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MONPELIER PARKS COMMISSION MINUTESJanuary 17, 2013

7:30 PM Police Station Community Room

Present: Geoff Beyer, Lyn Munno, Aaron Brondyke, Kip Roberts, and Cara Robechek

Minutes: Aaron moves that we approve the December minutes. Cara seconds. All in favor.

Caretaker Position:

Wage: We see the current range as $15-18, but need to look at other city job descriptionsto see whether we should be posting this as a range or as a single amount.

Roommates: If there were to be any non-family roommate(s) in the house, theroommate(s) would need to sign a separate contract with the city and be approved to livein the house by the Parks Commission. We will double check this with Bill Frazer andthe city attorney.

Job Description: Lyn will work with Geoff and other commissioners to tighten up thecurrent job description and to produce both a full description and a briefer ad.

Transition: The house needs insulation, and some other work may need to be done. So itwould make sense to have 3-4 weeks between the time when Geoffs family moves out ofthe house and when the new caretaker moves in. That said, we would like to have thenew person in place before the busy summer season. One possibility that we areexploring is that it may make sense to divide the house in two and rent the other half toan Americorp or Vista volunteer, to bring the rent obligation down for the candidate ifthey do not have a family who will be living with them in the house. Geoff will get anestimate on what it would cost to do this work in a way that it could be inexpensivelyreturned to a single family home if or when a caretaker is in position with a family.

Timeline:o Complete job description to the city manager by Feb 1.o Post job position and on city webpage early Feb.o Deadline for Applications: March 7o Interviews in mid-Marcho Geoff to move out in March or Aprilo New position to move in and start work in May

Procedure: Applications will be sent to Geoff.The committee for First Interviews is Aaron, Kip, and Geoff. Cara expressed concernthat there is not a woman on the interview committee. She will try to join the committee,depending on her work schedule.

Winter Trail Map: Commissioners are very supportive of having a winter map. There wereminor suggested changes to the map (making it clearer that both the wide and the narrowergroomed trails are both groomed, clarifying comments about sledders staying out of auto roadsand being careful of other people on the hill and younger children, and adding a color code toshow the area where people are not supposed to be in the winter to protect deer populations.)When complete the map will be posted online and put up at the entrances and the kiosk.

International volunteer project: The International Volunteers for Peace organization is offering to

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send a trained college aged co-leader this summer. The group could work on the national lifetrail (a project that might also be worked on by a VYCC crew), or a perimeter trail aroundHubbard Park. If the perimeter trail is to be pursued Geoff would first talk with all abutting landowners.

Mountain Bikers: A group of mountain bikers has asked to be put on the agenda in March to talkabout possible mountain bike paths at Hubbard Park.

Frozen Onion Race: The first winter mountain bike race through Hubbard Park of this winterhappened in January. A second is scheduled for Sun Feb 3. ORS will plan to place a couple ofadditional signs along the route beyond what they placed for the first event. It was suggestedthat the presence of a map of the route, and arrows on the trail would make it clearer to otherpark users if they would like to avoid being on race paths. There is also a request to have thewarning signs put up at the gate a week in advance to give more forewarning to other park users.Kip asked if bikes could be allowed onto other trails (where they are not normally allowed) ifthere is a safety risk to the racers without this. Cara, Aaron, and Lyn would like Mountain bikes

to stay where they are allowed normally. In the case of safety issues Geoff will make minimaladaptations to the race route to make sure mountain bikers are safe. For the race Geoff will trygroom the trail wider for rider safety unless that is likely to lead to icy conditions for walkers onsubsequent days.

Playspace: Geoff and Lyn have had some discussions with Yestermorrow about developingideas for potentially adding some nature-scape play space in the park. No commitments havebeen made and there does not yet seem to be an alignment between what Yestermorrow couldoffer and what the Parks Commission would be ready to discuss installing. Lyn suggested thatTheresa Giffin at UES might be interested in hearing more about the possibility of this sort ofproject through Yestermorrow for the schoolyard at the elementary school.

Bear sculpture: There was some discussion about the fact that the amount of money associatedwith the project is higher now than it was when the Parks Commission originally approved theproject. There was also some concern that the artist has plans to target local merchants for thecampaign. While it seems fine to most commissioners that he talks to his personal contactswhile fundraising, there was concern that a large targeted campaign of merchants might takefunds away from other potential park projects in the future. The Commission did not change itsoriginal approval of the project, but asked Geoff to have a conversation with Chris to make clearthe Parks involvement in the project. Including:

Lyn would like to know which merchants Chris plans to speak with. Lyn would also like the picture at the top of the kickstarter campaign to be the one that

would be carved if the base level of funding is reached. Cara would like the language in the kickstarter write up to be changed where it implies

that the area has already been slated for a childrens play area. This has been indiscussion, but no decisions have been made.

Aaron and Kip pointed out that this is a Chris Miller project to be put in the park, ratherthan a Parks Commission project. They wanted to make sure that this is clear in thefundraising.

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Parks Commissioners will get any additional comments on the Kickstarter page to Geoffby Monday, and Geoff will give comments to Chris.

Budget: The Citys audit is done for last year, and Parks was $5000 in the red. Geoff doesnt yetknow if the reimbursement for storm damage repairs received from FEMA, and funding from

National Life for the National Life Trail are included in that number.

Park Updates:

Staff have been snow farming to cover icy spots after the January thaw. There is a timber operation currently happening abutting the North Branch Park.. Geoff is

keeping an eye to make sure that the operation doesn't come over the border onto cityland. He will mark the boundary more clearly and talk to the logger.

February Public meeting Planning:

Before the meeting:o Geoff will send the survey results out to the commission and then post them on

the website and bring a few copies to the meeting. Lyn reminded the commissionthat we need to remain aware of the concerns that have been expressed about thesurvey itself and to remain clear that we are not using these for statistics, but toget a pulse on the issue.

o Geoff will ask the Vista volunteer research off-leash and poop clean-up policiesfrom parks around Vermont and beyond to learn how the policies in HubbardPark compare.

o Emily and Geoff will work on a Media alert to put a Notice in the paper about thepublic meeting and write a press release for the Bridge emphasizing that peopleon all sides of the issue are encouraged to attend.

Meeting plan:o Tuesday Feb. 19th in the Memorial Room at City Hallo Emily Boedecker will chair the meeting.o Structure for the meeting:

Brief History of the issue. Lay out the goal that people feel safe, welcome and comfortable in the

parks. We want to make sure that the parks serve the entire community.

The question is what does it take to make this happen? What do dogowners, Parks Commission and staff, non-dog-owners need to do?

There will be a public comments period which we hope will include ideasfor making improvements.

Future meetings: March and onward we return to the third Thursday of the month.

Commission processes: Lyn will look into Roberts Rules for decision making.

Meeting adjourned 10pm.