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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-03-13 Recreation Committee MinutesK OFR p O� Town of Reading RFOEtV'ED ,, ,. Meeting Minutes TOWN RK oi� READING, MA. w?x Bo1123 APR I I ard - Committee - Commission - Council: AM 10: S0 Recreation Committee Date: 2023-03-13 Time: 6:30 PM Building: Pleasant Street Senior Center Location: Great Room Address: 49 Pleasant Street Session: Purpose: General Monthly Meeting Version: Final Attendees: Members - Present: Michael Coltman (M), Eric Gaffen (M), Bob Weiden (M), Melissa Pucci (M), Chuck Robinson (M), Kate Kaminer (M), Rich Hand (M) Members - Not Present: Katelynn King (A) Angela Binda (M) Others Present: Arielle Carney - Recreation Administrator Genevieve Fiorente - Community Services Director Carlo Bacci - Select Board Liaison Domenic Savino - Reading Softball Little League President Tom Lucey - Resident, 139 Pine Ridge Road Valerie Sachetta - Resident, 141 Pine Ridge Road Leslie McGonagle - Resident, 140 Pine Ridge Road George Ravanis - Resident, Riverside Drive Keith Williams - Resident, Riverside Drive Martha Williams - Resident, Riverside Drive Fred Ehrhardt - Resident, Fairview Avenue Rebecca Ehrhardt - Resident, Fairview Avenue Chris Conway - Resident, 53 Riverside Drive Lori Conway - Resident, 53 Riverside Drive Jean Marie Halley - Resident, 47 Warren Avenue Steven Halley - Resident, 47 Warren Avenue Steven Puglielli - Resident, 34 Heather Drive Tina Ravanis - Resident, 67 Riverside Drive Denise Gagnon - Resident, 38 Warren Avenue Mike Sheedy - Resident, 8 Walnut Street Kathy Mabius - Resident, 59 Riverside Drive Larry Mabius - Resident, 59 Riverside Drive Tom Kielusi - Resident, 46 Howard Street Maureen Hurley - Resident, 274 Ash Street Katherine Hurley - Resident, 274 Ash Street Isabella McGonagle - Resident 140 Ash Street Leslie McGonagle - Resident 140 Ash Street Bill Crowley - Resident, 42 Locust Street Mona Lee - Resident, 64 Riverside Drive Paul Sachetta - Resident, 141 Pine Ridge Road Bob Kaminer - Resident, 37 Warren Ave Joanne Lyons - Resident, 358 Pearl Street Jack Lyons - Resident, 358 Pearl Street Tom Richissin - Resident 46 Howard Street Page I 1 A NoraerTown of Reading :Meeting Minutes \on Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Arielle Carney, Recreation Administrator Topics of Discussion: AGENDA 1. 6:30pm: Discussion and Approval of Minutes a. Recreation Committee Meeting January 9th, 2023 2. 6:35pm: Continued discussion and/or vote regarding RSLL request to place temporary fencing in the outfield of Birch Meadow's Driscoll Field. 3. 6:50pm: Discussion with Abutters and Pickleball Working Group and/or vote regarding recommendations for Sturges Court Capital Funds for Select Board Consideration 4. 7:10pm: Discussion with Abutters and/or vote regarding request to allow Pickleball Play at Washington Park Tennis Court & painting for dual use court. 5. 7:30pm: Discussion/Vote to Approve Reading Lion's Club Amplified Sound Permit Request for Friends and Family Day on June 10th 6. 7:35pm: Reading Pickleball Player's Association Fundraiser Kickoff Event Update 7. 7:45pm Birch Meadow Master Plan Bid Update 8. Bpm: Recreation Department Updates Recreation Committee Chairman B. Weiden opens the meeting at 6:31pm. E. Gallen makes a motion to approve the January 9th, 2023 meeting minutes. R. Hand seconds. B. Weiden asks if there are any questions or feedback regarding the minutes. There is none. Motion passes 7-0. Chairman Weiden moves onto the next agenda item —the continued discussion for the request of a temporary outfield fence on Driscoll Field from Reading Softball Little League. Dom Savino, President of Reading Softball Little League reminded the body of the request. Reading Softball Little League wishes to donate a temporary fence to the Town of Reading to be used primarily by the Reading Memorial High School Girls Varsity Softball Team on Driscoll Field. If approved, the fence would be installed by the DPW and maintained by the DPW. The installation of this fence will enhance the play of the Girls Varsity Spring Season that runs from April to Mid -June. C. Robinson asks if the fence will remain out every night. D. Savino states that the fence will remain out for the duration of the season unless one time extenuating circumstances required it to be taken down. C. Robinson asks who will be impacted by it. A. Carney shares that the placement of the temporary fence impacts the use of the Multi -Purpose space in the outfield area of Driscoll. This impacts the usage of Reading United Soccer Club and the Reading Men's Softball League. D. Savino states that he doesn't believe a Men's League should get to dictate the HS Athletics program. R. Hand asks if there are any tripping hazards associated with the fence when it is taken down but the sleeves remain in the ground. D. Savino says no—the sleeves are virtually undetectable. Leslie McGonagle, Resident at 140 Pine Ridge Road states that it is not fair to the Girls Softball Team that currently there are no home runs due to the lack of fence. Page 1 2 Maureen Hurley, Resident at 274 Ash Street has a daughter on the RMHS Girls Softball Team. She feels the fence is an important addition. Driscoll is the Girls' Varsity Softball field and this lack offence impacts the wins and losses of games. Comparatively, the Boys field does have a permanent fence and doesn't experience this issue. M. Hurley says the fence would mean a lot to the program and would help the players realize that they don't have to settle for something less (than the boys team) and don't have to step aside for other people to use the multi-purpose space. E. Gaffen agrees that Men's Softball should not get priority over the girls varsity team. E. Gaffen says the bigger question is that currently the field is graded for multi-purpose use and has been for years. If the multi-purpose space is taken away, are other leagues able to receive equitable hours compared to previous years— and if so, he has no problem approving the fence. M. Sheedy, Resident and Representative of Reading United Soccer Club states that if the practice field opened up to Pop Warner in the fall could be made available to RUSC in the Spring with temporary lights the impact of the fence would not be detrimental to RUSCs field usage. G. Fiorente asks the Recreation Committee members if Temporary Lighting on the Birch Meadow Practice Field is something the committee would consider as a future agenda item. The committee unanimously agreed. D. Savino of Girls Softball states that the temporary lights would need to be placed far off on the sides enough on the Street Lot Field/Practice Field area that it would eliminate any injury or player collision with the light poles or impact JV play. M. Coltman moves to recommend accepting the gift of the temporary fence and allowing it to be put up through mid-June. E. Gaffen seconds. All in favor — the motion passes 7-0. The Recreation Committee moves on to the Discussion with Abutters regarding the possibility of Pickleball Play being permitted at both Sturges Park Tennis Court and Washington Park Tennis Court. B. Weiden asks M. Coltman to give a brief summary on the requested agenda item(s). M. Coltman states that Pickleball is a popular sport and the number of players is increasing dramatically. When he was considering other courts for expanding pickleball playing surfaces there were many ideas of using some neighborhood courts. He is aware of noise disturbances associated with the sport and acknowledges that the use of neighborhood courts for pickleball play is problematic due to the noise issues. M. Coltman states that Sturges would be the most suitable if noise mitigation was implemented due to its distance from houses. He states that orientation of the court is also an element of noise mitigation that should be considered. After reviewing a fair amount of material, noise studies from neighboring communities, Boston Globe Articles and the like, the Pickleball Community would like to take the request to dual line Sturges Park Tennis Court and Washington Park Tennis Court off the table. When the idea was proposed of the dual usage, the group thought they were improving the neighborhoods, not ruining them and that the pickleball group had the impression that Sturges and Washington Park Courts were under utilized. K. Kaminer states that the Town had awarded money to improve the Sturges Courts specifically and the Pickleball Working Group was asked to also provide their input on potential uses of those funds for Sturges Sport Court improvements. At the January meeting, it had been discussed with those abutters in attendance and since that meeting, the Recreation Committee has had access to even more updated media/news paper articles regarding pickleball issues and noise concerns. Paul Sachetta, Resident at 141 Pine Ridge Road is a Tennis Player. He stated that he used to use Sturges Tennis Court a lot but began going to the High School Courts or Washington Court due to the state of disrepair the Sturges Court is in. He believes that dual lines on a Tennis Court for Pickleball also create too Page 1 3 much confusion during game play. He has concerns that dual use does not allow enough equity of play and he is regularly unable to book time on the Memorial Park courts due to the frequency of Pickleball reservations. M. Coltman says that Memorial Park is a popular place. There are many times when he can't get playing time either. P. Sachetta states that this is a concern of his if Sturges were to become dual use. G. Fiorente states that the Play Local reservation system allows for the department to control the times or days of the week that Tennis and/or Pickleball could be booked on a court. C. Robinson clarifies with M. Coltman if his removal of the request for dual use courts in the neighborhood parks includes Memorial. M. Coltman says no — Pickleball play will continue at Memorial Park but the group will not look to expand to Sturges or Washington Park at this time. E. Gaffen wants to acknowledge the popularity of pickleball and its growth. He wants to ensure that there are opportunities in town for all sports to have access to their respective activities. He reminds the room that it is important to keep an open mind to all programs and sports and to not take a firm anti-pickleball stance. Tom Richissin, Resident at 46 Howard Street appreciates that the pickleball group has taken a step back from the request. One thing he would like the group to consider for the future is that once you paint a tennis court with other lines it ceases being a tennis court. Once a space is painted with pickleball lines it becomes too difficult to play and he doesn't want to add pickleball to areas at the expense of taking away from another sport— mainly tennis. When he hears dual use on a court he immediately thinks it is now a pickleball court. He believes that the back of the ice rink could be a place to explore placing pickleball courts. Keith Williams, Resident 63 Riverside Drive said that saying Washington Park and Sturges Park are under utilized is hearsay. He asks where the study is to factually back up these claims if underutilization. M. Coltman states that he has had no problem gaining access to the tennis courts to play so in his opinion the space was under utilized but agrees that different terminology could be used. K. Kaminer lives near Washington Park and is a member of the Friends of Reading Tennis and states that she is an avid tennis player and often times she cannot paly on Washington Park and believes it is disingenuous to say that the courts are underutilized. She also agrees with other abutters that multi- purpose does not mean multi-purpose in terms of sharing the Tennis courts. She said that the Tennis community is willing to share spaces but does not want to be over taken. Lori Conway, Resident 53 Riverside Drive, didn't know about the problems with pickleball until she began researching. She wants the town to conduct a noise survey before any new construction began for pickleball courts. George Ravanis, Resident on Riverside Drive said that his home is 16.9 feet away from the Washington Park Tennis Court. He acknowledges that purchasing a home near a park comes with some extra noise and activity but there is a big difference in purchasing a home near a tennis court versus a pickleball court. Chris Conway, Resident 53 Riverside Drive said that he struggles under any circumstance to envision the possibility where a pickleball court 16 feet away from a residence will ever be feasible with the noise. Just because something is popular does not give the group inalienable rights to invade neighborhoods and impede other sports. Bob Kaminer, Resident 37 Warren Ave is an avid tennis player and shares the same sentiment as others that there is no such thing as a dual court. In his opinion, there are no longer Tennis Courts at Memorial Page 14 Park. He notes that Washington Park is a newer court and is the one updated court in town that is accessible during all hours — including school windows. He would like to hear the pickleball group say that they withdraw their request for permanent lines and that there will not be pickleball play, temporary nets, or temporary lines on Washington Park, M. Coltman says that he hears and understands the public feedback that the major concerns of Pickleball is whether dual use is actually dual use and noise. He stated that one of the best ways to determine the noise disturbance is to allow pickleball play to occur on those sites and perform measurements and analysis of the noise levels. B. Kaminer states that outside of the tennis court at Washington Park—the sign says tennis only. He would like to know if Washington Court is going to be temporarily lined for Pickleball. J.M. Halley, Resident 47 Warren Ave asks about the half basketball court idea that came up in the Pickleball Presentation G. Fiorente provided to the select board in late Fall. J.M. Halley stated that the presentation suggested taking the existing half court basketball court and converting it into one pickleball court. G. Fiorente stated that this was just a potential idea for opportunities for expansion in the future and was nothing officially recommended or approved. J. M. Halley stated that as an abutter she does not approve of the idea. B. Weiden states that Pickleball is tabled at Washington Park and Sturges Park. K. Kaminer says that if court use changes are requested in the future, abutters will receive the notification. Val Sachetta, Resident 141 Pine Ridge Road says that Pickleball in neighborhood parks is too disruptive especially now when so many people work remotely. She states to M. Coltman that pickleball would not be music to his ears if the court was located right next to his home. She doesn't like the idea of sound barriers blocking the sight lines through the park either if noise barricades were walled structures around the courts. B. Crowley, Resident 42 Locust Street believes it is important to ensure that both groups (tennis and pickleball) will have access to courts and court time. He stated that playing tennis on courts lined for pickleball is problematic visually and that two pickleball courts overlay onto one tennis court. This by default more than doubles the amount of people who will now be vying for time on the courts to play. T. Luceym Resident 139 Pine Ridge Road asked what the time frame is for allocating the funds to Sturges. G. Fiorente states that funds are already allotted to Sturges and that once a recommendation is made by the Recreation Committee for next steps it will move to the Select Board who will ultimately decide how to use the funds. C. Bacci said that the message was heard loud and clear from abutters and park uses and that in his report back to the Select Board as liaison to the Recreation Committee he is going to convey that the collective group supports using the funds for improving the existing courts at Sturges without adding Pickleball. B. Weiden asks M. Coltman to provide an update on the Reading Pickleball Player Association's recent Fundraiser. M. Coltman gave a brief background on the RPPA —that association is a non-profit organization that was formed in January 2023. The group's mission is to raise funds to build dedicated lit pickleball courts in the Town of Reading. March 11"' was the first kick-off fundraising even and the day's events raised over $4,000. The committee moved on to reviewing the request from the Reading Lions Club for Amplified Sound Use on Friends and Family Day taking place on lune 10`^. E. Gaffen makes a motion to approve the Amplified Sound Use Permit. C. Robinson seconds. All in favor—the motion passes 7-0. Page 1 5 Community Services Director G. Fiorente provided the committee with an update on Phase I of the Birch Meadow Project bids. $1.5 million in funding was approved forthis project through ARPA. Bids received were for the construction of a storage building with restrooms and a covered picnic shelter and the second set of bids was for the infrastructure and landscape. Collectively, bids came back higher than anticipated — roughly $1 million over the allotted ARPA funds. Town Administration and the project team are looking for feedback from the Recreation Committee on whether the group would like to move forward with the entire project and ask for additional funding at Town Meeting ($1 million) or if the group would consider instead tabling the pavilion and asking only for initial site work, infrastructure and landscaping to be completed in this phase. B. Weiden said that there should be a consideration to possibly table all of Phase I and focus more on lighting fields in town for the user groups. K. Kaminer stated that this has been years of surveys and forums to gather what the public would like to see at the complex and the elements in this phase were in response to that feedback and to acknowledge the need for passive recreation in the community. C. Robinson said that lights were always a parallel conversation and there previously was funding allocated for lights however those bids had come back high than expected and the plans halted. E. Gaffen asked what the difference in how much the entire plan is vs. removing the building. G. Fiorente said she would get more concrete numbers for the group to review. K. Kaminer asks if we should prioritize the building over the infrastructure. G. Fiorente said she thinks there are more benefits to the public if the infrastructure and landscape are improved first with the walking path. G. Fiorente said that a smaller concrete pad with picnic tables could be explored in lieu of the shelter. M. Pucci said that she is in favor of the walking path but would like to know the cost of some of the other elements including the lacrosse wall to consider potentially forgoing some of those elements to still have a restroom built on site. E. Gaffen would like to see the central spine walkway, pavilion and hit wall and that "zone" is then complete. In a future phase the parking lot section of the complex could be re- explored. M. Pucci asked if there were any additional handicap parking spots that would make the central spine accessible from other parking lot entrances. G. Fiorente said that if there were not enough existing, adding additional painted spots could be explored. The committee agrees that they'd like to see the entire Phase I funding asked for at Town Meeting but would need a better sense of individual element costs before making a recommendation on which elements to ask for if the entire project was not being funded. Recreation Department Updates: • Summer Daycation Registration opened back in early February - programs filled within a day or two of opening -there are spaces available in two of the weeks. We are maxing each week at 120 kids. We made resident registration a priority over non-residents and they were given access to register 1 week early. The program is predominantly residents which is great. • In terms of staffing for Daycation - We received 42 Applications this year—we wrapped up interviews for the candidates last week and will be making offers this week to those selected for a position • IncIYOUsion - our new Inclusive Program Offering opened for Registration on February 14th and 3 of the 4 programs are full (8) and the fourth offering has 6 participants (younger Soccer Group). The other sport is baseball that we are offering this season. The first 4 -week session of those programs will begin April 29th. Page 16 • Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 14", the remaining summer sports & specialty clinics will be viewable online with registration opening up the following Tuesday, March 2V. C. Bacci asked the committee to consider adding an agenda item to an upcoming meeting to discuss Pickleball Play at Symonds Way. He said given the feedback that was provided by abutters tonight, it is important that the Town look at alternate locations for Pickleball Courts. It would help SWEC and the Select Board if the Recreation Committee began the conversation of Pickleball at Symonds Way. This is not currently part of the charge to have Pickleball at Symonds Way. He said that SWEC is only in charge of a portion of the land at Symonds Way and that there is additional land that could be explored as an alternate location for pickleball courts. E. Gaffen asks if the Recreation Committee could get a recurring monthly update on the SWEC progress. G. Fiorente says that a standard agenda item for that update can be added to the Recreation Committee Agenda. With no other business to discuss, R. Hand makes a motion to adjourn at 8:57pm. C. Robinson seconds. All in favor 7-0 and the meeting adjourns. Page 1 7