a problem maybe four. Well, if you go down on a busy day at Mill River when everything is hopping, there's virtually no parking there. So, we looked at as as our group got together we began to look at and our engineering staff looked at all the parking lots we did look at them. We looked at the parking lot to the left. We looked at the main parking lot over toward the middle river between the pool in the middle river, and we looked at the existing tennis courts to even see if they could be expanded. And our job as planners and engineers is to kind of look at all the factors. The tree cover, the existing pavement, the drainage is a is an important factor how close we are to the middle river the floodplain, all of those factors that allow for for pickleball courts to be permitted to be built, and they would have to be permitted to be built. And no river is a challenging site because it was built free wetlands and pre pre floodplain requirements. Everything is regulated within 200 feet of the middle river. So putting new facilities putting new pavement which a pickleball court is within 200 feet of the middle river is difficult if not impossible and probably not a direction we want to go. So, bottom line is staff looked at the left hand parking lot. We looked at the existing pickleball courts and I think we have a hybrid solution there now where we're sharing that back court. And then we can to look at other places in town where pickleball might go. And I think our most recent meeting with with Amy and Ray and and Jason skills and there may have been others there. And we really landed on the feasibility of putting pickleball courts at Kiwanis Park on Stanley Street. And as we look at the site analysis we look at, you know, ease of building cost of building the budget the timeline are their wetlands and Kiwanis Park makes a lot of sense for doing two or three pickleball courts because it's high dry flat. It has existing parking. The one drawback that we can think of is it doesn't have permanent restrooms. But we've talked about putting restrooms at Kiwanis in the park in the past, we just haven't done it yet. So that's the one major drawback there so in the in the short term, it would have to be kind of a porta potty situation until we could potentially build them. Restrooms there. So I think I'll stop but so there's a couple of years of thinking that went into this and we're we're kind of we want to move toward, you know, deciding on a site and beginning the permitting design and permitting process and we think that can go fairly fairly quickly. I will say the site between that has come up recently between the end of the parking lot at Mill River and the baseball fields from a planning standpoint I could not recommend that site. It is very close to the Mill River. It is also one of the only green spaces left at Mill River for picnicking and large gatherings and informal play. And I, I don't think putting permanent pickleball courts there makes a lot of sense from a long term planning standpoint for recreation. So that is my my thought on that and I don't mean to rain on that parade but we we thought about that and we moved away from that some months ago. And so, Amy, I don't know if I stole all your thunder but if you want to talk about if you want to talk about specifically anything to do with Kiwanis that would be wonderful. You know I know Jason skills has been looking at that. I think you covered it pretty well I I guess I would just kind of I don't know if people have questions and I'm happy to answer questions about kind of how how we came to these decisions or you know kind of some of the, some of the challenges that we're seeing. So just in terms of Mill River. Do you watch your feeling about the two pickleball courts on one of the tennis courts and making that permanent. I think that's realistic. We may have different opinions. Yeah, it's going to say, do you want to ask me or do you want to ask Dave. Okay, I'll hit bugs. I'll stick my neck out before you Amy but I was very much in favor of exploring that. I think it would be an interesting hybrid I think I think there could be a dialogue between the tennis community and the pickleball community and, and trying that out we're really you know could it be done without large, changes to the fence line or anything like that and simply some resurfacing and some line line changes and making that what is that the west side of the courts into into pickleball courts for a year. I realized that and I think Sanjay alluded to it earlier is we want to make sure we treat tennis and pickleball fairly in everything we do. My take was, yes, there are two courts there they've been there since 1972 or whatever to tennis courts, but there are also courts at the middle school. And the colleges have courts they're not all open to the public as as all of our town courts are, but is it time to consider maybe, you know, trying that for a year or two, but but not all staff agreed with me on that. I, I think, especially after you guys talked about it at the last meeting I, I feel like one of the things I heard loud and clear from you guys was, let's find a space specifically for pickleball and not, you know, kind of take something away from an established sport to create space for another established sport. So essentially what that would have been doing taking a tennis court away from tennis players, if we were going to make that a permanent court that the net would have gone out, you know, pickleball nets would have gone in and it would no longer be a tennis court, and there would only be one there. And I just kind of thought for that reason, we should try and find a site that can be there for pickleball and have multiple, you know, multiple courts and you know maybe in the future the ability to add a couple more courts. If, you know, we keep seeing the growth and the demand that that we're seeing so. Yeah, I think I think where I was coming from is you said we'd end up in the future with pickleball in multiple locations in town. If you're suggesting Kiwanis and sort of southeast in Amherst, and then if there's two pickleball courts in Mill River then that kind of creates a jig. You know, courts in different places. I think what I heard from staff and Amy and Ray were, were both on the same page on that which was not to take away that court at Mill River. I think our goal here was to try to get pickleball courts built as quickly and efficiently as possible from here on out. And then budget is going to be a challenge $120,000 seemed like it went a long way but the whole building industry and cost have changed but we're going to do the very best we can, but to your point Matt I think if we get pickleball courts let's say we get them built we get two or three whatever we can afford built at Kiwanis, and then three four years down the road you know pickleball, you know, continues to be as popular as it is, then we look again and we say okay geographically, where should we add pickleball courts, you know, Kiwanis I look at Kiwanis as kind of mid midtown east, you know but in the middle of the town we're a long narrow town. It's pretty close to Sanjay. It's equidistant from people in the south and people in the north, and it's a little bit east as you go to Belcher town but it's kind of in the middle of our town. But yeah, we may look three four years down the road and say oh we need, you know, we need courts in the north or in the deep south. So your feeling is that in terms of 120,000, you know what can be built quickly Kiwanis is the best bet. Yes, that's our thinking. And all to your point though Matt. Kiwanis isn't a site that's going to give us the ability to have six or eight courts in the future that it doesn't have the ability to have future build out, but unfortunately the few places that do have the ability to have all of those. The cost, even just to put two or three courts there is a lot more expensive because it's going to take either a grove park in order to get it there getting it, you know, a long sidewalk to get it all the way to that location just increases the cost exponentially, or at the cow pasture there's not parking right there. There's a parking lot and the courts and that all of a sudden just doubles the cost so both groff and the cow pasture are going to be great sites in the future we would just need to bring together enough money and yeah like obviously it would be great to start with a couple of courts in the place where we could add on to additional, but you also think about stuff like baseball in this town that has, you know, it has sites throughout the town and people do use it throughout the town so I don't think. I don't think getting a couple at say Kiwanis is real real quick before I see your hand Andrew. When we talk about a second site when we talk about having a second site, they've outlined a vision that could have pickleball in multiple places. And this might not be, you know, discussable right now because they're involved in projects there, be it the Fort River and Wildwood sites, be it the War Memorial pool, be it there are a bunch of things that we just don't know right now what form they take in recreational those in those places so it's not that our options now are going to be we're going to be limited to the options we have right now there could be other space that we look at in the future. And. Thanks. So, you know, Kiwanis makes sense for a lot of reasons, I guess the one thing though that I would raise. So just my history looking for fields to play sports on is Kiwanis is like the dry field in town. So does it make sense to basically take a grass use that's dry and one of the only spots you can rely on to be able to access and essentially convert that to a hard surface. Thank you for your question. Amy. Oh, two. So two things on that one, the space that we're looking at is it currently a playing field it's kind of that dead space between where the parking is and where the playing field is. So it's. Yeah, at least it's not going to be taking away playable space under the. I guess playable for what though you relative to the softball diamonds or. Yeah, we would we were running lacrosse there and we were going pretty much up to the parking lot. Okay. Is it the space to the south of the parking lot or to the east of the parking lot next to the road. It's to the south of the parking lot where the big trees are. We would behind the trees. Yeah, we would take down one or two of those trees and we would put the courts right behind that. Do you understand that Andy. Andy. Yeah, yeah, no, I mean, I do. I guess, you know, my point still remains that you know it's it's a is the highest and best use of that asset for a hard surface or for grass. I think throw out one of the other things that you know we've kind of been discussing in general and granted, in a couple weeks we're going to know whether this is a reality or not but we may be looking at you know the loss of some of the fields at the Fort River school for a couple of years if they're doing construction there. And because of that, we, we already my crews have put some drainage at graph, but we're looking to try to install a bunch of drainage at graphs that those fields can be dried out a lot better because that's a great resource but it's wet, pretty often. And so kind of just looking forward a couple years in the future where we're thinking this might be something we have to do to help us make it through that so hopefully that would also make additional playing space for you guys as well. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's, it's, it could be any sport right that that's looking for for field and I guess the other thing is, I love those trees at Stanley like that's something that I would say when we were using it, you know, on a hot day that's where the parents were sort of camping out underneath those shady trees there so it'd be bummer if those were to be lost. Again, like I know we're cost constraint, I get it that this makes sense from that perspective. I would love to see it at a different location I mean that like the cow fields. I don't know that they really can't be used for anything else. I'm sure that's the most expensive option given what you've talked about in terms of planning for drainage and potentially parking. But if we consider. Yeah, part of the challenge. And as Amy alluded, the cow field because of the topographic changes there the cow field is lower than Sunderland Road. So any facility we make has to be completely ADA. So that means anyone in a wheelchair or Walker with a any kind of mobility issue has to be able to get down, get down to the courts. That means adding sidewalks, drainage parking. The cow field gets very complicated. I wanted to go back to something and and I guess I wanted to, we're kind of focused in on on Kiwanis a little bit but I wanted to just maybe call everyone's attention a couple of years ago, and I'm not sure if any of you were on the commission at the time. We have this group called the downtown recreation working group. And I would really encourage you on the town website is a study that was done by Weston and Samson that has been referenced multiple times and Andy your comments that, you know the Kiwanis are one of the best and the highest and driest, you know, makes me sad really in in many ways. I know, I know that to be true. We used to call it when my kids were playing we called it the desert, because it was so dry that it was hard as a rock and kids got injured there because it, it firms up and it's, it's hard. But the Western and Samson group fundamentally said that we need to think about our fields differently. And this is what I would challenge you all to do which is, we, we probably should not be thinking about all these disparate fields in all these different places and this fundamentally was why I and some other folks, you know, including members of the commission put forth the idea of a multi purpose field turf or otherwise at the high school. So that and to improve all the fields at community field the middle school and the high school regardless of what kind of field we decide to build inside the track. And I don't want to go there tonight but that is what Weston and Samson leading professionals in the field said, put our money, our limited money into those fields drainage access places for, for people to watch the fields and all of those things we have plenty of fields. They're just as you all know they're in not the greatest condition and we haven't had the resources to maintain grass fields. But the idea that we're going to improve growth and prove the cowfield include Kiwanis. You know we've got some things on the horizon, one as as Amy alluded, we are going to spend, you know if the vote goes through on May, May 2. We're going to spend a tremendous amount of money on the fields at Fort River School. Those will, you know, regardless those would be some of the best fields in town, when they are built. Likewise, I hope we move forward with improvements or artificial turf or otherwise at the high school, but the, I guess what I'm getting at is my belief is we need to centralize the resources and spend the money on the fields that make the most of the fields and those are high school, middle school community field. You know, we, I hope learned a lesson from spending almost a million dollars at wine lane, and that field really didn't turn out to be as usable as we hoped, in part because it was so high down there. So, I will, I will get off my soapbox there but but I encourage you all to look at that field study done by Western and Samson and it really says, centralize our resources and focus our resources in the downtown area. So, Mr. Thank you. I like it. It's a lot of sense Dave, I appreciate. Any questions. I will, I mean I guess I can conclude just by saying, I know we've been talking about this for a while I know that people who've been who have their heart set on developing a sort of a pickleball home here, have been even more at you know their their energy really has been has been pretty strong and patient for us here. I want to keep on moving in this direction Dave studies 100% interested in getting this I'm 100% interested in making this a part because I think it does provide us with, certainly in our region to a really, really fast growing sport. It's a different way of looking at health and education for young people, especially in our connection with the population that it's growing the most with which is seniors. It's a chance to be connected into society into this community in ways that that I think are are exciting for me as the head of the department here. And so, so, you know, it is a little bit of a pet project for me and trying to find a space that makes the most sense. I mean, Dave and Amy being here and all along the way, folks from town hall and folks from DPWR engineers, being able to tell me know when I need to when I'm getting excited about the pet project and saying, Hey, we need to get this going we do need to get this going. Being able to say there are multiple factors involved and this is an important part of this. It's not a small project. It's a, it's a relatively large project that we're looking at and doing here and it has to fit with all those other pieces. I think I was going to, if I could interject I think, and I talked on Friday about maybe scheduling a time to sit down with, I think there's some representatives of the pickleball folks if you will who put that proposal forward and I'd be happy to be there perhaps Amy would too and we could talk through that, you know, one us park with them, as Amy said I think the town engineers have a ton on their plates right now I can tell you but Jason skills, you know, he likes this project to I think it's, it's kind of a fun one if you will, for him and so, in a couple of weeks I think we'll have a deeper deeper dive at looking at a conceptual design for Kiwanis Park, and we'd be happy to sit down, you know, if Caroline could set it up with the pickleball folks and socialize it with them and also talk about why Mill River is more complicated than originally thought way back when a couple of years ago but, you know, we're, we're ready to, we're kind of ready to launch on on Kiwanis, if we can, you know, if the design works and, and we would move forward with the permitting for trying to get back going so Excellent. We'd be happy to come back to report to you by your next meeting that we've met with the pickleball folks we have a design and hopefully we're, we have a green light to move this forward. Sounds good. Very exciting thanks David. We, we have, we haven't designed money and Ray has been so busy we're all so busy but we have CPA money I think we have $50,000 to look at speaking of Mill River to look at the area near the pavilion. This is Nate Maloy and my and I got this money from CPA maybe two years ago to look at the area, we realized that the playground and the pavilion area and that area between mill to and the basketball courts we have the wonderful new basketball courts. Thanks to CPA and DPW for doing that and funding that but we do want to redo the playground there which is quite old and out of date. You know, look, we would look to you to come back and, and work with you on some design ideas for that playground area, which is so popular but pretty dated now. So, just thought I would put that out there. We're in that and Carolyn's going to, I'm trying to beat Carolyn to the punch on this. We are over on the agenda and that's fine. I think this is energy that we were expecting to spend in here. I'd like to move on. I would there are a couple things I want to do first one is to point everybody's attention Jean did share the Western Samson. In the chat. If anybody wants to pull that out if anybody is unaware of how to find that or where that is or what that looks like Western Samson is in the chat. Thank you, Jane. The next thing is we have Andy has joined us and use of his joined us use of you are on our board is Sanjay. I have a message is anybody else have that. Yeah. Okay. You said you said he emailed me and said he didn't receive the link. So I thought that makes sense. And so we do have the opportunity right now to, I'm going to move at do I can move to re vote, move to approve them. The March minutes as I move Dave and Amy back into the panel and thank you both if as I move you back. So, I'll make a motion again to approve the March minutes as they stand. We have a second. Seconds all in favor. Hands. Good. Okay. Sounds good. Jean can't vote right, or she can but she didn't see them. Yeah, I didn't see where those are posted I couldn't find those. Yeah, that's right you wouldn't have. Okay, so I guess it's passed. Excellent. Okay, I can go and make this nice and breezy. For the pavilions and pools Denise isn't here I put her on I had invited her and then forgot to check in with her today to make sure that she was coming I sent her a late notice and that'll be my fault but I can tell you pavilions are open. The bill and graph pavilions and that now they're not open now but we set our opening dates for the end of this month which is now pavilions will be available we've reduced the prices at, at which one at graph at the lower pavilion at graph because of the, the state of that, of that, because of the state of pavilion we've dropped the cost there, but we have sort of worked on our, our packaging for those pools, which is a bigger issue and we'll, we'll involve in our, go ahead. Alright, just regarding the pavilions. You may be aware of this but over the course of the winter, there had been some let's say camping. Yes, over pavilion and I just wonder if that is being addressed. It has been already has been yet. It has been we've been we've had a few agencies in town talking about that situation. Carol and I went and did a site visit. Last week, I did go over the pavilion for the first time in a couple months and we're going to need no DBW will be on but they have to move the benches and everything, they will be on sort of straightening that up, I'll be on straightening that up but but yes we have been on that. Okay. So, I mean, general interest in both the, the state of the pavilion and the well being of the people who were needing to use it. More proactively, I have it reserved for 10 o'clock this coming Saturday for 150 little leaguers, and it would be very uncomfortable if I arrived and had to deal and had to address. Send me a reminder. I'm trying that down, feel free to pester me this week about making sure I'll double that double out there just to make sure that DBW knows to do all that piece and I'll take care of the managerial part of. Thanks right. Yes. Thank you. The pools. The opening dates are set. We are going to have the pools open for the public on 617 on June 17 is our set opening date. Obviously there's some factors that could, they could change that that's mid June it's a, it's a pretty early opening target there. The piece has been working hard to build a lesson schedule, and to build a, a, to put it is not complete yet but to do a complete schedule for those first couple weeks, of course, camp at war is, is, is one of our concerns is we're building those camps. And question Carolyn. In the past mill has opened before war it sounds like you're opening the both the same time. We are, I don't know about that stagger, I haven't known if the, I didn't know that there was that stagger. Last year was my first one obviously, and war had its issues. I don't know if that was. It was out of design or out of what had, if DPW tells me that we have to. So delay one or delay the other one, we know that can't needs to be open for the 20th, the week after the 17th, I believe lessons are beginning I don't remember which of the two pools lessons take place in that first week, but I haven't heard anything about changing those I think it's war. I haven't heard anything about changing about staggering those dates. Okay, or the other. So we are looking, I'll let Denise describe this and may I guess but we are looking at trying to get a little bit of expanded base out at Hampshire and use. A marriage waiting for us out there Hampshire is looking for somebody to come in and do some and do some instruction for some of the people that, that they have the constituents, the constituents that use that ball and are looking to use that pool and the students leave. And we have the need of trying to find some some cool hours. And so we're working on they've been terrific partners for us as we went through the through the so called off seasons with with our master swimming courses. And we really think that that's a relationship that we want to try and keep building and giving us giving us more capability to not be dependent on the clothes on the very narrow sort of facilities that we have here. More options is always good. Any questions of convenience or pools. Those are the big opening dates for this for this season. Staffing, moving through staffing, I can basically sum it all up by saying, need a nap. We are filling three positions right now we hired in what we what we think is going to be a terrific summer camp director. And she starts tomorrow. So I'm going to be here early to get her situated and and get her up to speed on where we are with with filling those fill in her staff filling the camp situations there. We have one open position when we lost our outstanding registration supervisor Diane Wheeler went across town. We are now at town hall and we're filling that position so people who have used our front desk and no Diana and know how much she brought to our office. We are in the process of filling that position we have a couple of candidates that we're looking at. But, but that is, that's a registration position, the place where I want to just mentioned to you all that we could use your help. We have since I decided I wanted to make this pitch at this meeting, we have gotten a couple of interested references. And so it's not that we don't have anybody for it, but Nikki bellies the rest of Nikki bellies position. She was summer camps and she was outreach special events. The summer camps is being taken care of in a seasonal position. We are filling. We have our back stars position with with a program director, and that program director is going to be in charge of our basically, you know, the, the outreach special events, going to be in charge of, of our licensing of after our childcare of our of those programs, and also going to be doing some of our marketing in our program so we are looking for a dynamic individual who can do some of what we looked at with Nikki but would be able to be creative and making a position back up to where we had before I was here, but building a position backup and its usefulness and its utility for the department of the town. I think it's an important position for me as a director, but it's, but it is something that if people know, you know, outgoing planners, people who have ever interested in marketing and business connections and basically promotion of our department. This is, is a position that I'm excited to be looking for. This is as a plug there. You can send them to me and send them to to the wreck to the wreck department here at office in the HR we have a position open for our outreach. So, that's for our own staff, July 4 committee, we have started in earnest at building a July 4 committee, the one inside our town with different departments here, and we are working on our sponsorship outreach we're working on some of those things that I need a nap that I'd love to have an outreach director here for to be working with. But the July 4 committee we were already dividing up a bunch of the responsibilities, and then another committee that committee myself and Marion are going to be connecting with the UMass team. Various departments at UMass, who are responsible for building and supervising and providing the facilities and resources for July 1. It says July 4 committee, the event is on July 1 is on Saturday July 1 on you on the University of Massachusetts same spot at the University of Massachusetts. The committee is the following Saturday the eighth, but we are building a program that we can only be proud of we got a bunch of people working to try and make up for the pieces that we did not have last year and I don't want to spend any time thinking about that right now. But I'm excited about that opportunity. And moving how am I doing catching up right and moving into the commission recruitment. This is very easy. Thank you, Jean. Thank you, Jonas is still in our, in our attendees right now. We have for the first time, a full commission of full active commission so so that is outstanding. I tip my hat to all of you all it's it's terrific we kill and I talked a little bit about this and that's the next phase which I'm going to hand in a second. I think that this is a really, really exciting group of people here with various interests are put together and with the intent of trying to find a bunch of different types of voices a bunch of different. So niches in the community here and in recreation. So after that applause, we are losing to in a couple months. And so we are going to be back looking at put this in staffing and vacancies because we will be back if you know people were interested we will be looking to fill to two seats here. We didn't get started until late last year when we were looking to fill one open seat and then one opening seat we get started until late last year so I do want to put that in your ears. I have a couple people who are maybe reaching out to and looking at but if you would love to have options to put in here also so share just how, how tame of a director I am and how much how little I make your lives. And how much more I could make it hell if you asked me nicely. I will turn over now to the recognition piece to Carolyn about. We talked a little bit about what we think the recognition can be more than what it is right now. And so Carolyn would like to to sort of put something on your radar. This started because someone who was interested in joining our commission called me and said, do you do anything besides you sports. And I said, he actually do a lot of other things. And, you know, she I think she got this idea from looking at our previous agenda and you know, we do a lot. We spent a lot of time on different sports and we're all interested in youth sports so it makes sense that it would be front and center but I thought, you know, we should look at the mission statement and see what we say we're here for because if we're going to recruit people to join us as a commission. We know, and we don't have one. And I looked at the other town committees and commissions and almost everyone has one. So I pasted them together into a word doc and sent it out to the reply all list here before the meeting I don't know if it actually went to everybody or not. I think they're all BCC. I will share with you all. Okay. Okay, off here and I'll share it with you. Okay. Two couple things first. Do we want a mission statement. Anybody have feeling about that. Do you think we need one. I think we need one. Okay, it's good to have one but as part of the planning session that we did a few years ago just before pandemic didn't we create a document that has all of that information. Was it for recreation commission or for the recreation department. Oh, I see. Yeah, that was department in general, not the commission itself. Got it. Okay, sorry. Right when we were changing our identity program we did a lot of that thinking but the commission itself. If you look at our part of the website, it's pretty unclear why we're here and what we do and if you look at the other ones that I sent out. Bring in bird feeders. If you look at the other ones that I sent out people have things like I mean other groups say basic things like we work to advise the town, but also what they cover what they're specifically doing now, you know what they're here for and I feel like we could do that. So the second part of my little message is, does anyone want to take that on as like just a draft thing before the next meeting something to send out. Does that mean I have to. I would do that if you don't send me that information. Okay. Yeah just see what everyone else says I noticed there's very little consistency. The look is all different no matter who you open they're all different looking. The length is different the length is different but I think if you just read through those you can get a pretty good idea of what, you know, someone that's coming in might need to see or might want to see. And then if you just draft up anything that can be really loose and rough, at least give us something to look at, you know, most of the people here have been on long enough to be able to say, Yeah, here's how we describe that. So it doesn't need to be long I just feel like it's kind of nice to have something like that. It's like mission statement at Mount Holyoke right now it's like it's just like very short it's like perfect. Yeah, like this we've got it down to two lines. Nobody wants to see paragraphs and paragraphs so yeah. That would be great thank you Jean. Let's see I think that's, that's all I wanted to say about that. I want to share with you the, I just emailed all of you all of these you see the document that Carolyn sent earlier. The next thing is some new commission business. So I've also occasionally talked to people interested in the commission and one message I think we can send is that the commission does the things that the members of the commission are interested in. And that if a person is interested in forming arts, or senior activities or adult continuing education. Currently, spending much time on those issues, while it could reasonably be taken as a deterrent also represents an opportunity. Right. Great point. Yeah, I think that's absolutely right and in fact, I was going to say a good place to recruit from is like the sidelines but that doesn't make sense because that means we're going to have duplicates of all of us. So a good place to recruit from as well for you seven me maybe to replace ourselves with people on our, you know, in our interest groups. But think about those things like absolutely adult and continue, you know, all the programs we've had in the past or special events or any of those things would be really good to have a representative on the commission. So if anyone knows anyone else think outside those little, our little gold boxes here. Sanjay, I'm that that quote is is going to live with me as I try and I try and sell the idea of being the commission the commission does with members of commission are interested in that that works for me. Yeah, the woman who contacted me was really wanting to get recreation facilities built in our town. And it's that's pretty appropriate but it's a huge ask. And it's not something that when you get, when you join the commission, you can get done within a year. So anyway, I told her to get in touch with CPA. People. The money. All right. Anybody else. All right. Moving on. So now, if there's any new commission business, we can open that now if anybody has any new commission business yet on the July 4 thing, I will encourage you all to be as involved as you can be I would love to have the commission. If you want to be involved with me, I would love to have a commission representative and on all of our July 4 planning. If anybody would like to do that again contact me, I can plug you in those meetings are typically during the day and in person for our base your meeting right now on Friday afternoons I don't know how long that that lasts. We are, if anybody would like to sort of have a commission interest in here because you are a body that does not work for me. You're a body that I don't work for. If you would like to, as a recognition be involved in that, in that big community event planning process. I would welcome you to see the table with me. So that's that that extended questions. I had a question. So for your rec department, do you have internships, like, as a way to maybe have people help you, since you're low on. We don't have internships, we have, we, some of our volunteers as we, as we put together a team of volunteers that need, we need to carry out an event like this. And we'll be people who have been volunteers or in part time employees for us in sport and after school or after school basically becomes not after school or summer camp workers become volunteers for us for July 1. So we use the folks that we have here but we don't have a set internship program. I mean, what they know what the college is not the students I mean that seems like it'd be a great opportunity for someone who's looking to get into the field. Right. We do reach out to them for volunteers for our other planning we will be reaching out to the colleges for volunteers for this we don't have an extended program that that rolls over into our July 1 planning July 4 celebration. But we use the colleges for a lot of our, for a lot of our after school summer camp coaching clinics. He coaches themselves. I would be happy to reach out to anybody that that has a that has a wealth of people that they're available for us. So, we've been successful in finding a couple interns for the baseball program through the sports management program at UMass. And there is a woman a faculty member who is her job is to help arrange internships for the students. They've been good. The one of the issues of course is that they're gone by the middle of May. Right. So their utility for your prime time season is going to be minimal. If you have that contact. Yeah, we might have the same similar context but if you have a contact that we haven't used, then please feel free to send it to me. I will. Okay, so next meeting date we are right now at the end of April. For our May meeting. Does anybody have a problem with moving with having a late May, mid to late May. Do is Monday still work for folks. I can't do them. That's Memorial Day is the last Monday in April. So we'd have to go before that 22nd. I am bringing Jonas in to, I'm allowing Jonas to talk right now. I should just promote him to a full panelist and cheat for a second but I have Jonas if Jonas you have any input on the next meeting we anticipate you will be there. Everybody say hi to Jonas. Hi Jonas. Everyone. How are you. Am I a text box. You are. Yes, you are. Because I follow rules. I was waiting for that one. We could just meet on our corner like Andy and Jonas and I live like right here. Play telephone with the cans in the string. I'm, let's see, my summer is pretty open. So, yeah. So the 22nd is a Monday near the end of May. Does anyone have a conflict with that? The only thing I will say is just the hurricane boosters typically meet on Mondays also, I think like 530. I'd love to mean since certainly they're, they're doing some work relative to the turf project. I'd love to participate a little so Monday gets to work, but I don't know whether. People, I guess mind if I show up late or if, you know, would be up for pushing things back 30 minutes. I assume that you were probably get it making use of some daylight hours on the crossfield. I was tonight. Yeah. And the, the, the meeting got pushed to tomorrow, but. I don't have a problem with, with delaying the start until seven we've done seven at different times of the year. And I think that people kind of move towards six o'clock. But again, this is your, if it fits you all seven o'clock is not a problem for me. I try. I know today's the wrong example, but I try to hold pretty tight to a pretty quick schedule. And so I don't intend to be here. Beyond the time that we sort of, sort of a lot for seven on the 22nd. We tried for seven o'clock on the 22nd. Everybody okay with that? Yeah. So I just have another thing is normally we get a little introduction. We didn't get an introduction from Jean or Jonas. As to like what your specific interests are. And I, I forgot, I was, I had planned on doing that, but I realized today that Jean was probably going to be here today. And new Jonas wasn't going to be. You could take that time now or we could plan a great big introduction. We're doing an email introduction between now and next meeting or we could start with introductions for our two new members. Next time, or we could do it right now. If you want to, we could have you all, I'd rather be able to plug Jonas in when we can see him. We could do Jean now and Jonas next time. Now, Jean, tell us what brings you to Amherst recreation. Um, well, um, so I'm from Chicago originally, so I'm from big city, but I lived in La Crosse, Wisconsin for several years. And we had a very vibrant wreck department and just activities for the kids and just not just for the kids, but just for the whole community. It's all the pools and it's a very vibrant community that's about 50,000 populations, a little smaller than Amherst. But I was, when I came and moved here about nine years ago, I was just surprised as the lack of, I think opportunities for the community for the kids for adults, and really just want to be involved with that I'm also a Spanish professor. So I have the bilingual background and bicultural and I think we have a growing Hispanic population in the area and I think it would be nice to kind of tap on that as well and get our Latino community more involved. So I don't know, I think I'm excited to work with you all and see, I mean, I've seen a lot of nice things already happen since I've been here in the nine years, which has been great. And of course, there's always, always lots to do and just happy to be here and give my thoughts and ideas and try to make things happen. Great. I really appreciate it. Thanks for being here. And thanks for getting all that didn't care so quickly after the appointment. The bar set nice and high for Jonas come may we're going to have him on camera we're going to have him. Nobody's allowed to leave between now. We want to make sure that we have that full seven bases here for the first time. Do you all ever meet in person is always on zoom now or we talked about that last time and we thought. We thought maybe like for an end of the season. Gathering and also for use of an eye to say goodbye or you just say goodbye to us, we might try to do something whether it's a meeting or just like a together for something else. But as we as use of and Carolyn do phase out I'd like to try and get together. Maybe we could in May we'll figure that out and do it in June. Something like that. Okay. And what's the best way for me to get an email address. So I can send Jonas and Jean the minutes. I will send those to you right now. Awesome. Thanks. Sound good. Okay. Again, sorry. It actually isn't as far over as I thought it was, but I apologize for going over a little bit here. It was ambitious for me to get down our last. March meeting was a majestic one hour and five minutes and I thought, Hey, I'm going to try and try and keep this going. We need a pitch clock right. Yeah. Do they use those in pickleball? I don't think so. Ray, would you be able to stay on for five minutes so I could just chat about some of the things I talked about with Jose. I don't know if that's misappropriation of an open meeting zoom link or not, but if so, you can meet offline or something. We can take a vote to make sure that it's okay. I think when Carolyn ends the meeting or just stop recording and then that'll be fine. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so if you can just stay on the zoom link, I won't take too much time, right? Not a problem. Nice to meet you all. I'll see you next time. Motion to adjourn the meeting. Second. All in favor. Good night. Thanks everyone.