Parks and Recreation 12/02/2025

(Episode Description is AI generated and may be errors in accuracy)

Ever wonder how community traditions, parks, and youth programs actually get built? We walk you through a full meeting where small votes and big ambitions meet: from a smooth rental property update to the glow of next Saturday’s tree lighting and the final scheduling puzzle for Santa’s Calling. Along the way, the Lions Club earns a one-day liquor license for its Super Bowl social, and we set our path for 2026 meeting dates with an eye on flexibility around the Fourth.

The heart of the conversation is a dog park that just won’t quit. We unspool the history—multiple public hearings, site concerns near a gun range, and the perennial challenge of finding a location the town can support. The solution is clear: a resident-led committee willing to form a board, pursue grants like the Stanton Foundation, and present a site that can win Town Meeting approval. If you’ve wanted a dog park, this is your cue to step forward and help carry the torch.

We also get real about youth basketball—great sign-ups, not enough coaches—explaining why practices were pushed a week while we recruited volunteers. On facilities, we outline plans to gather quotes for resurfacing tennis courts and adding pickleball lines at two locations, with a potential funding article for spring Town Meeting. There’s community fun in the mix too: limited Bruins and Celtics tickets, plus an umpire group booking our meeting room, turning public space into a hub for local activity.

If you care about parks, courts, or kids’ sports, you’ll hear how decisions get made and how much depends on neighbors who step up. Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves local projects, and leave a review telling us which community improvement you’d support next.

Transcript

Roll Call And Agenda Check

SPEAKER_01 0:04

I'm gonna start a meeting at 6 or 5 p.m.

SPEAKER_03 0:12

of the minutes and then I'll go to the third and lunch. Actually, unfortunately, uh Sandy was out didn't get a chance to finish, so we can have those to the next meeting. Okay. Alright, all right, no problem.

Rental Property Update

SPEAKER_01 0:25

It's a nice coach, sir. Thank you. Alrighty. Organization representative town officials, community members. It doesn't look like we have anybody. Now on to old business, rental property.

SPEAKER_03 0:39

Rental property, so just a quick update. Our new renters are very happy with everything so far. We just uh we got power in the garage as all we're still in with a brand new outside uh sensor light. So far so good for. You know, we did nice, normally the boys did a nice clean out of the uh that old shrub right there and put some nice crush going down as I sent you guys the pictures. So coming along nicely. And it's nice to have the tenants in there and not have to go there every other day and check on the house. Yeah. So that's uh what's going on with the rental property. But you know, very happy with the tenants and they've been uh they've been great to work with so far. Super.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Alrighty, new business, Christmas tree lighting.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

Uh just uh want to give you an update on the Christmas tree lighting. We are gonna do it next Saturday, December 13th, uh here. Hopefully the weather holds for us. Uh we will have the Dairy Weed Jr. coming by. They're gonna be uh giving out some hot chocolate and coffee as well as selling uh burrers and dogs and fries to people that are interested. So, and uh looking forward to it. I will be coming back from Vermont. I'm not sure if I'll get back in time for the event, but Heather and Bethany will be around. Alright. But that's still up in the air, depending on if I get snowing up there or not, which is very possible to see. Alrighty. And I know you'll be away too, you told us. You're gonna do a show that night, right? Yeah, I'll be excited to tell them. Oh, that's awesome. That'll be fun for you. Um hopefully.

unknown 2:12

Yeah.

Santa’s Calling Date

SPEAKER_03 2:14

Santa's calling. Santa's calling. Uh we're still working on solidifying uh the final date, but it looks like it's gonna be the 16th or 17th. Just uh waiting on Santa to let us know what day works better for him. So once we have that, I can uh let you know, Chris. I know you mentioned your grandkids may be interested. Yeah. And I'll keep you informed and uh we'll go from there. But uh it's always a fun event. Uh Sam does a great job, it's always great. The kids are always excited when they get a chance to talk to him. So looking forward to it.

Lions Club Liquor License Vote

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Alrighty. Lions Club liquor license. It looks like we got something here too.

SPEAKER_03 2:51

Yep, uh, the Lions Club submitted a uh a one-day liquor license uh for their annual Super Bowl social on February 8th from 3 to 10. Uh we have no conflicts. If it's okay with you guys, I would like to send our letter to uh approve recommendation for a one-day liquor license.

2026 Meeting Dates

SPEAKER_01 3:08

I have no problem with that. Motion. I will second that motion. All in favor? Aye. Aye. So then uh 2026 Commission meeting dates?

SPEAKER_03 3:19

Yep. Uh Sammy uh last week put these dates together uh for next year. Uh the only date I was curious about, I'm not sure how you guys want to do with the 4th of July on a Saturday. Would you like to push the July meeting off a week if you guys are gonna be on vacation, or even do it on June 30th before the 4th of July, or just keep it on the 7th, whatever you guys say. We can always change it as we get closer. I don't have a problem with 7th, but me personally until we get closer. Okay. Okay. See you back close. Yeah, sounds good. So uh, you know, those little dates will get those uh locked in, and we can always change it if we go on the fly. Alrighty. Sounds good.

unknown 4:01

Uh uh.

SPEAKER_03 4:02

I do have one more thing that came in today. Yeah. Uh I do have a scholarship request from a family. They're a current uh family looking that does attend the after-school care program. They are looking for some help. Um they did send in a letter with what's going on, along with uh some approved residency and financials. Uh, I did get a chance to review it this afternoon. Um if you guys are a finder that I would recommend a fifty percent uh scholarship for the rest of the school. I don't want to mention names on all the uh season uh recently.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

Yes, and then I had a I didn't see anything there was a grassy ass. All right, well, I do so.

Dog Park History And Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 7:23

I will second that motion. Um, David, uh I so voted. That is it for uh for new business, I think. Commissioner's report. Um just one thing. Um I talked to Tim briefly. I know you had originally initiated this way before I came on to what was um you know a dog park. I've actually had someone reach out to me asking what the status of that was, and I know um you know location was kind of the main problem of you know why we haven't had one still. I know it was over how many what year was it, was it 2018, 2018? 2018, 2019, 2020 is when we were really getting it helped.

SPEAKER_03 8:08

Yeah, yeah. You know, we had a public meeting, yeah, a couple of three of them. Yeah, yeah. We had several of them and just we had that one, the big one in the selectman's room, yeah, uh, for cell school. Yeah. Uh unfortunately the neighborhood was not in favor of it. We also have the land we originally talked about as as I was coming on over by RMS. That couldn't go well at town meeting that night either. So we have it's a matter of finding where we can. We can talk about putting it out here, but then there's the you know, you get the argument how do we get people that are bringing their dogs to make sure they're staying with the dogs, drop them off and watch the kids play a sport. So but we do have the we do have some space here in this recreational land, not much, but we can uh you know, we could always revisit this all school idea a few years later. Uh and there's always the area down. Look, if we decide to look at reed field again, you know, how would we pull that off in that area as well? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Yeah, I don't know. What was the stumbling block with putting it over by an RMS and a water department over the woods there? Um nice pine groves over there. Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 9:30

Yeah, there was the argument that was made that night that people didn't want to put a dog park over by the gun range, if you remember correctly. Yeah, that's the one.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

That's true, yeah. The guns are gonna scare the dogs, so it's useless. Yeah. But my ad where I live, you know, seven, eight miles from not that far, three miles from the gun range, my dog gets spooked. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Especially on the weekends, you know, when they're out there shooting a lot. So yeah, I guess that's a bad spot. My thing is the the the only spot to put it would be down in reedfield. That's my that would be my I mean we beat we beat that to death. And I think the only the only the best one, the best location is behind the pack a lot of refield. Yeah, yeah. So what we were looking for at the time, Riley, was um uh community member or members who wanted to basically take the bowl by the horns and write write uh you know, write the a proposal for uh for a grant from that.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

So it would be like an would it be an advisory committee that the answer is to ask for a thing? Is that what it would be kind of yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

You have to create a non-profit, somebody and then get a board of directors, but it's gotta be community-based, it's gotta be residential, I mean it's gotta be uh res it's gotta be residents that do it. Yeah, own the fund and they have to, you know what I mean? Yeah, but not and I I say residents and I mean radium, but we just need people that want to get active and more involved that can do the work. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:29

So if you let if we don't, it's an impossible.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

If somebody, if somebody has talked to you, say if you're that concerned, if you're that concerned about it, it's something that you want, come to our next meeting with a proposal. Yeah. You know, we're willing I'm willing to work with anybody. I I'd love to see a dog back in town, it's just that I'm yeah, I'm burnt. I've had enough. You know, it would be nice to see somebody else come in and you know carry the torch.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

So now I so we would have they have to be kind of a separate committee, they would have to kind of they'd have to work with us, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:04

Yeah, you know, they have to be, you know, I would work in hand in hand with them at times, but it's there is the the Stanton Foundation which has their grant which cover up 90% of the costs, but until we actually have a spot that the town would agree on, yeah, they won't even they don't even talk to you. Like I spoke to them on the phone, they won't even give you like recommendations on what to do because they try to be hands-off. So that's the problem with that funding. Do wonderful work. Yeah, but it's it's tough to get through them.

Youth Basketball And Coaching Shortage

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Yeah, I think location is probably the hardest thing. You know what I mean? And then it has to get approved to town meeting. So I'm not saying we're definitely doing this at all, but let's just say we use three spills and have to go to town meeting. And we get shot down and we've got to sway one, and we've got to find another location. That's the that's the hard part. Yeah, just find locations. What about even like um something like around like a little bit area?

SPEAKER_02 13:02

I really want to talk about it without having a person or persons who want to pick up the ball and run with it. It's a waste of our time. Unless you want to pick up the bottom and run with it. It's a lot of work and certainly not one person can't do it by themselves, you know. You need a small, small village of people that want to put that together. Again, so if you know somebody that is interested in doing that, then just invite them to the next meeting and start a conversation. Okay. You know. You don't even have to sh share with them that you know that's what what's required. Right. Just have them come in and listen to us, yeah. You know, we could, and then maybe they could decide at that point whether they want to go or not. Right, yeah. But as you know, it's tough getting people that want to volunteer their time. Oh yeah. It's gonna be it would be a lot of work. Yeah. It would be.

SPEAKER_03 13:56

So that's a never-ending process. Once it gets going, that group has to be willing to involve in it. Yeah, keep it clean and you know, because that's typically how many people you need for that, like we spring, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

You need to that board would be minimum five.

Tennis And Pickleball Court Funding

SPEAKER_02 14:15

Yeah, I mean, I was down in Frau this year and went to the dog pack down there. I talked to a couple of people that were on the committee down there, and they have a great committee. Yes, they do. You know, they have a large committee of people that go down there, that's cool, and they maintain their own park, really. Yeah, it's great. Yeah. People who think dogs back in packs, they don't pack in packs. They're easy playing.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

Yeah, because they're having fun and that's all I have on this channel, always everyone, Merry Christmas, and happy to be here, and happy holidays.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

It's happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa. Yeah, but happy life, happy wife. Amen. Happy life. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

Happy partner, happy life. That's all I have.

Ticket Sales And Holiday Scheduling

SPEAKER_03 15:02

Uh yeah, just a couple of quick things on my end, and we can call it a night. Uh we did have to start pushback a side of basketball practices uh to next week. Uh we have great numbers for basketball. Problem is we were way short on coaches. I had to beg. Beg, beg, beg. Because we just couldn't. I wish I knew more about basketball. I coach. Yeah. I would love that. I mean, I brought in a few of our employees are actually going to coach for us just to help us out. Yeah. You know, it's unfortunate, but you know, we are able to get everything going. Washes are going on tomorrow, and they're going to stop practicing next week. So we get three weeks of practicing before the games, so plenty time. Yeah. But we just we were hoping. Yeah, I got a couple of college kids that come for the season and things like that. But you know, that's got awesome. So I want to thank another one of our one of our employees' fathers is actually gonna coach a team for us just so we can get that everything going. So greatly appreciate it. But without these volunteers, like these big programs, they just can't happen because you know, we're gonna be at two schools this year from 8 to 4. Then on Saturdays, wall to wall will be great. So it'll be a good time. Um the town asked me to uh start looking at getting some quotes on the tennis courts out here with things changing, as well as the tennis basketball courts over at RMS. There was a meeting between us and the schools, and we were given possibly the responsibility of redoing the tennis courts here and down there and pickleball courts in as well. So I'll be looking at getting some codes over the next few months, and then if the article if it looks good, we'll possibly bring it to uh the springtown meeting to get the funding, preparing those courts and the courts up at the schools, and the school's gonna get work on getting the track fixed.

SPEAKER_02 16:52

So I didn't hear it all, but after the town meeting with that money, did they vote to put that in the stable vote to take free cash out and put it in the air media?

SPEAKER_01 17:03

Yeah, yeah, I think. Did they approve that? That was two or four million. Yeah, yeah, I think occurred. You're gonna be kidding me. Jesus. Yeah, my kids.

Room Use For Umpire Meetings

SPEAKER_03 17:16

And just a reminder, if anybody's interested in buying Celtics of Bruins tickets, uh we're only down to about 12 Bruins tickets left in the Celtics, which is uh January 15th. And we have about 50 Celtics tickets left, but that's not until March 1st. So we have plenty of time for those. And uh again, I just want to uh let you guys know that Christmas coming up, we usually take some time off of the office. We're all we'll be banned over those two weeks, but you know, staff's gonna take some well-deserved time off. And again, like brother, I want to just wish everybody a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. That is it for me. Oh, actually, one more thing, I apologize. Uh our old friend Skip Crossman stopped in last week. I know he told me he ran into you. Yeah. Yeah, he's uh is interested in using this room. Uh umpire meetings. So he stopped in the office last week. I took him over here, and he is interested in using this room for some monthly meetings with his umpired group. Yeah. Told him that uh won't be a problem. Uh he's looking at the 14th of December. I completely forgot we're gonna be doing pictures of the other day before, and I don't I can't guarantee he'll be back in time to break the room down before his meeting, but I can have it ready for him on the 15th. Yeah. So, but it'd be great to have uh some outside groups coming here and using this room for uh things like that. So it's yeah, for them. Yeah, so I just want to let you guys know in case you're driving by on a Sunday or Monday night and there are cars over here, that's who's gonna be in the room. Alright. Alright, and my apologies, and that's it for me. It was a good C Skippy who does a great job on firing and doing a long time. Yeah. Yeah. So look good. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. So that is it for me, guys. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:59

Motion to adjourn.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

I was second that motion. All favor.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

I'm in the meeting at six twenty-five.