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Town of Reading
Meeting Minutes
Board - Committee - Commission - Council:
Recreation Committee
Date: 2017-03-23 Time: 7:00 PM
Building: Reading Police Station
Address: 16 Lowell Street
Purpose: Monthly Meeting/Public Meeting to
discuss Hunt Park Playground Renovation
Attendees: Members - Present:
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Location: Community Room
Session: General Session
Adam Chase, Dan Foley, Emily Sisson, Frank Driscoll, Lori Russo, Jeanne
Borawski, Mike DiPietro
Members - Not Present:
Kate Kaminer, Mary Ellen Stolecki, Gil Congdon, Rich Hand
Others Present:
Genevieve Fiorente-Recreation Administrator
Stephen Sisson 92 John St
Heather McLean 20 Green St
Laura Chisolm 34 Woodland St
Beth Herbert 132 Village St
Dan Harren 168 Green St
Kerin Bakst 6 Gardner Rd
Justin Bakst 6 Gardner Rd
Janet Faulkner 30 Eaton St
Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Genevieve Fiorente
Topics of Discussion:
A. Chase makes a motion to open the Rec Committee Meeting at 6:47pm. E. Sisson
makes a motion to approve the February 2017 minutes. J. Borawski seconds. All in
favor 7-0. G. Fiorente runs through the power point presentation on the renovation
of Hunt Park Playground with the Recreation Committee and subcommittee of Hunt
Park Playground. The committee briefly discusses key topics of the playground as far
as location of imaginative playground equipment items and what those items should
include given the budget.
The public meeting with the community formally starts at 7:16pm. G. Fiorente
introduces herself as does the Rec Committee and subcommittee for Hunt Park Playground.
G. Fiorente goes through the power point along with Emily Sisson. G. Fiorente says that the
public survey results were aligned with what the subcommittee had initially proposed. E.
Sisson presents slides on the survey results and touched on the wants and needs of
community in depth. G. Fiorente hops in afterward to continue with the slides that outline
potential models of what the playground could look like from different views and
recommendations from the subcommittee.
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She says that the playscape with slides, the swingset, benches, and surface area are all
things that the subcommittee has agreed on but they were looking for the community
feedback on the imaginative play structure.
B. Herbert and D. Harren both ask about the equipment being salvageable on the
playground. G. Fiorente answered that she went down to the playground back in
November with a playground specialist and a DPW Supervisor to look at equipment
to see if anything could be salvaged. She goes on to say that the playground
specialist assured them that nothing could be salvaged since the equipment was over
10 years old and no longer compliant with safety requirements. She added that this
was the reason the playground needed to be dismantled aside from fencing and
preexisting surface.
G. Fiorente goes on to talk about the imaginative play structure. She says the firetruck
structure offered by the vendor eats up a remainder of the budget and if the subcommittee
proposed that option, it would be the only add on for the playground. She continues on that
the subcommittee thought it would be a better option to have 3 additional elements on the
playground for playability and forgo the firetruck. She mentions how the subcommittee
proposes a climbing ant, seesaw, and a discovery cave which were all on the power point for
visuals.
F. Driscoll suggests that the public who is in attendance take a poll on whether or not they
would prefer the one firetruck or the few options. The public all agrees that having more
structures for playability would be better. G. Fiorente also suggests that instead of the
seesaw, there could be an opportunity to get two spring structures that are a police car and
a firetruck. She takes another poll to see if the community would prefer the see saw to the
spring structures. The public says they would prefer the spring firetruck and police car over
the seesaw. G. Fiorente says she will work with the playground vendor and subcommittee to
finalize the plan.
J. Faulkner, an abutter and part of the public crowd, mentions the need for parking and
traffic enforcement. G. Fiorente says she will mention it to safety officer, D. Savio but tells
the neighbors they should call to express their concerns as it is not part of the Recreation
scope. An abutter also asks a question on draining. G. Fiorente says she has asked the
Parks and Forestry Supervisor about this issue and they will do their best to regrade around
the entrance. G. Fiorente asks for any questions, comments, or concerns. There are none.
F. Driscoll makes a motion to close the meeting at 8:00pm. E. Sisson seconds. All in favor
8-0.
(power point information and additional information on the playground is available by
request from Recreation Administrator, Jenna Fiorente (781) 942-9075 )
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